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Messages - simon_grow

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: Today at 12:18:14 AM »
This is my m4 seedling. Its exceptionally sweet & coconutty.

Brix of 29.3







That’s awesome, do you notice any characteristics of your seedling that is different from the actual M4? Im trying to select for off types or zygotic seedlings from Polyembryonic varieties.

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 31, 2024, 09:21:16 PM »
Thank you for the fogger ideas. I spoke to Petra tools last week and they discouraged me from using sulfur in any of their foggers. They said they get calls all of the time from people run into trouble using sulfur. Maybe the person who I talked to was being over cautious.

I had my eyes on this battery operated one because it's portable:

https://www.petratools.com/product/petratools-battery-backpack-fogger-2-6-gallon.

Maybe the corded 4 gal one that you use is more forgiving with sulfur. unfortunately, Most of my trees are over 100 ft away.

I saw the video from the manufacturer and the 2.6 gallon battery operated foggers looks underpowered for medium to large trees.

If you have a medium to large orchard, you may want to consider the gas powered foggers.

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 31, 2024, 08:13:27 PM »
I haven’t had issues using sulfur in my Petra foggers but I constantly mix the solution pretty vigorously. The sulfur settles really fast. I also rinse and flush my foggers with RO water after every use.

I saw the Battery operated version which would be much more convenient but im waiting for more reviews.


4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: October 28, 2024, 12:03:38 AM »
Animals are starting to eat my mangos so I decided to harvest this Orange Sherbet seedling (named Carina) as soon as it went from dark green to light green. I harvested it yesterday and I’ll report back once it has ripened. This Orange Sherbet seedling was selected from approximately 30 Orange Sherbet seedlings by crushing the leaves and selecting for the sap with the strongest citrus smell. This is the first year this variety has fruited and it held only two fruit.

I harvested the smaller of the two fruit and the fruit was 6.5 inches long and weighed just over 14 Oz. The larger fruit appears to be over 1 lbs. here’s a picture of the unripe fruit.





Simon

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 27, 2024, 11:27:36 PM »
Simon Grow, Can you recommend a good ULV fogger? Are any of the battery operated ones able to be used with wet-able sulfur?

The ULV fogger you use will depend on your needs. The small hand held foggers are good for a couple small plants but that’s about it.

If you have a small orchard and have an AC outlet and your trees are all within about 50-100 feet of your property, a cheap corded fogger like the Petra 4 gallon fogger will suffice.

If you have a larger yard or a full on orchard, where your trees are greater than 50-100 feet away from your property, you may want to consider a more expensive gas powered fogger with an agitator like the Stihl SR430 or 450. I don’t have any gas powered foggers but a trusted member named Cookie Monster suggested it in another thread.

I have the corded Petra foggers and it is a cheaper unit with lots of plastic parts that can break but if you’re careful using it, it should provide you years of use.

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 25, 2024, 06:09:19 PM »
Johnny, your trees and fruit look awesome! Keep up the great growing.

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 25, 2024, 01:21:16 PM »
So the question about my spraying regimen came up multiple times during the mango tasting and several members explained to me that they have been spraying with Sulfur and they still don’t get fruit set on their Lemon Zest and they are still seeing Powdery mildew.

When I asked about their spraying, they said they used a pump sprayer, no surfactant and sprayed only once or twice. This is not an appropriate integrated disease management regimen.

Disclaimer, this is just an explanation of my personal integrated disease management program and im not recommending that anyone copy what im personally doing but it works for me. If you copy what im doing, you’re doing it at your own risk.

This is what I’m currently doing to grow mangos in California. Begin spraying with Sulfur even before the panicles emerge. It is especially important when the panicles are about 50% grown out and definitely before they open up. Make sure you use a wettable sulfur and make sure to use a non ionic surfactant. If you are not using a surfactant, you may as well not spray.

When you spray, make sure you use a ULV fogger, regular pump sprayers have poor penetration and it is extremely difficult to get full coverage of the top and bottom of the leaves and all the nooks and crannies where spores can land. Again, if you’re not using a ULV fogger and you have mature trees, you may as well not spray. Yes, there is an investment in money here and many people will not want to spend $200+ on a fogger but it will save you time and money in the long run by significantly reducing the time it takes to spray your orchard and the significant cost savings by using a fraction of the chemicals required to get full coverage spray on your trees vs pump sprayers.

