Good luck on all your trees fully recovering. The Glenn tree looks like it will be fine after a few months of spring weather. I bet you'll enjoy your Carrie mango's.

Hi Nancy,
I hope all your trees make a swift recovery and hopefully next year you wont have to worry about these damn freaky cold snaps! I am especially happy for you because your Carrie is blooming and hopefully you will be able to taste them and enjoy them. I have to admit I worry a little that I may not like the flavor but this is what I get for not trying the fruits before buying the tree! I am going on what most others have said about the fruit's flavor.

Your Cogshall looks awesome(on the North side of your house.). It looks more like a "mango bush" than a mango tree! The shape of that tree is what I hope my pruning will give me in a couple years. Hopefully that Lancetilla will continue to recover and you will be able to eat fruits in another year or two!

Keep us posted this summer, and could you please send me some of that heat this way! IT is 24 degrees right now and I am so tired of this crap!

Andrew

Hi Pug, I am happy and thrilled that your mango trees pulled through and are starting to put on new growth. Also, I love how small and compact your carrie looks and you've got blooms. I hope you get lots of fruits this summer!

-Bo

Nice pugging Pugsly (wasn't that a character in The Adams Family?)

I only hope for you the best this year. I'm especially impressed with the Cogsie on the north side of the house. I have read they can take some shade and here's a prime example.....

Good luck ( and don't be tempted to fertilize - and then only a little - until you see some good growth) You would hate yourself if you burned their wounded recovery.......

and happy tasting.......mangocanine

if carrie is overripe it gets funky, almost like a bad papaya

Is that the same carrie that has been doing poorly for a few years? Seems to have finally decided to turn around.

For me - the carrie is astoundingly delicious if eaten it just a tad green where it still has a decent amount of tart. Otherwise, the carrie is certainly not one that I like to eat when overripe. My wife, however, eats them on the opposite end - when they are a bit overripe - because she likes all the sugar :-).

Jeff

Pug the first time I tried a mango off my Carrie tree I didn't like it. Could have been a flukey thing because the mangoes I got off my tree last season were so AMAZING! Now I can't wait to see what this year will bring.
So far the Po Pyu Kalay and Cogshall have a handful of fruit- nothing spectacular but happy to try any since these will be their 1st fruit ever. The flowers on the Glenn all dried up but the Pickering is loaded with developing fruitlets! I am so excited to try them! I am planning to go check out my Kent mango source tree---- I have not forgotten my promise!!

Thanks so much for all the kind comments and well wishes!

I really am hoping to try at least a couple from this Carrie tree so I can decide once and for all "if" I really like it or not. I bought this tree before doing any research...thanks for the suggestions. I will make sure I don't eat this one when its over ripe.

Jsvand, YES! This is the poor Carrie tree that has been suffering and near the brink of death for SO long...here's a picture from 2 years ago...

This is what the Cogshall from the North side of my house looked like after the 2008/2009 freeze...when I got done pugging this one it had NO leaves and no braches...just a 20" single stick.

So you can see my trees have really been through some very stressed and severed damages in its very young life. I really am happy that they are even still alive with all that they've been through!

Mangodog...yes, I guess "pugsley" was from Addams Family,lol...didn't know that till I researched it.

Andrew, the angle of the picture of the Cogshall I took above does look like a bush...but in this pic you can see the short trunk a little better.

I just noticed I still have the Christmas tree lights on the tree,lol...guess I can take them down now!

Hi puglvr1,
if you don't mind i'd like to ask something, because i'm also trying to grow mangoes in place where they can take cold damage, and your knowledge can be very valuable for me.
How low have been your minimum temperatures? How long it lasted? I'm really surprised noticing the different degree of damage on different plants... do you think it can be related to a difference between cultivars, or maybe is just because the ones wich have had less damage grew in an slightly hotter place?
Your mango is healing nicely. I usually put some kind of wax on plant with such kind of damage to stop water from flowing in the cut. But i dunno if mangos would take this kind of treatament well, so i'm not suggesting that to you. :)
Thank you.

