Author Topic: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal  (Read 17765 times)

simon_grow

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Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« on: September 16, 2016, 09:21:24 PM »
Yesterday we had one of the largest Mango tastings in SoCal that I am aware of. Each year, the number of varieties increases and as word spreads about what grows and performs well here, more and more growers start growing these new and better varieties. As more members grow these better varieties, we have a better chance of sampling these better mangos at the perfect stage of ripeness as we have a larger pool of mangos to select from.

We are still in the early stages of Excellent Mangodom but at least now, we are past our infancy period where we plant Mangos on less than ideal rootstocks, wasting 3-5+ years before we realize something is wrong. I also like to think that we are past the stage where we plant common or less than out standing varieties. Kent and Haden for example are great fruit, sometimes even excellent but Kent and Haden are widely available commercially and if someone were to invest the time and effort into planting a Mango tree, I hope they do their homework in order to avoid buyers remorse wishing they had planted a DOT, Lemon Zest or Sweet Tart instead.

It was an absolutely beautiful day yesterday, a perfect day if you were to ask the weatherman/woman. It was 78F in La Habra when Leo and I arrived at Frank's moms house. I immediately thought to myself that this weather in La Habra is just about perfect for growing a wide range of fruit both subtropicals and temperate. As participants entered the backyard our jaws dropped at the sight of Frank's plants, absolutely incredible growth! Last time we were at this house, the trees were newly planted many of them knee to waist high, now they have quadrupled their original canopy size and most his trees were loaded with fruit. We speculated that Frank must be using some sort of illegal banned substance for accelerated plant growth, a sort of plant steroid but we searched around the property and all we could find was a thick layer of mulch a wheelbarrow full of dirt in his garage.

Frank had urgent family matters to deal with so he missed most of the Mango tasting but we were in excellent hands with his mom, Warren and Ashok. Frank's mom almost stole the show with the her home made fruit empanadas that were so delicious that she could very well put Portos out of business if she opened up a shop.

If I Recall Correctly(IIRC), we had 60 different varieties of Mangos with over 160 total number of mangos. Not all the Mangos were sampled because some were under or over ripe. The diversity of Mangos was astounding with varieties that originated from around the world.

For reference, here is a link to last years mango tasting:
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=17181.msg217531#msg217531


Here are some pictures of the fruit. I'll add additional pictures and information as I have time.

Simon










« Last Edit: September 29, 2017, 10:15:24 PM by simon_grow »

simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2016, 09:33:18 PM »
Here's some close up shots








simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2016, 09:35:28 PM »
More












simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2016, 09:36:25 PM »
More
















simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2016, 09:37:24 PM »

















simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2016, 09:38:20 PM »















simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2016, 09:39:25 PM »













simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2016, 09:40:12 PM »













simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #8 on: September 16, 2016, 09:42:18 PM »

















simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2016, 09:44:07 PM »







shaneatwell

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #10 on: September 16, 2016, 10:14:30 PM »
Wow.
Shane

Samu

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #11 on: September 16, 2016, 11:22:50 PM »
Amazing!
So many varieties!
Congratulations mango growers!!
I am still waiting for my first mango...
Sam

gozp

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #12 on: September 16, 2016, 11:54:29 PM »
Awesome....


No coconut cream?

EJO8

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #13 on: September 17, 2016, 12:08:58 AM »
Winners/Losers??

wslau

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #14 on: September 17, 2016, 01:09:22 AM »
Awesome....


No coconut cream?

Gozp,
No coconut cream.
But had a lemon zest and a peach cobbler from the new Zill's varieties.
Warren

wslau

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #15 on: September 17, 2016, 01:21:06 AM »
Food:



Fruit and Friends:
















« Last Edit: September 17, 2016, 01:25:33 AM by wslau »
Warren

rliou

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #16 on: September 17, 2016, 01:49:38 AM »
Sweet Tart was well received and tops a lot of the attendee's list.  There were several votes for Leo2 as one the top as well.
Robert

JF

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #17 on: September 17, 2016, 01:54:15 AM »
Simon
you capture the essence of the tasting.
special thanks goes to Warren, AZ, Simon, Peter, Behl, Mike, Mark....and to the rest of the folks who contributed. Of course our honor guess Rudy Haluza, Leo Manual and Jim Neitzel. I have no pix or brix info to share I was there for only 30 minute

simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #18 on: September 17, 2016, 10:53:37 AM »
I have Brix results and more discussion about the top varieties but my kids are a handful so I'll add bits of information as I recall them. Here are the Brix results.

I would also like to thank Frank, Leo, Mark, Rudy, Peter, Behl, AZ and others I forgot for contributing fruit for this amazing tasting. To be honest, there was probably too many fruit. At the end of the tasting, we still had Dragon Fruit, Guava, Sapodilla, Lychees and other fruit that weren't sampled because people were sugared out.

An extra big shout out to Peter for volunteering as the fruit cutter. I appologize for not recognizing other major contributors, my head was spinning trying to keep track of everything. I'll post descriptions of my favorites later.





Simon
« Last Edit: September 17, 2016, 11:21:34 AM by simon_grow »

Mark in Texas

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #19 on: September 17, 2016, 11:47:11 AM »
Amazing, looks like a perfect day with a fine looking bunch. Thanks for sharing.

Bananaizme

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #20 on: September 17, 2016, 11:49:11 AM »
    Sure wished that I could have attended.Looks like it was a fantastic time.

 William

simon_grow

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #21 on: September 17, 2016, 12:27:41 PM »
It was very interesting tasting Sweet Tart from three different sources and I believe they were also on different rootstocks. I believe Peter contributed ST on Manilla rootstock with a Brix of 25%, Frank contributed ST on Ataulfo rootstock with Brix of 20% and AZ contributed ST on Turpentine rootstock with Brix of 21%. I could be totally wrong on this but I believe these were the rootstocks that were mentioned. These are small samplings and conclusions should not be drawn from these small samplings as their is significant variance between individual fruit, even from the same tree. For example, the Sweet Tart on Turpentine rootstock had a Brix of 21% for this particular fruit but a fruit from the same tree with an aborted seed and extremely prominent lenticils that I sampled a couple weeks ago had a Brix of 32% and was probably the best tasting ST I have ever eaten.

Several growers including myself have noticed this trend that fruit with aborted seeds and often with very prominent lenticils have significantly higher Brix and often taste much better than fruit with fully formed seeds. These fruit usually have between 2-5% higher Brix levels.

Unfortunately, many of the 60 varieties brought to the tasting were not able to be sampled because they were over or under ripe, this is the reason there are less than 60 varieties listed with Brix results.

Simon

Bush2Beach

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #22 on: September 17, 2016, 01:54:08 PM »
WOWZA! wonderful to see all those varieties California grown. You all are doing a great job and making the CRFG old timer's proud and well fed ! Very impressive.

starch

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #23 on: September 17, 2016, 01:56:55 PM »
Wow, that is AWESOME! Thanks for sharing Simon!
- Mark

BestDay

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Re: Huge Mango tasting in SoCal
« Reply #24 on: September 17, 2016, 02:55:32 PM »
Looks like a great time. What type of lychee are those?  Brewster and sweetheart?

Bill