The Tropical Fruit Forum

Is the place on Big Island you're thinking of that has a lot of mamey located on Papaya Farms road?   Perhaps the reason they haven't sold well is because they're a mediocre cultivar, or at least one that doesn't produce a great fruit in East Hawaii.   Magana fruits, for example, are losers IMO. 

What varieties produce the best fruits in the Hana area?  Pantin is usually a pretty good fruit in Puna.  I only have two culitivars, Pantin and Pace, and the latter hasn't produced yet.

Yes, that’s the only large Mamey planting I know of in Hawaii. I have 18 Mamey planted which may be the second largest Mamey planting in Hawaii?


Yes, I can’t stand eating Magana. The planting that Philippe made on Papaya Farms Road in Puna I recall being half Magana and half Pantin. I suppose folks who try Magana might be turned off to Mamey. I’ll give it a minor try here on Maui but I don’t know how many people will embrace Mamey.

Mamey grow and fruit well in Hana and elsewhere in Hawaii. We really like Pace and Pantin is wonderful. Though Lorito is said to be superior in that July-August season.

I haven’t heard of many Fall bearing mamey. Pantin season is Jul-Aug and we still have plenty in September. But we have no mamey in Oct-Nov. we got Lara which may fill part of the gap. Jonathan Crane’s Mamey Sapote Growing in the Florida Home Landscape lists Lara ripening Aug-Sep with excellent (emphasized) quality. Abuelo from Acosta is listed as ripening in Oct-Nov with excellent quality. Julian has Lara of course. Is anyone familiar with Abuelo?

The only mango variety in our Maui orchard that has not flowered and set fruit is… ST Maui.

LH Pink is a seedlings of pink mammoth from Hawaii.  LH Late is PinksBlush.  LH Special is kJ Pinks/paxton prolific.  LH Gold is maroochy Gold.  LH Roja is Maroochy red.  LH blank is Hilary White.

Thanks Mikey!
Do you know how the fruit quality of the La Habra seedlings compare with their mother varieties?

Aloha, Steph

Hi sakaigrove,

Poamoho lychee is very very good. Fruits well at low elevation in Hawaii. It’s season has been right after Kaimana for us.

Aloha, Steph

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Hi! Can you give some more details about your climate? I see that it's dry, so maybe you're getting flowering from drought stress? What are your coldest temps and how long do they last? I'm doing a similar experiment with several varieties in Venezuela - so far we've had strong flowering on M4, sparse flowering on Venus (on its first attempt, so maybe it will improve with age), and a super-precocious flower on a new Cotton Candy graft. Everything else is too young to expect flowers. I've been pretty resigned to eventually top-working Sweet Tart. It's only hope might be the dry season, so it would be interesting to know if someone has experience with it responding to drought. Anyway, thanks in advance for any extra info you can offer on your trials there. Cheers!

Hi Zafra,
It’s rained once since April here. Dry, windy, sunny. I have the trees on drip irrigation but our water supply has been limited. Gets down to mid 50F winter nights. All our 2 1/2 year in the ground mango varieties are flowering, except Pineapple Pleasure. If our experience at all aligns with your place, I wouldn’t give up on Sweet Tart. One tree has a cluster of full sized fruit, there are some small fruit, and several Sweet Tart trees are just coming in to flower.  Venus flowered very well, Cotton Candy is just pushing flower buds.  It’s great to hear that your M-4 are flowering well. I’m planning on 7 of them but they are too young to flower. Let’s keep sharing experiences.
Aloha, Steph

I started planting mangos in Omaopio, lower Kula, Maui, Hawaii (dry climate, 1350’ elevation) in the summer of 2022. One of our concerns is that mango varieties selected in Florida and elsewhere might not receive sufficient stimulus to initiate flower buds in Hawaii. My location does not provide a sufficient test as would a low elevation site. But I’d like to report that almost all of the varieties we’re growing that have been in the ground 2 1/2 years (from 5 gal) are flowering. This includes top Zill selections like Sugarloaf, Lemon Zest, Sweet Tart, Coconut Cream, and Cecilove. Sugarloaf and Coconut Cream also fruited last Fall and Sweet Tart still has full sized fruits hanging on the tree.

Lemon Zest has a reputation of being highly susceptible to Powdery Mildew. So far our blossoms are clean.


And some varieties like Super Julie have already set fruit.


Great gratitude to the folks in Florida who have selected, grown, distributed, and promoted these incredible fruits. For anyone who hasn’t tried them yet, I give testimony, the hype is justified.

Hey Kona Fruit Farm,

I spent some time in South Florida in early July chasing mangos (tried about 60 varieties) and now we’ve had a few fruits at our Kula Maui farm (2 years in the ground). I think we’re very much on the right track following the Florida folks. The mangos recently selected in Florida really are as great as the hype. Apparently there’s at least one other grower in Hawaii that has brought in significant numbers of Florida mango varieties. Here’s a Coconut Cream from Kula. It was great as advertised.


Aloha, Steph

 
Any idea how it got the name dwarf Hawaiian? It was found in Puerto Rico. There is a variety called ka’u dwarf here but I’m pretty sure that is a different mango
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Hey Ben,

At the risk of telephone gaming the story…. I heard that Frankie sent a bunch of mango trees to Gary Zill. This one lost its label. Gary named it Dwarf Hawaiian I suppose because it is a compact grower and he got it from Hawaii. Later it was found to be the Puerto Rican variety Tete Nene. Can we all please call it by its “real” name?  I suppose it might be a lost cause but calling it dwarf Hawaiian can cause confusion.

The Ka’u Dwarf is relatively successful for us on our high rainfall farm. David Frenz, the great nurseryman from Hilo, who introduced it, has switched to selling it as Tommy Atkins!?!  It does have enough similarities to that variety to make me assume it could be a seedling of Tommy.

Happy mango summer. I brought two checked bags of Florida mangos with me to Norway so we’re good for now.

Aloha, Steph

I’m away in Florida so can’t help you personally. I don’t buy or sell fruits at the farmer’s market but my impression is that the few interesting fruits sell out very quickly. O’koa Farms store in the same mall is the most likely store to have anything that’s available locally. Aaaand some things from afar. He carries frozen durian and more from Lindsay of yearofthedurian.com. I just got a note that Mathematical Mike of Nahiku has fresh durian now but it’s quite an adventure to get them. A very sensitive documentary on him is on YouTube. “Art of Life”. https://youtu.be/7gUh8j5ui0o?si=t1RjS_jI5OAunH5y  Not a fruit film but his huge durian tree is a part of the story.

He’s a photo of him from earlier today



Laulima Fruit stand out in Kipahulu might have some interesting fruits.

Guavas and strawberry guavas are terrible weeds in wet areas. Passiflora also grow wild. Mountain Apples are in season and can be found in many river gulches.

Good luck!

I’ve been growing these for 20 years. They’ve been consistent good bearers, though not last year and this year after a windstorm broke some branches. Productivity and pollination have been good. Very easy to harvest transport and eat unlike some other Artocarpus sp. I find similar flavor components that others have mentioned. We really enjoy them. I put marang right at the top of a fruit quality list but keledang is very good. Not being quite as good as marang is not a condemnation but high praise.   And they are so much easier to deal with. I think the trees are easier to manage also.
I hear there are larger types but I haven’t been able to track them down. We graft them on jackfruit but the seedlings should be fine.

Aloha, Steph

Only 17 tasting tickets left.

I got 11am thanks to hero johnb!

I’ll be flying in from Maui.