Hi Pancrazio, I counted the number of days this winter of "freezing temps" that I've had...its about 8 times. The lowest temps recorded was 25-32 F degrees. They've lasted anywhere between 4-9 hours depending on the night.

Last winter 2009/2010...I had appx. 13 nights of freezing temps...lowest being 24 degrees F. Again, the length varied as mentioned above.

I really can't say for sure what's the biggest factor in the difference of the damages...but my guess would be partly some of the micro-climate in my yard...also having enough heat protection underneath the covers. Last year I had some trees that were severely damaged yet this year that same tree had little damage. Its very hard to pin point the exact reasons. My best guess is the more protection and heat you provide the better they will fare. But I won't lie to you...its a lot of work and even then there's NO guarantees that what you've done will be enough as you've seen on my pictures.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

Hi Nancy,
Thanks for the other pic of the Cogshall. I really like that tree! I hope I can get results that are similiar to yours. Now I am starting to wonder if the Carrie was a bad choice. Man, I will be so pis$$$! Like people say time after time after time. Flavor is so subjective, what you may not care for could be my favorite mango! I just have to remember that and most importantly, any tree ripened fruit will out rank the best tasting store bought fruits!!

I have passed on so many of the mango fruits in the store. They are 90" of the time rock hard, and even when there allowed to ripen, they taste like crap. I would rather wait until there back in season, and hopefully I will have some much better options.

Honestly I am getting so desperate for some good flavored fruits right now, I think I am going to have to buy a box of cherimoya. For me, if there are no good mango fruits, the next best thing is cherimoya.

Andrew

Nancy...your pictures should be entitled...."The Agony and the Ecstacy!" Thanks for posting them. I hope that all that need it, recover asap and that you are enjoying fruit in the not too distant future.

Harry

Hi Nancy,
I am now kicking myself in the pants because the hole in your Glenn mango was just like the hole in my Cogshall. I should have asked here if there was something that could be done to save it but I didn't think to even ask.

What was even more worse was I bought it like that and I was very stupid to not have inspected the tree better. I thought that I had but apparently not!

So what can you do to treat that? I know that the bark wont seal up right but the wood on the inside of the hole will eventually seal. Now I know there are options. Thanks for posting this.

That hole reminds me of your adenium. How is that fairing now? Do you think it's going to pull through for you?

Andrew

Hi Marin, good to see you! Sorry I missed your post earlier, I think we were posting at close to the same time. Thanks for letting me know about Carrie. I'm glad I wasn't the only one that had the "off" taste experience! I can't wait to try a fruit off this tree...assuming some fruits sets that is. I really hope I enjoy it this time around. I'm so happy for you that your Mango trees are doing well! I knew you wouldn't forget me,lol...

Hey Andrew, I've had the same luck with those horrible store bought mangoes...the only ones I really like are the Ataulfo which are only offered occasionally here at the produce stands. None I've ever seen at the big grocery chains except Tommy Atkins and they are picked so early by the time they ripen they taste horrible! But, you are so right about taste being subjective...I will certainly let you guys know what I think of my Carrie if I get to taste one.

Thanks Harry! "The Agony and the Ecstacy!" I love it,lol...I hope you're right :o)

Hi Nancy. Thanks for posting pics! I'm glad to see that all of your trees made it! What caused that wound in the Glenn? The Carrie & Cogshall are looking great!

Hi Andrew, there must be some "glitch" on GW with some of the posts...I never saw your post before Andrew...till just now, sorry about that! I really don't know what to put on that wound. I'm all ears if someone can suggest something? It seems to be healing on its own...but I'm not positive. I wish I knew what to say about your Glenn...so hard to second guess these trees. BTW, the Adenium wound is now completely healed...I never put anything on it except cinnamon right after it happened and a few more times after. I "pugged" that Adenium hard a couple of months ago...it is just starting to leaf out. I'll post a picture in several weeks once its filled in.

