is that an African Oil Palm in the first pic?

BluePalm - your nam doc mai looks super healthy. Have you had any fruit from it and how does it taste????

I've got one of these plant sellers looking for a maha chinook for me now - so hard to find, and it will be my last one (wink, wink...!!!!)....for sure.....

mangodesertdog

Hi, Mango-K: The large "feather-duster" plant to the right rear of the potted Maha Chinook (Chanook?) is a male (coning now) Ugandan giant cycad (Encephalartos whitelockii) -- my son cleaned and sprouted the seed in July 2000.

To answer other questions in advance that forum members might have, the brown trunks in the left background of photo #2 are from a clumping Senegal date palm (Phoenix reclinata), and behind that on the left is a male (recently coned) Encephalartos trispinosus (Bushman's River cycad). Way in the back, left center is the grayish trunk of a redneck palm (Dypsis leptocheilos) -- the red, fuzzy boots are visible toward the top of the tree in photo #1.

There are three cycads in photo #4 behind the flowering Fairchild: Dioon caputoi (gray pot), Dioon mejiae, and a "potato chip" mutant of the common "cardboard palm", Zamia furfuracea (blue pot with tulip). My father and I recently removed an old, very large clumping fishtail palm from the spot to make room for the Fairchild.

In the last photo, the large cycad in a black pot in front of the Nam Doc Mai is Encephalartos horridus.

Hi, mangodog: My father's Nam Doc Mai set about 20 fruits this past summer and they grew to about 50-60% mature size before abruptly dropping off. Shortly after the immature fruits fell, the tree experienced a phenomenal growth spurt increasing in size about 100% in three flushes in late summer and fall (maybe from 5 feet in spring to 10-12 feet currently).

Hi, mangodog: My father's Nam Doc Mai set about 20 fruits this past summer and they grew to about 50-60% mature size before abruptly dropping off. Shortly after the immature fruits fell, the tree experienced a phenomenal growth spurt increasing in size about 100% in three flushes in late summer and fall (maybe from 5 feet in spring to 10-12 feet currently).
The tree was evidently more interested in establishing a root system last growing season than in producing fruits. For example, big swollen buds lingered for months in spring and early summer before finally sprouting. The tree seemed to be in suspended animation.
At the moment, flower buds are forming so he expects a normal fruiting year. If there's a crop this year, I'll let you know how they taste.

Wow - that is a beautiful yard! Thanks for the species names for all the neat cycads and palms too. When I lived in the north there were just "palm trees", never realized until I moved to FL just how many kinds there really are!

Hey Blue Palm,
Awesome yard! Makes me want to pack my bags now and move to Florida! Looks like your fahter's yard has been frost free. You are in south Florida right?

Your welcome Blue Palm. Glad I could help ya with the Maha Chinook! Did your tree come with this shape, or did you prune out the central leader? Mine responded VERY well to pugging and has 8 branches of which 7 are flushing right now. I should have inflos soon and I will email you the pics once they are fulyl developed. I am really torn about letting it produce just 1 fruit. I would really like to know 100% with out doubt that we have the Maha Chinook. Lynn seemed pretty sure about it.

I also emailed her before Christmas. I got a response from them yesterday. I wanted to know if she could email me a list of the Thai mangoes that they carry. She also mentioned to me that they are going to be travelling to Vietnam in another month or 2. They are suppose to be bringing back some plant materials. This I find exciting! Naybe she will bring back some small to medium growing sized mango.
I have been torn on wether to buy the #4 Nam doc Mai. Seeing that tree in your fathers yard, makes me even more torn. Do you have pics of it before it dropped all the mango fruits? I know that the according to what I have read here, it is a more reliable fruiting variety but I really want to add another condo type thai variety.
Blue Palm,
I really appreciate the update on your maha Chinook. I am hoping that your tree will produce fruits sooner than mine, so we can know with out a doubt that we did get the Maha Chinook. I understand now that if you want the Maha Chinook, you have to contact Frankies so they can graft it for you. Glad we got them.
How is your cherimoya tree doing? I am keeping figners crossed that the few flower buds I have now will bloom and set fruits.
How has your yard faired thru this freaky cold weather???
I was amazed that the last few days of January were so WARM!! New Years eve we were almost 50 degrees! Thank God all the snow melted. We now just have a small dusting.