I am currently using an organic powdered wettable Sulfur from Amazon and I use 4 tablespoons per gallon of water. Add surfactant per instructions and make sure you’re constantly agitating the solution as the sulfur settles immediately. When spraying with Sulfur, I always spray in the early morning or late evening to prevent burn and I never spray if the temperature is going to be above 85F in the next couple days. 85F has been a safe temp for me at my location. Be extremely careful and follow the manufacturer’s instructions if you’ve sprayed oil recently as this can burn and even kill your plants.

When spraying with Sulfur, spray every 2 weeks. After 4-8 weeks of spraying with Sulfur, I usually switch to Potassium Bicarbonate for 2-4 weeks. Again, this is my own special technique and my reasoning for doing this is because the Sulfur spray is low pH and the Potassium Bicarbonate is high pH, generally about a pH of 8 or higher. The alternating between low pH and high pH, in theory, makes it difficult for pathogens to adapt to the extreme pH shifts in their growing environment. I don’t spray open blooms.

Once the Powdery Mildew is gone and the fruit have set, I will add a copper spray every once in a while. I do this to continually disrupt the reproductive cycle of any fungal pathogens. There is research that shows copper can kill bacteria and copper is also a fungicide so adding this to the mix may, or may not, help with the control of bacterial black spots.

I had issues getting fruit set on my Lemon Zest trees but as soon as I started using this specific IDM (Integrated Disease Management) system that I designed specifically for my yard, I have great Lemon Zest fruit set. Unfortunately, I top worked all my Lemon Zest grafts except for a few branches. If I had figured this out earlier, I would have kept my LZ trees/grafts intact as it’s one of my favorite tasting varieties.


8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 25, 2024, 11:53:13 AM »
Very cool Simon. Your mangoes look great.

A already finished my Seacrest mangoes and the were all excellent. For me they are a early season meaning they ripen from early/Mid September to Mid October.

Still have about 15 or so Sweet Tart mangoes left on my tree and about 8-9 Coconut Cream left. At my location these are Mid season meaning late September to early November.

I have some very large Val-Carries on my tree this year and they are starting to change color. Really looking forward to trying those. Just picked some Guava Mangoes and they look beautiful. Butter creams still look good and the last to harvest at my location are the Peach Cobblers which also look very plump and nice. I will try to post some photos in the next day or two.

Johnny

Sounds like you had a lot of mangos this year. With your earlier ripening times, I would assume you get a good amount of heat units compared to me. Mango trees perform so much better when they get enough heat. Hopefully we can get some of your mangos into a future mango tasting!

Simon

Theres something else going on with the ripening time beside just heat.  Johnny is at the beach, no way it is hotter than mira mesa or out here even futher inland.  But somehow my mangos are still not ready.  They are close but not quite.  The heat matters for sure but I am wondering if theres a trick to get fruit to set earlier and that is why some people get the mangos earlier?  It seems like mangos didnt set until June here.  Maybe spraying the blooms would help?  It was especially late set with all the rain and long cold spring we had this year.

Hey Brad, I definitely agree with you. One of the bigger factors affecting earlier ripening, besides heat, is the fruit set. In some locations where there is less disease, the first blooms set fruit and these will ripen very early. For those that consistently spray, they can also get early blooms.

In areas with high disease pressures and for those planting varieties prone to disease or just don’t spray, they frequently won’t get fruit set until the second or third bloom.


9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 24, 2024, 02:17:45 PM »
Very cool Simon. Your mangoes look great.

A already finished my Seacrest mangoes and the were all excellent. For me they are a early season meaning they ripen from early/Mid September to Mid October.

Still have about 15 or so Sweet Tart mangoes left on my tree and about 8-9 Coconut Cream left. At my location these are Mid season meaning late September to early November.

I have some very large Val-Carries on my tree this year and they are starting to change color. Really looking forward to trying those. Just picked some Guava Mangoes and they look beautiful. Butter creams still look good and the last to harvest at my location are the Peach Cobblers which also look very plump and nice. I will try to post some photos in the next day or two.

