The Tropical Fruit Forum

My last 2 Little Gem mangos of the season disappeared last night. I think they were a week from being fully tree ripe. I was planning on sending them to a forum member but had some animal damage a few days ago. I decided to let them hang until they dropped. Something carried them off. Anyone still have mangos hanging in Florida?  Keitt is gone from all the trees I have seen locally.

Get some finely powdered activated charcoal, make a slurry,and water it in. Repeat until trees are growing normally. 20 years ago I used this to save a new planting of several hundred apple trees that were suffering.

Haven't actually tasted Honey kiss yet but a number of people I trust recommend it. The thing is, no one is posting any info about how late it hangs on the tree. Maybe it hangs on the tree well but all of them get picked early?  It is supposed to be a classic flavored mango.
 Little Gem is in the Julie family and depending on the ripeness stage it is picked, how long it is finished off the tree, and how late in the season it can taste a lot like its relatives. It can taste much like Carrie,Julie, Dwarf Hawaiian, or Graham depending on those factors. I had one that was very similar to Graham and one that was very similar to Dwarf Hawaiian in the past few weeks. Firmer less ripe fruit with more resin can taste like a firm Carrie . One thing I like about Little Gem is that even though fruit may be picked early,it holds well on the tree and is very slow to develop any off flavors even when it would seem to be overripe by most standards. I feel it is at its best when it is a little soft.  Usually a few fruit are ready to come off every day or so after Mid July. I don't ever pull them off the tree, they will come off very easily when they are ready to be picked.

Pickering and Little Gem both do relatively well in the fridge if close to fully ripe when placed there.

Little Gem is doing great as usual. Just started picking about 14 days ago, one or two of the ripest each day or so. Ate one yesterday that tasted a lot like a Graham . Close to a hundred fruit on the Little Gem tree this year. Ate my first and only Dwarf Hawaiian this morning and it tasted very similar to Little Gem but was smaller and had more fiber.

Pine Island is the largest island in Florida BTW.....

I found varieties with much better quality than the standard low chill apples and mentioned a few earlier in the thread. Might be easier to grow some of them in Vegas than in SC due to less fungal pressure. Try topworking a few branches if you have trees in the ground.

