Best tasting and most reliable Mangos for Southern California

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

I have a two year old PPK Seedling tree in a #7 pot. I am going to harvest some scions this summer from that tree and graft it onto my Lemon zest so It will still be a few years until I can determine production and disease issues. So far though my PPK has no Mildew and looks very healthy. I will soon move this up to a #15 pot. (See photo)

I would also say Guava does well at my location. Good growth and good Production.

My Pina Colada mango seeling tree is doing well in a #15 pot. Its putting out a flush right now in my greenhouse. It will soon be too large and I will have to move it ouside. Will likely move this to a 30-36" wood box long term.

My Zill P-22 is staring to flower now and have already grafted scions of this to several other mango trees in the ground. Really looking to try this fruit if it produces this year.

This might be the first year I will get some fruit from my 0-15 mango tree (See photo). It is aslo starting to flower now. My Cotton Candy in a #25 pot is also flowering. Looking foward to more Seacrest and Coconut cream. I have both varieties on one tree and they are flowering like crazy now. (See photo)

Hopefully 2024 will be a productive year. In 2023 we had a late start due to the extended cold weather so everything was delayed 6-8 weeks. Kind of a drag.

Johnny



PPK Mango Seedling Tree (2-25-24)




0-15 Mango Tree in Ground (2-24-24)




Coco Cream-Seacrest Mango Tree Flowering (2-24-24)

[love_Tropic]

Asked Alex @ TAF for Top 5 mangoes for SoCal, and he recommended Sweet Tart, peach cobbler, Cac, Cotton Candy and to consider "Sunrise" for SoCal location on manila root stock. Never tasted Sunrise but other 4 are excellent tasting Mangoes. Sad that Lemon zest cannot make it to top 5.

[K-Rimes]

Sunrise was a great mango if I recall correctly, very flavorful and beautiful color / blush.

[simon_grow]

Asked Alex @ TAF for Top 5 mangoes for SoCal, and he recommended Sweet Tart, peach cobbler, Cac, Cotton Candy and to consider "Sunrise" for SoCal location on manila root stock. Never tasted Sunrise but other 4 are excellent tasting Mangoes. Sad that Lemon zest cannot make it to top 5.

I can vouch for Sweet Tart, Cac, Peach Cobbler and Cotton Candy. They grow well and will set fruit even with Powdery Mildew. I’m not growing Sunrise but a friend is and his tree is growing well last I heard.

Lemon Zest is one of my favorite mangos but the Powdery Mildew severely inhibits fruit set and the PM also causes the new growth flushes to get distorted in shape. For those that can spray with sulfur every 7-10 days, pre bloom to fruit set, you can still get a good harvest from Lemon Zest. Also, for those living in an area with good air circulation such as at the top of a hill, you can get good fruit set without spraying.

Simon

[xesoteryc]

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[Johnny Eat Fruit]

Hey Simon,

I would concur with most of your assements.

Sweet Tart has good production but is prone to fruit split with young trees at my location. May take 6-8 years in costal locations to improve. Inland warmer areas may have better results.

Peach Cobber looks to be very productive. Lots of small fruit holding on my various grafts at my HB location.

Cac:  My four year old graft on Manila rootstock has fantasit growth but so far no production. I am hoping with more time this variety will produce well.

Cotton Candy:  My grafted tree in #25 pot is holding small fruit. I already grafted this to (3) other trees in ground and am waiting to see how it will perfoerm long term. 

Lemon Zest:  Grows fast but has constant Powerdy Mildew issues. I might have a few fruit in the fall but we shall see. Orange Sherbet seems to be a much better alternative for SoCal. No PM and good growth at my location so far with a two-year old gtrafts. Hopefully, it will fruit next year. 

Seacrest:  For me, this is the first fruit to set, fill out, and harvest. High production plus excellent growth makes this a winner. Also excellent quality fruit. The photo shows one branch graft from 2020.

Johnny



Seacrest Fruit (7-2-2014)

[sgvfruit]

Has anyone try to grow / taste Golden Lady?  I believe only Wong farm near palm desert sells this variety?

