Was Fruit Punch overrated?

[Jose Spain]

Hi,

I'm thinking of topworking an Alphonso into Fruit Punch and letting this plant as one of my mono-varietal trees but going through the search of the forum I see that posts rating FP as a top tier/top ten cv are mostly from before 2016 or so, and found some opinions afterwards that say it was not as good as other cvs. So what is the state of the question currently? Was FP an overrated cv, or is it still worth dedicating a tree exclusively for this variety in the backyard? I didn't have the chance to taste it yet, but it grows well for me here.

Thanks in advance,

[Oolie]

Not all varieties are consistent crop to crop, very few in fact, but FP tends toward the less consistent side of the spectrum if you believe the opinions.

[Galatians522]

I like FP very much.

[JR561]

It’s unique and I like it.

[skhan]

I actually like it a lot.
It's been pretty consistent in flowering and fruiting over the last 4 years in my yard.
I do get some anthracnose and a few fruits with MBBS but nothing too crazy, post-harvest washes help limit the growth.

It's certainly one of the mango trees I would plant again.
Its an overall winner to me

[palmcity]

Was Fruit Punch Overrated?
My taste buds say nope, it is a great fruit punch flavor to me.
However, in my yard I get very few fruit reaching maturity. Why? 1. The fruit are large and do not adhere well to the tree during winds. 2. The fruit gets fungus infections more than my average tree (I do not spray frequently).

For those reasons, I have not planted more trees. Instead I went to smaller fruit with a little of the similar flavors like Kent and I recently tasted Mark Anthony a smaller fruit with some of the similar flavors. I still prefer the taste of Fruit Punch over either of the above choices. 0-15 is not an option for me as in my yard it gets fungus worse than even Fruit Punch and bears less often than Fruit Punch for me in my yard with zero fruit this year and last year.


 

[roblack]

Is FP also called Sunrise, Sunset, Sunburst or something like that?

[Galatians522]

Fruit Punch has a lot of similar flavor components to Harvest Moon in my opinion. HM has more carrot taste, though, unless it is fully ripe and soft. HM has almost no disease issues and is planted next to the Fruit Punch (which as mentioned does suffer some anthracnose, etc).

[FV Fruit Freak]

Fruit punch was one of our favorite mangos this season. Lemon Zest, K3, and PPK were also fantastic.

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

The Fruit punch mango I had in early July was superb. I seem to have cought it a perfect ripeness. It was wonderful. (See Photo)

Lemon Zest, Carrie, and Maha Chanok are also top-notch this year from Florida. Among the best mangoes, I have ever had.

Johnny


Fruit Punch Mango Opened (7-3-2023)

[Oolie]

Is FP also called Sunrise, Sunset, Sunburst or something like that?

Eventually if it sells better.

[kapps]

There is already at least one Sunrise and 2 Sunsets. I’ve never heard of Fruit Punch being called anything else.

[Galatians522]

The Fruit punch mango I had in early July was superb. I seem to have cought it a perfect ripeness. It was wonderful. (See Photo)

Lemon Zest, Carrie, and Maha Chanok are also top-notch this year from Florida. Among the best mangoes, I have ever had.

Johnny


Fruit Punch Mango Opened (7-3-2023)

One very nice thing about FP is that it holds its flavor well. There is a long window where it can be eaten with excellent flavor. Some mangoes (Nam Doc Mai for example) only have a 1 or two day window to get them eaten before they start losing flavor.

[Jaboticaba45]

I’ll be honest I though fruit punch was mid. I tried one picked at peach ripeness from a friend here.
It def had a different taste and stuff but it lacked sweetness compared to others. It was a good mango and I do have one growing in my greenhouse. So yes I’m contradicting myself it’s a pretty nice mango and bonus is it’s not like the others too. Probably makes my top 10 mangos, but would be bottom 5. Not top.

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

Thanks for the very useful information Galatians522.

I have small Fruit Punch fruit developing on one of my Mango trees from a three-year-old graft. They are about the size of a walnut now but hopefully, with consistent summer heat, they will ripen by late September or early October. FP grows very well at my location. I would describe it as a Med-High vigorous growth here in SoCal.

Johnny

[palmcity]

I do not remember when my Fruit Punch started tasting a strong fruit punch flavor. But, I do remember on my Carrie trees from a 3 gallon planting expect the first 2 years to be off flavored & not strong tasting.