There was a recent post on apples in Florida, I figured the topic deserves its own thread for those in similar climates. I do not think the Dorsett Golden and Anna are any good.
I grew apples for nearly 20 years on the coastal Plain of South Carolina. Lots of heat, humidity and fungal pressure, actually worse than my present location in Cape Coral.
 Summers there were sweltering with little air movement. Hard to think of a more hostile place to grow apples.
 I spent a couple years researching any and all apple varieties known to tolerate heat and humidity. I tried to grow well over 100 varieties, fruiting about 25 or so more than once. Dorsett Golden and Anna were both garbage, the fruit could not take the heat and humidity. Most apple trees themselves grew fine but not the fruit. I found that tolerance to heat, humidity, and fungal rots were much more important than chill hours. In the nearly 20 years I was there, chill hours ranged from about 450 to 850 at my farm in St. George, SC. On the plus side, the only insect pest was the plum curculio which only caused cosmetic damage.
 Apples can be grown at altitude in the tropics if they are defoliated with urea after cropping, that stimulates bloom. I attended a lecture at a fruit growers meeting in one of the Gulf coast states given by someone growing them.(red delicious) He grew them in the South Pacific at 5000-7000 feet of altitude not far from the equator. That is not a low chill cultivar and is the apple equivalent of a Tommy Atkins mango.
 I found that lack of chill extends bloom periods. This means drought followed by rain can stimulate bloom. Sometimes a period of cooler weather during the Summer/Fall can also do this. Mangos can sometimes throw a few off season bloom too, this is not unique to apples.  Some apples bloomed several times a year. You might never get a full bloom if chill is insufficient, but you will still probably get some fruit. One variety, Carolina Red June, even sometimes matured 2 crops in a year.( fruit was small, mediocre and mealy, don't plant it.)   
Extended and inconsistent bloom is bad for commercial growers on spray schedules, but not an issue for home growers.  Most of the low chill varieties I tried never completely defoliated in Winter unless we had a really hard freeze below about 15 degrees F.
Aside from fungal rots, internal breakdown is a major problem for most apples ripening in hot weather. Several varieties fruited fairly well but had mealy texture. William's Pride had bad breakdown. The only mealy apple that tasted pretty good despite the texture was Arkcharm. The only mealy apples I ever actually enjoyed eating.
The other problems on varieties that can fruit in hot climates are bitter pit and watercore. If you ever ate a bitter but otherwise beautiful Braeburn apple, it had bitter pit.
Water core is actually a treat for home grower. It is actually clear circular areas of flesh up to about quarter size that are SUPER sweet, brix off the charts. It shortens shelf life a lot, so that pretty much eliminates many varieties from large scale commercial consideration.
I grew the best Gala apples ever for a year or two but that variety needs CONSTANT spraying or the fruit will rot.  Even then, I lost a lot. I gave up on it, be warned... That variety ticks off all the boxes except for its extreme susceptibility to rotting. Would probably grow great in a desert, it can take triple digits while ripening without breakdown. Water core, yes, but fruit was not mealy.
Pink Lady is one of my favorite apples to eat and the only one I actually buy at the stores. It was nearly a perfect tree and was low chill but rarely held more than a few fruit to maturity despite plenty of pollen. The few fruit that were held, never sized well. It ticked off almost all of the boxes except for productivity. Fuji was unproductive as well as susceptible to rot and bitter pit.
One surprise was Bramley's seedling. It was one of the heathiest trees. Great Britain's best cooking apple, but very acidic and not eaten out of hand there. When I grew it, it had a nearly perfect sugar-acid balance. I bet the brix was close to 20. It was intensely sweet and subacid. An Englishman would probably drop dead of shock eating one like that. I am sure it never ever attained that level of quality in the British Isles. I do wonder how it would perform in Australia if anyone can chime in on that. The tree itself is triploid and seemed immune to fungal problems. Fruit needed minimal spraying since it was late maturity. My goat herd killed that tree when they got into the orchard so I only fruited it twice.
Pristine was also a big surprise. Small, Golden Delicious type. Extended bloom period and very disease resistant. At my farm it started ripening July 4th and season was over a month long. One year it reached 100 degrees F at my farm almost every day for the entire ripening period.  A very nice apple, there was some watercore but the fruit was crisp despite the extreme temperatures. Sometimes had partial bloom later in Summer but did not mature 2 crops.
One benefit of high temperatures in apples that can ripen fruit without breakdown is that brix can be off the charts. Most commercial apples are lucky to hit the mid teens, but a lot of apples I grew were over 20 most years.
For a large Golden type, I would recommend trying Ozark Gold. Eating a huge one with water core was a real treat. I tried a bunch of California apples, none of them really did well.
One class of apples that did well are Russets. American Golden Russet did the least well of that class but was still a high quality fruit.  Any of them are worth a trial. Hudson's Golden Gem and Brown Russet were very nice and were August to early September apples at that location.
 I tried a bunch of Japanese varieties, most took the heat but had high susceptibility to rots. You might not be able to grow apples as a commodity in a subtropical/ tropical climate, but if you are determined and pick the right varieties, you can probably grow some of your own apples. I had planned a pick your own/roadside market and would have been successful if the black bears would have gone away. They were protected and the wildlife people did not designate a bear as a problem for relocation or removal unless it was out and about causing trouble during the daytime. Even one bear can do a lot of damage.
 I would try to root a very disease resistant variety in a stooling bed to use as rootstock if I were to start over.

Put a stepping stone or a scrap piece of wood underneath it where it contacts the ground.

Almost no rain here this past Winter and Spring. We finally got some good rains this week.
While the drought has caused a few fruit to ripen prematurely, the main crops on most trees in my yard seem a few weeks behind normal.
Edgar is producing much smaller fruit this year but held a good crop despite heavy pruning last year. In previous years we were eating it about 3-4 weeks earlier. Best picking time for this mango seems to be at the first signs of yellowing at the stem end.(and finishing the ripening off the tree for several days)
 Fruit held longer on the tree was not quite as good, the fruit can develop off flavors if overripe. This is definitely a variety to pick at or near mature green instead of tree ripe. 
Maha Chanok is a month earlier than last year. We ate one today that had a fruit cocktail taste. Last year it had a very good classical mango flavor.  Flavor on this mango can vary from year to year but it consistently very good. It seems to increase in complexity every year so far. Or maybe the drought is just getting worse every year, heat and drought can advance ripening and increase brix.
Pickering is actually a few weeks behind, just starting to eat a few.
Last year Maha came in as Pickering finished, this year they are neck and neck unfortunately. They will all get eaten but I might have to raid my Dad's Valencia pride in a month to avoid picking my Little Gems early.
Cotton Candy looks like it is a few weeks behind last years ripening, which is a good thing. Will start picking them in about a week or so I guess. They were done by early July last year.
Strange that some varieties are later and others earlier than usual. I expected all varieties to ripen sooner from the drought, but some actually will ripen later.