Johnny

Sounds like you had a lot of mangos this year. With your earlier ripening times, I would assume you get a good amount of heat units compared to me. Mango trees perform so much better when they get enough heat. Hopefully we can get some of your mangos into a future mango tasting!

Simon

10
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 24, 2024, 10:48:23 AM »
I love the Parfianka Pomegranate. I have two plants growing on my property. It is the best tasting variety I have tried and as a bonus the plant is semi-dwarf relative to other varieties.

Johnny

Yeah, it’s a great tree. I get different grades of fruit from my tree. The biggest ones are about 1.5 lbs and have the largest aril to seed ratio. The mediums are about a pound or less and those have good aril to seed ratio. The smaller fruit usually have poor aril to seed ratio.


Mangos are starting to ripen on my trees



















Simon

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 24, 2024, 10:40:28 AM »
My two favorite mangoes this year (2024) have been Sweet Tart and Coconut Cream.

A perfectly ripe Sweet Tart mango with it’s orange flesh will be a remarkable experience for those that have never had one at peak flavor. Just finished eating a stunningly good Coconut Cream a few minutes ago. What a treat. Looking forward to the next one soon.

Johnny

Johnny, those are two top tier varieties!

Bill, im surprised Edward is a bad producer for you. It had always been very consistent and disease resistant for me. Perhaps it’s because your coastal influence reducing your total total heat units.

Jbirdfunk, yes, those Coachella Keitt are awesome. Our friend Garry lives up in Palm Springs and the heat helps his Lemon Zest make the best fruits I have ever sampled from a LZ tree.

Victoria Ave, good going with your seedlings. It would be great if you could document and give a description of your seedlings next year.

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 24, 2024, 09:52:33 AM »
Parfianka




Simon

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 24, 2024, 09:46:14 AM »
Great report as always, Simon.
Is that your Parfianka pomegranate on table?

Fruitfool

Yes, that is my Parfianka on the table. I brought two perfectly ripened fruit and they didn’t last long. Several members mentioned to me that they’ve never had a pomegranate that good.

I also brought several different varieties of top tier berry type figs and they didn’t last NV1, Sicilian 33, White Algiers, CDD Roja, Cosme Manyo and Nuestra Senora Del Carmen were big hits.

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 23, 2024, 09:00:35 AM »
That’s great to hear Ken, that’s how Leo Manuel made his selections. It would be a good idea to gather Brix readings if you have a refractometer. I’ll be updating the seedling mango thread with pictures and flavor descriptions from my Mango seedling selections when the fruit ripens.

15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 22, 2024, 09:24:03 AM »
That's really awesome event.

I'm growing a few mango trees myself. Sweet Tart and Orange Sherbert are two I've grafted. How does Maha Chanok or Pickering rank compared to the top 3?

It really is personal preference so even though some people really love Maha, it’s not on my top 20. I used to grow it but I removed it many years ago. Maha is a good tree to grow because it is disease resistant and will set fruit easily and is consistent with production but it was a bit slower growing for me and taste wise, I place it in the second tier. The great thing about Maha is that it is absolutely beautiful because of the color and shape of the fruit. The ripe fruit on the counter also gives off an extremely pleasant aroma. If I remember correctly, a good Maha has Brix around 20%. It is a good mango but there are other varieties with more punch.

Pickering is another good mango with great taste and sweetness. Pickering has a coco nutty flavor if grown and picked properly and I like it more than Maha but I still prefer other varieties more do it also doesn’t make my top 20 list. Pickering is very disease resistant and productive but the slower growth habit is an issue when grown in my marginal climate. I get much fewer heat units here in San Diego compared to Orange County and parts of LA. For Coconutty flavored mangos, I prefer E4, M4, and Coconut Cream.

Both Maha Chanok and Pickering are a favorite for many people and back in the days of Harry Hmmmhausman, Maha was rated #1 at his tastings.
Simon, about heat units, I'm curious what part of San Diego you are in?  Curious how my experience may differ from yours, I'm in Del Cerro (10b outer edge), I have young mango seedlings growing quickly and a couple La Verne seedlings getting big too.