Thanks SunW! That wound/hole was caused by the freeze damage from two winters ago...when I pruned it I guess I didn't prune it all the way down to healthy tissue and I guess over time eventually that part rotted :o(

Your trees look great. Do you have the problem of the trees blooming when it is still too cold?

Thanks Murahilin...yes, I've noticed when the temps were cold the tiny beginnings of blooms didn't push through...it pretty much "stalled" till the weather started to warm up. Which I'm glad as this is what saved the blooms from freezing. My three others weren't as lucky as the freeze nailed almost the entire tree.

Wow - crazy that the wound on the Glenn is from freeze damage rotting back! Thanks for sharing - very helpful to see what can happen over time. I was surprised when I pruned my Angie mango at how far down the wood the damage went. After I pruned off the obvious damage there was still a surprising amount where the outside of the branch didn't show damage, but the core was brown. I pruned back to where I got green wood all the way through where I made my cuts. So fingers crossed that no rot is hiding out unseen!

OK.This is my experience with Carries.I was in Laras Farm buying mangos(the fruit)a couple of years ago and i tall him about this funny after taste that people describe here and in others forums,and he told me tha Carrie has to be picked when he can almost fall in ur hand when u touch it.Then he open one right there for me to taste and was heaven in earth.So i brought some Carries that by the way had more green and yellow that the one yhat i taste there that was almost complete yellow.Ok i wait for then to ripe in my home and guess what-every one has that weird after taste like herb or medicine....so now i have my first year with carries on my tree and i really worried.Is the Carrie the kind of Mango that need to be picked in the right time to taste good?Was the carrie that i taste on Laras really a Carrie?I will love to hear the experience of people that love the Carrie mango if his taste can have that medicine after taste depending when u pick then.Thank You.
Alfredo

Hi Alfredo...how you described the taste of Carrie..."that weird after taste like herb or medicine" was very similar to what I remember the after taste I was talking about. Someone even used having a "mentholatum" flavor and I def. remember a strong unpleasant odor as well.

So the biggest problem I can see with this tree is...if I have to wait to pick the fruits when its almost completely ripe I probably won't be able to get any since I have those pesky "tree rats" aka squirrels to fight with. My only hope is being able to pick them just before they start to ripen and let them finish ripening in the house where its safe,lol...But not at the expense of that "medicine" smell or taste.

Like I mentioned before I really can't wait to taste a couple of fruits from my tree so I can decide for sure if I like it or not.

Carrie owners.Can u give us more opinions here in this weird taste -time to pick the carrie can change that taste or not. Please. Thank You Guys.
Alfredo

I find Carrie best when taken off the tree just at color break. Our fruits don't color up very much but they do get a slight golden cast to the otherwise green skin color. If the fruit falls off the tree, its too ripe and will have that off flavor. I usually don't harvest my Carrie's prior to color break as I am usually innundated with mangoes and hoping to keep fruit on the trees as long as possible to avoid potential over abundance of ripe fruit. So while I would assume you could take them off early and ripen them, I haven't had exepreince in doing it. After taken off the tree these fruits have to be eaten almost immediately. They should be eaten at the earliest indication of firmness transitioning to the slightest give to the touch. They will quickly become soft, with the disagreeable over ripe flavor if not consumed immediatately.

Harry

Oh Boy.This is looking more and more like i will have to wait for my owns.Only problem is that i planing to let just 2 or 3 mangos to ripe,because this is his first year.I guees i will have to pick then prior to color break,after, like Harry recomend and almost before falling to see if i can find the flavor of the Mango that Lara give me to taste telling me was a Carrie and was soooo good.The other ones that i taste -didnt like it to much,because that weird medicine taste.
Alfredo

Thanks Harry! Very helpful info...now I just have to fight the tree rats if I'm lucky enough to get some mature fruits from this first time fruiting tree.

^ Since your carrie mango is a small tree you can make a custom cage out of wood and chicken wire to keep the squirrels away from them.

Thanks tropical grower...might give that a try...assuming the Home owner's Asso. don't object,lol...

That's why I don't plant fruit trees in the front yard. haha