Seeded have better flavor by far.

Seedless are not really seedless, the seeds are just softer AND harder to remove. When you bite into them it changes the flavor. I don't like the cucumber like flavor notes the seeds add to a watermelon.

 Most of us have been cutting watermelons wrong our whole lives. If you cut a seeded watermelon properly, it can essentially be seedless.

1. Lay the watermelon on its side and cut off the ends.
2. Cut remainder of watermelon into 2-4 thick slices shaped like a round cake that will pretty much fill up a plate.
3 Cut thin wedges downwards radiating out from the middle about 1/2 to 2/3 inch thick as if you were cutting a round cake.
 
The knife will do most of the seeding as you cut, the majority of the rest will be exposed on the edges of the slice and can be removed just by rubbing the knife along the sides of the cut wedge. Adjust thickness of wedges based on size of watermelon to get uniformly seedless slices.
I get the better flavor and ability to take big bites out of a seedless but thin wedge of fruit.
 

Even then, Pickering is better if finished off the tree a few days before eating...

 I would prune out all the main branches that are  below a 45 degree angle on those trees.
 Some mango varieties have stronger trunks and branches at a given diameter than others.   As a general rule I agree with Rob about not letting young trees fruit heavily if at all, especially for beginners. Unless you want fruit dragging on the ground and losing most of those or are 80 years old, you need to make sure the tree can set and hold the fruit at an appropriate height WITHOUT compromising the future structure of the tree.  If you are really zone pushing and need to cover the tree completely during Winter, early fruiting with fruit dragging near the ground may be desirable.
 If the tree holding fruit will get completely blown over or be in danger of snapping in wind, it is not strong enough yet. If the trunk and branches feel solid, I will let it hold some fruit.
 My Edgar had branches bent so much by fruit that I had to prune to replace/retrain some main scaffold branches. This variety had what I would call normal mango branching habit, mostly upward with some spread. After letting it fruit too heavily in early years, one main scaffold branch was about 5 degrees downwards and fruit were touching the ground. That exact branch was at about 15 degrees UPWARD slope before fruiting that year. The year before, the slope was about 30.  If I had let it hold a couple fruit instead of 20 on that scaffold branch, it may have been OK.
 That is how I came up with my 45 degree rule. It is good to limit ultimate tree height with easy management, early fruiting, and eye appeal of the tree. My rule of thumb is that if the weight of a fruit or fruits on a young tree's branch will bend the MAIN branch below about a 45 degree angle, don't let it fruit. As long as smaller side branches on the main scaffold won't bend the main branch too much,the smaller fruiting branches can be allowed to fruit even if hanging down and be cut off after fruiting. It is not an absolute but an approximation. Maybe let it set one or a couple on its first fruiting IF the branches will support the weight without being bent below 45 degrees. The next couple years let it fruit heavier but don't let the weight of fruit bend branches much below about 45 degrees. The main branches will bend more down with fruit loads in future years, it you start with 45 the first few years you might end up with 40 or less in a few years.  30-35 degrees from horizontal will keep the tree smaller in height but more spreading than 45.
 I should have let it fruit less heavily in its first years and thinned out most of what set.  Pickering also had to have a few of the lowest branches removed but it seemed to have stronger branches so it was less severe.  Some varieties have weak and spindly branches and those should be allowed several years to develop stronger branches to hold a fruit load.
Early fruiting will de- vigorate a tree,and this can be a very good thing.  Richard Campbell had a few videos in which he said he let trees fruit early so they produce more fruit and less canopy. If done correctly, you get a dwarfing effect from main scaffold branches in competition. That means the main trunk splits into several but none of them really win out to grow tall. The fruit will weigh them down and keep the main branches from getting too tall.
My Little Gem tree seemed to naturally have a good balance. It was well anchored ,has strong branches and letting it produce as much fruit as it could hold at an early age let the main scaffold branches bend down to good angles with very little pruning needed.