Im in Mira Mesa. My specific location gets frost every year or every other year but only for several hours and only a few days out of the year. The heat units are important for sweetening and sizing up the mangos.

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 22, 2024, 09:20:19 AM »
MoNLA,

The Sunrise was under ripe so it would not be fair to rate that one.

K-Rimes, we’d love to have you and others join as well. We just have to find a place big enough for everyone interested.

Victoria Ave, we will keep you in mind if we have another tasting down here. One of the easiest ways to get invited is to be a contributor of Mangos.

Thanks Coconut Cream, I was just a participant at this event so it was our great host along with Frank, Warren and a few others that did all the hard work.

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 22, 2024, 09:09:26 AM »
I finally let my mango seedlings fruit this year.  They varied from height of 3-7' tall.  All of them are about a month away from ripening.  It will be a great idea to host another tasting for the more late season mangoes.

Ken

Hey Ken, it would be great to have another tasting. Do you have multiple varieties fruiting this year?

18
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 22, 2024, 09:05:38 AM »
Very cool! Thanks for sharing the results, and pictures Simon! What was the 30+ varieties of mangos? It will be great to know what's producing well here in socal despite the flavor ratings ahah.  Is this Ashok that use to live in Norcal like 20 years ago?

Hey Eggo, CAC and Son Pari were left off the list but here’s the list

Simon

19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 22, 2024, 09:02:53 AM »
That's really awesome event.

I'm growing a few mango trees myself. Sweet Tart and Orange Sherbert are two I've grafted. How does Maha Chanok or Pickering rank compared to the top 3?

It really is personal preference so even though some people really love Maha, it’s not on my top 20. I used to grow it but I removed it many years ago. Maha is a good tree to grow because it is disease resistant and will set fruit easily and is consistent with production but it was a bit slower growing for me and taste wise, I place it in the second tier. The great thing about Maha is that it is absolutely beautiful because of the color and shape of the fruit. The ripe fruit on the counter also gives off an extremely pleasant aroma. If I remember correctly, a good Maha has Brix around 20%. It is a good mango but there are other varieties with more punch.

Pickering is another good mango with great taste and sweetness. Pickering has a coco nutty flavor if grown and picked properly and I like it more than Maha but I still prefer other varieties more do it also doesn’t make my top 20 list. Pickering is very disease resistant and productive but the slower growth habit is an issue when grown in my marginal climate. I get much fewer heat units here in San Diego compared to Orange County and parts of LA. For Coconutty flavored mangos, I prefer E4, M4, and Coconut Cream.

Both Maha Chanok and Pickering are a favorite for many people and back in the days of Harry Hmmmhausman, Maha was rated #1 at his tastings.

Thank you for the details. Do you have any favorite for disease resistant and productive in SoCal. I'm in Los Angeles area.

For disease resistance and productivity, Sweet Tart, CAC, Edward, Venus, cotton Candy, Chloe(E4 seedling). There are other varieties that are disease resistant and productive but they are slower growers so if you have a small tree, they may not be very productive but if you top work a large tree, you should get good production. Some of these varieties are Carrie, Pickering, ValCarrie, Kayley(Pina Colada seedling). These are just a few I can remember.

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 21, 2024, 09:00:00 AM »
Simon, to post pictures, you should use Postimages hosting,

https://postimages.org/

Then just copy the "Hotlink for forums:" in your post here.
Thanks Kaz, that worked!

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 21, 2024, 01:11:47 AM »
Unfortunately I missed this one. Dad responsibilities.

Val-Carrie, venus, and sweet tart have been rotating the crown. Sounds like the crowd was wowed by sweet tart. Great to hear.

Hey Khaled, we missed you at the tasting as well and thanks for donating the Orange Sherbet! Im sure there will be more tastings in the future. It would be nice to have another smaller tasting down here in San Diego so that members like Peter, Brad and myself could add our mangos to the cause. My mangos are several weeks to a month behind the Orange County/LA folks.