I know this is a much older post, but Wong farms recently brought some Golden Lady mangos to a farmers market near me and I was extremely impressed. I noted lychee, white grape, honey in my tasting observations.

I haven't found much info about securing a tree or budwood from the farm themselves, but there is a nearby nursery in Riverside by the name of "Utopia Trees" that sell the variety on a manilla rootstock. Apparently, the variety is very cold hardy and does well in Southern California, which makes sense considering the original farm is located in Mecca, CA.

I am looking to add it to my collection, but scions are few and far between since it came out around 2020 and is only coming from this one farm. I think it has a lot of potential to become a California staple.

[Malhar]

Has anyone try to grow / taste Golden Lady?  I believe only Wong farm near palm desert sells this variety?

I know this is a much older post, but Wong farms recently brought some Golden Lady mangos to a farmers market near me and I was extremely impressed. I noted lychee, white grape, honey in my tasting observations.

I haven't found much info about securing a tree or budwood from the farm themselves, but there is a nearby nursery in Riverside by the name of "Utopia Trees" that sell the variety on a manilla rootstock. Apparently, the variety is very cold hardy and does well in Southern California, which makes sense considering the original farm is located in Mecca, CA.

I am looking to add it to my collection, but scions are few and far between since it came out around 2020 and is only coming from this one farm. I think it has a lot of potential to become a California staple.

Are you certain that mango trees sold by "Utopia Trees" are grafted on Manila? When I asked them, they stated that trees are from Florida and grafted on Turpentine.

[sgvfruit]

Are you certain that mango trees sold by "Utopia Trees" are grafted on Manila? When I asked them, they stated that trees are from Florida and grafted on Turpentine.

Yeah, I emailed them asking which roostock they were on. I received a reply yesterday from them (utopiatreeshelp@gmail.com), and they said they were on Manilla.

[MasOlas]

I got an Ice Cream Mango from Utopia Trees in Feb this year. Ot is a slooow grower but it arrived beautifully packed. 👍

[sgvfruit]

I was revisiting this thread and didn't see any pictures of the golden lady mango. I had my last one last night, here is a size comparison with a banana and valencia pride.

[Goyo626]

Has anyone try to grow / taste Golden Lady?  I believe only Wong farm near palm desert sells this variety?

I know this is a much older post, but Wong farms recently brought some Golden Lady mangos to a farmers market near me and I was extremely impressed. I noted lychee, white grape, honey in my tasting observations.

I haven't found much info about securing a tree or budwood from the farm themselves, but there is a nearby nursery in Riverside by the name of "Utopia Trees" that sell the variety on a manilla rootstock. Apparently, the variety is very cold hardy and does well in Southern California, which makes sense considering the original farm is located in Mecca, CA.

I am looking to add it to my collection, but scions are few and far between since it came out around 2020 and is only coming from this one farm. I think it has a lot of potential to become a California staple.

Are you certain that mango trees sold by "Utopia Trees" are grafted on Manila? When I asked them, they stated that trees are from Florida and grafted on Turpentine.

i have seen wong farms sell mangos and trees (not sure which varieties) at the pasadena farmers market on saturdays might be worth taking a look.

[Tlaloc]

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9X7Xp6SGrQ/?img_index=1
Mango Golden Lady from Wong Farm and Golden lady tree in link.

[PhilLe]

They sell the golden lady grafted onto various rootstock.
It is an excellent classic flavored mango.
They also have manila, nam doc mai, valencia pride, and desert ruby which is rather fibrous.
They trialed coconut cream but it produced poorly.
I purchased a seedling manila from them for grafting. $25 for a 1 year old.
(760) 626-4483

[Eggo]

I think Wong Farms grows out their own rootstocks.  They use various ones and even the turpentine rootstock is their own.  I don't grow any but their strain may work better.

Thanks Johnny, I really need to get my small Seacrest going, it looks like a winner here!

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

Seacreat is looking good this year. I have over 20 fruits from one 2020 graft and will likely start picking some in late September. Also my Coconut Cream is finally producing well this year. You can see some of them on the upper left of the attached photo next to the greenhouse.