Andrew

Wow, your father's yard is beautiful and what a lineup of mangoes. The NDM is beautiful and will be even prettier when it is covered in fruit again.

thanks for posting,
-Ethan

SunW, Andrew, and Red Sea,
Thanks. He takes a lot of pride in his yard. It is truly beautiful...a wide selection of cycads, palms, bromeliads, orchids, cacti and agaves. I never tire of walking through his garden.
Andrew, as far as the NDM, the fruit hung in clusters and looked like normal NDM fruits before they dropped. The tree has just exploded in size (mangos love my father's climate).
Frankie's Nursery cut the top of the Maha Chinook off before shipping so it would fit in the box. The two 45 degree branches grew last summer.
My yard is hanging in there...most of my mango trees were dug up last year and sent to my mom's and dad's houses. My yard now is almost entirely lychees, longans, jaboticabas (2), grumichama, pineapples, bananas, etc. My trees made it fine through the cold (but they were all covered).
I did order a Kaimana lychee tree from Pine Island today (they have them in 1 gallon pots and won't mail them), but they will ship them to nurseries that have trucks from PI sent to them.

Maha Chinookedly,
Bluepalm

Hi Bluepalm...I totally agree...your Dad's yard is just beautiful and what a super NICE collection of Mango trees. A super nice Mango Orchard in the making. Thanks for the photos and best of luck with the new addition to the Mango family!

Hey Blue Palm,
How's your winter treating you? I hope things are getting back to normal, and I hope your mango trees at your dad's house are also doing well!

I had to bring this post back after readin a comment that Harry had made on the Maha Chinook mango tree. I have to tell ya, after reading it, I started to really question if we really had the true Maha Chinook!! Harry had mentioned that the Maha Chinook mango tree was one of the few mango trees that had the pink mid rib.
Looking at the close up of the leaves on yours and comparing them to mine, it is quite obvious that your tree along with mine, have the yellow midribs. This is what concernes me. I am hoping that maybe it is a maturity issue, and because our trees are not that old, they don't have the pink mid ribs. I am going to email Harry today and ask him about this and I am also going to ask Chris who lives in Thailand. He also has 2 potted Maha Chinook trees and I am hoping that he will say that his are still green. I am really hoping that you and I didn't spend a small fortune for the wrong mango. If that turns out to be the case, man I am really sorry! Lynn at Frankies told me that they had purchased there Maha Chinook direct from a tropical fruit nursery on one of there trips to Thailand.

I will update you when I hear back from him.
Andrew

Andrew - I'm interested too in what you find out from Harry and your Thai friend on the Maha C - could you start a new topic with it?

I'm always forgetting where threads go and such......

thanks, mangopinkribs

Ive never seen a mango with a pink midrib andrew, maybe possible they are referring to the colors of the growth flush?

Hi Mangokush,
If you read the post "Mango beginning to bloom in Socal", Harry actually does post a response about a picture of mango trees. In the pic you can see the pink mid rib and from the picture, you can see that the leaves are mature. Harry does say that this is a trait of the Maha Chinook.
Andrew

Did you ever figure out the "pink midrib" issue with the Maha Chanook?

Adiel

Yeah I emailed Harry(I forgot to it here sorry!) and he told me not to worry about it, WHEW!
Andrew

Wow! I love the yard...he has a great little tropical escape there. Very nice looking trees.

Hello ,
Read that someone might have yellow Jaboticaba seed and wonder If you would consider parting with a few seeds
Ursula
culejools@yahoo.ca