Most vigorous, productive and disease resistant mango varieties?

[simon_grow]

I'm trying to experiment with new mango rootstocks for Southern California and would like suggestions on what are the most vigorous growing and disease resistant mango varieties? I've performed searches on google and on this forum and have found that Tommy Atkins and Valencia Pride are often mentioned.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=3858.25

Are there any newer, perhaps Zill varieties, that you guys/gals in Florida have noticed that appear to have greater resistance to disease? Did you happen to notice that in a particularly bad disease year, a specific variety still produced well even when other nearby varieties had poor crops?

I'm hoping to find new rootstock combinations to use in my Double Stone Grafting experiments (http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=16549.0) which may impart disease and/or pest resistance, especially Anthracnose and Powdery Mildew. It has been stated in some articles that Phillipine and Indo Chinese varieties may be more resistant to Anthracnose https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mango_ars.html so I'm hoping to find at least one great disease resistant polyembryonic and one great monoembryonic variety. My next multi rootstock experiments will likely end up having three rootstocks. One polyembryonic variety for Anthracnose resistance, one Monoembryonic variety for Powdery Mildew resistance and one variety for growth in high pH soils such as Lavern Manilla, Corriente or one of Leo Manuels seedlings which have proven to grow very well here.

I am especially interested in newer varieties such as Lemon Zest, Sweet Tart and Pineapple Pleasure because these newer Zill releases tend to have high Brix and may impart this characteristic onto the scion. This has been proven on other crops already. Thanks in advance, I appreciate any thought or suggestions even if the evidence is only anecdotle.

Simon

[rliou]

Lemon zest has been a powdery mildew magnet for me in my yard in southern cal.  It seems to get the flowers every season for me.  I would be interested to see if rootstocks could actually impart resistance to the scions or not.  As they are fungal diseases of the vegetative portions of the plants, i am not sure if the rootstocks could protect the scions.  Keep us updated

[behlgarden]

for me Sweet Tart and Peach Cobbler have been two most prolific mango varieties from Zills, no issues and heavy bearers. probably are at the top ranking on taste too. Sweet Tart graft grew almost 5 feet wide and tall last year and is currently holding over 30 mangoes.

[simon_grow]

I'm also skeptical that the rootstock will actually impart any disease resistance but it's worth a try. There was recent research done that showed that grafted plants can have horizontal gene transfer creating a chimera of genetics. Research done on citrus and curcurbits also show that rootstocks have an affect on Brix and firmness of the fruit. This is not comparing apples to apples however as mango trees are very different from citrus and curcurbits.

Three years ago, I grafted many tomato plants and my grafted plants performed much better than my non grafted plants. This company http://mightymato.com also claims specific benefits with their grafted plants.

Even if a specific rootstock on a multiple rootstock tree does not impart disease resistance onto the scion, there is a probability that a particular rootstock will be more resistant to a specific soil born organism, virus or disease as the rootstock will be in contact with the soil. Some rootstocks such as the Lavern Manilla rootstock are great in high pH soil and it appears Florida Turpentine performs well on Florida soil.

I would not be surprised if Lemon Zest is succeptable to Powdery Mildew as it is polyembryonic but I would believe LZ has a better resistance to Anthracnose than Kent for example. On a side note, my seedling LZ was draped in powdery mildew covered tomato leaves and the vegetative growth were ok. This seedling has not had any blooms yet but I have observed that my grafted LZ trees do tend to get powdery mildew on their blooms.

Simon

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the information Behl! I will put those two varieties on my list to test out. Sweet Tart is an absolutely amazing variety. I have yet to try peach cobbler yet.

Simon

[Tropicdude]

Years ago I did come across research regarding rootstock and its effect on mango tree productivity, and as no surprise, rootstock choice  does have some bearing on quality of fruit, and tolerance.   remember that in that report they analyzed leaves of the tree for nutrient uptake.     but I believe these test were to evaluate which rootstock was better for high sodium soils.   but the fact remains,  some rootstocks seem to be better able to "pick up" some nutrients more than others,  or maybe they just are better at transferring/blocking between varieties.   I do remember that some of the varieties under test were various numbered "gumera"  and "sabre"  along with Tommy, and Turpentine.  and a few others.

If I come across something I will post link here.

[fruitlovers]

Have you also considered using other species os mangifera besides mango as rootstock? Look at the report just posted by HIFarm. It states some species of mangifera can possibly give good disease tolerance. Page 24 of this report:
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=20440.msg252098#msg252098

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the information Tropicdude and Oscar! That is a great article Oscar and I think it's a great idea to use other species of Mangifera for my rootstock experiments. Now I have to find a source for seeds!

To be honest, fungal disease is not too bad here as our humidity is not as high as in Florida nor Hawaii but I would love to discover a perfect combination of rootstocks for multiple rootstock trees that is highly adaptable in various soil conditions and environments.

Simon