I have several seedlings that taste great, they’re probably clones but they seem to have minor differences compared to the actual variety. I have fruit from my E4 seedling (Chloe), Pina Colada seedling (Kayley), and Orange Sherbet seedling (Carina). I also have fruit from my Sweet Tart seedling #1 (unnamed) and Sweet Tart Seedling #2 (unnamed). Besides the seedlings, I have the real Sweet Tart, Venus, Pineapple Pleasure and CAC.

I’m especially excited about my Orange Sherbet seedling which I named Carina (my wife). I grew out a bunch of Orange Sherbet seedlings and crushed their leaves using the Zill technique and grew out the plant with the strongest citrus aroma. This is the first year this seedling selection has fruited and I got two fruit, one of them is really good size and the shape is more like Lemon Zest. I’ll definitely post pictures and give a detailed description of the flavor profile once the fruit ripens.

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 21, 2024, 12:50:53 AM »
Nice to see you and others again, Simon. My wife and I had come to expect to see you and sugar cane juice but no luck this time. That's life :)
Ashok and his wife were great hosts, as always. I actually had LaHabra Sorbete as #1, Orange Sherbet as #2, and Venus as #3.

Hey Thera, it was great seeing you and your wife again. I was considering bringing some Sugarcane along with my new juicer to the event but I didn’t want to detract from the Mango tasting. I always have Sugarcane growing in my yard so give me a call if you’re in the San Diego area and I can juice some fresh sugarcane for you and your wife.

As for the Mango tasting, we had a single Son Pari that was brought out after most the guests had left. It was a single fruit so it wasn’t enough to cut up for all the guests so we decided to save it towards the end to evaluate. The Son Pari was grown by Warren and was picked at the perfect stage of ripeness and it was perfectly counter ripened before placing it into the refrigerator.

As soon as the fruit was cut open, we knew it was going to be good. It had a very high Brix, I can’t remember exactly what it was because I didn’t write it down but it was about 28.7 or 28.9, something like that. It had the highest Brix out of all the mangos sampled if I remember correctly. This Son Pari was excellent tasting and it reminded me of ValCarrie. Son Pari is a cross between Alphonso and Banganpalle if I remember correctly. This fruit had some Indian spice, a whole lot of sweetness and it was very rich and full bodied. It had layers of flavor and it was actually my second favorite mango after Sweet Tart.

I still can’t post pictures so I’ll try again tomorrow.

23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 20, 2024, 11:04:33 PM »
That's really awesome event.

I'm growing a few mango trees myself. Sweet Tart and Orange Sherbert are two I've grafted. How does Maha Chanok or Pickering rank compared to the top 3?

It really is personal preference so even though some people really love Maha, it’s not on my top 20. I used to grow it but I removed it many years ago. Maha is a good tree to grow because it is disease resistant and will set fruit easily and is consistent with production but it was a bit slower growing for me and taste wise, I place it in the second tier. The great thing about Maha is that it is absolutely beautiful because of the color and shape of the fruit. The ripe fruit on the counter also gives off an extremely pleasant aroma. If I remember correctly, a good Maha has Brix around 20%. It is a good mango but there are other varieties with more punch.

Pickering is another good mango with great taste and sweetness. Pickering has a coco nutty flavor if grown and picked properly and I like it more than Maha but I still prefer other varieties more do it also doesn’t make my top 20 list. Pickering is very disease resistant and productive but the slower growth habit is an issue when grown in my marginal climate. I get much fewer heat units here in San Diego compared to Orange County and parts of LA. For Coconutty flavored mangos, I prefer E4, M4, and Coconut Cream.

Both Maha Chanok and Pickering are a favorite for many people and back in the days of Harry Hmmmhausman, Maha was rated #1 at his tastings.


24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: October 20, 2024, 06:54:26 PM »
It was an absolutely gorgeous day yesterday in Orange County for the return of our annual SoCal Mango Tasting event! Our last big mango tasting event occurred in 2019, right before Covid hit. This tasting had mangos from only a couple small orchards but we hope to get more growers involved as we get back into the swing of things.


These fruit gatherings bring together a bunch of individuals from all walks of life, all of whom share the love of fruit. I frequently meet new friends that grow a new crop or variety of fruit that I have never tasted before. Although this was a Mango tasting, these events usually include many other types of tropical, subtropical, and temperate fruit as well.