Johnny



Seacreat and Coco Cream Mango Tree (8-10-24)

[CA Hockey]

I sprayed often throughout April and may. First blooms died late march/early April which motivated me to spray.

After many years, this will be my best harvest.

Coco cream lots of fruit

Honeykiss sets fruit easily

Sweet tart needs to be sprayed but holding lots of fruit

Or sherbet held lots of fruit. Lost some to blocked water line. 3 trees and 2 are bent at 90 degrees.

Orange essence. Great growth, lost the fruit. Will try again but haven't tasted a single fruit off this tree.


Lz - needs spraying to hold fruit

Cac - has fruit

Karen Michelle - has fruit

C17- didn't set fruit early in the season. The last set of pannicles has fruit but probably won't ripen in time

Cotton candy has fruit. On autopilot

Taralay is a champ like cococream

Same with venus

M4 sets a good crop but late ripening is an issue for 3rd and 4th blooms

Pina colada is outstanding, but not heavy yields yet

Peach cobbler - have had bad luck with this one. New grafts growing well but my designated rootstock keeps killing my graft when I prune the suckers.

Keitt holds occ fruit

Kesar has some fruit.

015 seedling tastes pretty good, but it's a seedling and 12 feet tall tree so it's got some advantages.

Diamond holding fruit

Other than kesar, Indian paki and Egyptian mangos not performing so well. They flower at odd times, ie late fall.


I know I'm missing some.
Main point - you need to spray. Fruit set in June and July doesn't mean no good because they will ripen in October or November and don't develop the type of sweetness that I expect. First orange sherbert mango of the year was ready a couple of days ago and I'm now waiting for it to ripen on the counter

[simon_grow]

Good going Johnny eat fruit and CA Hockey!

I’m surprised you have to spray Sweet Tart to get fruit. I get Powdery Mildew on my early blooms and the fruit that gets set are mostly nubbins with aborted seeds and the fruit tends to crack but I still get some fruit that form regular fruit with full sized fruit. I often remove the first set of fruit and the second or third bloom usually has much less PM so most the fruit are regular fruit with fully formed seeds that won’t crack.

Here’s a branch of my Sweet Tart that wasn’t sprayed.



Simon

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

Hey Simon,

Beautiful looking sweet Tart fruit. My tree has about 30 ripening fruit on it and hopefully I can start harvesting in September.

This year about 15-20% of my sweet Tart follage was affected with Powedry Mildew. It had some effect on the blooms but I still got some fruit with little spraying on this tree. My Lemon Zest was much more affcted with PM and even with some spraying I got no fruit. I have already partially Top Worked my LZ mango tree. I suppose if I spray regurally between March-June every 7-10 days it would be effective but I get lazy sometimes and I am not as consistant with spraying.

Johnny



Sweet Tart with Fruit (8-16-2024)

[spaugh]

I dont spray, dont have time for that.  Still have tons of mangos set.  Although they seem to set late.  Could be all the early blooms fail from the rains. 

[MasOlas]

Spraying 50/50 peroxide and water?

[simon_grow]

When spraying for PM, I use Sulfur. I use 4 tablespoons per gallon of water and spray every 7-10 days.

[sgvfruit]

Saw this huge mango tree in Monrovia 9b or 10a. Had to be at least 15-18 feet, lots of fruit set as well. Not sure which variety.

[jbirdfunk]

When spraying for PM, I use Sulfur. I use 4 tablespoons per gallon of water and spray every 7-10 days.

Lime sulfur or what type? I bought lime sulfur for my peaches. Thanks

Based on your earlier posts I'm growing out several seeds from a fruit box from Florida I got last summer. Sweet Tart, CAC, Super Julie and a few others. Growing really really well, much faster than all other grafted plants from the past. 12 month old trees 2-3' high.

[Sam786]

Hey everyone

Just wanted to share my pics of my Glenn mango that I have been struggling with for years. After doing a lot of research on this forum and YouTube. I realized I was dealing with heavy PM since I live close to the coast. After removing the first blooms around the end of Feb, the cold triggered another bloom which I sprayed down every 9-12 days with Sulfur. And Baaam the Glenn 🥭 went crazy and has good size fruits everywhere, no nubbins!