Canopy growth corresponds to root growth and a good supporting root growth stretching out is needed to pull in all required nutrients in normal soil to produce a sweet strong taste. Also more tree wood holds nitrogen etc. needed and thicker is better. Finally the sunlight for photosynthesis is better with an enlarged canopy...

Do not expect your thin small tree trunks with small root systems and limited canopy to have a strong tasting Fruit Punch.

Lacking sweetness is very common in recently planted 3 gallon tree fruits the first 2 years or more if stunted growth. That was the primary reason my Carries tasted bad the first 2 years.

Even in large trees still growing early in the spring, they might not produce enough sugars to make the fruit taste right for the 1st week of that varieties harvest. It's much easier to just say the rain/lack of sunshine/ etc. weakened the taste rather than tasting each variety for sweetness at the beginning of harvest. Just IMO...

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

Very Well said Palmcity. I completely agree.

Many California mango Growers are expecting high-quality fruit from their small trees and limited root systems.  My experience tells me 7-10 years is required for consistent and quality mango fruit in SoCal.

Actually, my five-year-old Manila seedling tree has a 5" lower rootstock diameter (just measured) but the Fruit punch graft is only 1" in diameter so maybe in 2-3 years it will have more girth to produce higher quality fruit.

I have enclosed a photo as a reference. To the lower left, you can see some young purple Fruit Puch fruit Developing. To the right, my Peach Cobbler graft is still flowering again but some small fruit is forming. On the top center are small Cac fruit forming.

I know my mango tree is still small but hopefully, in 3-5 years the tree will grow well and produce quality fruit.

Johnny

 

Manila Mango Seedling Tree with Grafts (7-9-2023)

[roblack]

Fruit Punch is a great mango, gotta stand up for it too! 

...just wasn't sure if it had another name.

[Oolie]

Fruit Punch is a great mango, gotta stand up for it too! 

...just wasn't sure if it had another name.

Give it a couple years.

[kapps]

Palmcity, that’s a really good comment about young trees not producing peak flavor. I thought my Angie tree was average its first year producing but now in its 3rd year, it’s fantastic. My PPK fruited for the first time this year and I wasn’t impressed. The fruit even ripened late and didn’t turn yellow on the tree so it probably struggled to get enough sugars even though the tree is 3 years in the ground from a 3 gal pot.

[roblack]

I've also seen the opposite; a young tree bears a lone first fruit that is super delicious. Imagine all the trees flavor powers goes into that one fruit.

[Elijah]

I’ll be honest I though fruit punch was mid. I tried one picked at peach ripeness from a friend here.
It def had a different taste and stuff but it lacked sweetness compared to others. It was a good mango and I do have one growing in my greenhouse. So yes I’m contradicting myself it’s a pretty nice mango and bonus is it’s not like the others too. Probably makes my top 10 mangos, but would be bottom 5. Not top.

I heard that the exact same variety fruit can have different taste depend on the soil and nutrition it gets. By adding some nutrients can change sweetness or by lacking of some nutrients can make fruit less sweet. Even the location and climate can affect fruit taste different. The obvious one is rain factor.

[skhan]

Fruit Punch is a great mango, gotta stand up for it too! 

...just wasn't sure if it had another name.

Only known as fruit punch though I'm sure somewhere on the forum you can find the row column number from zhpp.
Sunrise is a different mango, also from zhpp.

[skhan]

To comment on the overall tree and the fruits flavor
These are my notes over the last 5 years or so growing the tree.

Flowers well
Sets fruit well
Decent disease resistance (I'm 15 miles from the coast so no sea breeze)
The tree is pretty easy to keep at a reasonable size, seems like the fruiting keeps the vigor in check
Very easy fruit to pick (unlike a lot of the newer ZHPP varieties)
Holds flavor pretty well
It doesn't have ripening issues (like orange sherbet, sugar loaf, Neelam)

In terms of taste, it's not as sweet as something like Lemon Zest
Its balance in its level of tartness and sweetness, I always look forward to eating this mango even though I have things like Oranges Sherbet right next to it.

A great taste and a productive tree make it a top 10 mango to grow for me.
Plenty of the ZHPP varieties beat it in terms of flavor, but pretty much all of those varieties have other drawbacks too

[MANGOJOY]

It’s a good mango; I wanted to graft it on to one of my trees even though the fruit have very poor shelf life.