As always, it’s very difficult to pick a bunch of mangos 1-2 weeks prior to a big event and have them all ripen properly on the targeted day of the event. Many of these mangos were not properly ripened because we had to pick them too early or we miss timed the picking and they were either under ripe or were over ripened and had to be refrigerated.

I only took a few pictures yesterday because the event was fast paced and I was busy taking Brix readings. We had a total of 32 different Mango varieties yesterday but some of the varieties were over/under ripe and were not cut or was cut and tossed into the trash because they were not edible.

In all honesty, this event had only about 9 varieties out of the 32 that were in edible condition. Of those 9 varieties, about 6 were in ok condition and only 3-4 varieties were in good to great condition. It was still a great time for everyone as we also had some top tier Figs, Pomegranates, Persimmons, Sapodillas, Dragonfruit and Cherimoyas.

For this event, everyone picked their top 3 varieties based on taste. Coming in at #3 was LaHabra Sorbete, a seedling selection from Frank that came from either PPK, Orange Sherbet or Lemon Zest, I can’t remember which. This mango tasted a lot like Orange Sherbet and the fruit was slightly over ripe and had Brix readings of 22.7 and 23.9. This fruit had a smooth texture, a hint of Orange flavor and good sweetness. This fruit would have been excellent if we sampled it a day or two earlier.

Coming in at second place was Orange Sherbet. The crowd really seemed to like the orange flavored mangos and I heard several guests mention that they could really taste the Orange flavor in this mango. This was not a blind tasting however and each mango had a variety tag on it. Sometimes knowing the name of the variety could subconsciously suggest flavors which a person may not otherwise perceive.

The Orange Sherbet had a Brix reading of 20.1 and 23.3. The fruit had a smooth texture and had hints of Orange and also had excellent sugar balance.

Coming in at #1 was Sweet Tart. The perennial favorite takes top honors once again! This was definitely the crowd favorite and there were lots of “oohs and ahhs” as the crowd bit down on their slice of this IndoChinese flavored mango. This mango had the perfect sugar acid balance with deep, rich, full bodied flavor that was accentuated by the IndoChinese spice that was more concentrated near the skin.

This fruit had a Brix reading of 28.1% Brix and it was very sweet but the acid balance  and IndoChinese spice made the fruit perfectly balanced without being cloyingly sweet. Sweet Tart has a dense flesh that is deep orange in color when properly grown and harvested at the correct stage of ripeness.

Total heat units and the DLI ( Daily Light Integral) definitely play a role in ripening Mangos and likely have an impact on the color of the flesh so growers living in colder climates may or may not attain the deep orange color when one or both are lacking.

There is a reason Sweet Tart has been in the top 3 for about the last 10 years. Out of those 10 years, Sweet Tart has taken the #1 spot more frequently than any other Mango. Caveat is that Lemon Zest is such a bad producer, for those that don’t properly spray, that it is frequently not part of our Mango tastings.

Sweet Tart is one of my number one recommendations when people ask me which variety they should plant. It is susceptible to Powdery Mildew on both new growth and the blooms but it will still hold fruit despite the PM. ST is also a vigorous grower which is a huge bonus for people trying to grow Mangos in SoCal where our actual (vegetative) growth period lasts only several months out of the year.

On top of that, ST is Polyembryonic and I highly recommend growing this variety from seed. My personal experience and experiences from members that reported back to me are that the seedling fruit tastes similar if not the same as the real Sweet Tart.

As many people know, I recommend planting seedlings if you are attempting to grow Mangos in SoCal. See this thread below for the reason why.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=23124.0

Here are links to previous years SoCal Mango Tastings:

2019

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=33777.msg370136#msg370136
 
2017

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=25557.0

2016

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=21313.0
2015

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=17181.0

Post image is down for maintenance so I’ll edit to add pictures when it’s back up.


25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: My Yard 2022
« on: October 07, 2024, 10:14:48 PM »
Kevin, that sucks the landlord is selling the property but we’d love to have you down here in San Diego. There’s large properties you can get for a reasonable price in the Fallbrook and Poway areas.

Simon

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