Smelling the mango orchard in bloom must have been quite an experience! During my visit yesterday I asked the gentleman who owned the orchard (he's 82 years old) what type of mango tree he would grow if he could only grow one...and he said an "Edward." By the way, my father (who has eaten his fair share of different types of mangos) drove to my place today for the taste test of the Edward mango. Now, I love a good sweet mango...a Keitt, a Kent, a Haden, a Brooks etc. BUT, my dad and I both agreed...the Edward was the best tasting mango we have ever had.
I'm glad I have an Edward tree in my front yard. It has two fruits on it (about the size of a hen's egg)...the tree is only 4 1/2' tall. The Edward fruit is smaller than I expected (about the size of a baseball, but a little bit oval). It is very aromatic and has a hint of tartness that compliments the intense sweetness. Awesome.

I assume it was Toppy's place you visited? He has a great 18 acres. I had a 4 hour tour a couple months back. Edwards are top notch, offspring of Carabao and Haden, so a cross of Asian and Indian origins. I believe they are typically not prolific in production, but excellent taste. I have a tree, not letting it produce until the canopy is big enough. Eric from PI says they don't let production occur until the trunk is 3" in diameter. That's a thick trunk for first production.

No, I don't know where Toppy's place is...but it sounds great. I went to Ed Ensey's on Tropical Trail road.
My Edward tree dropped one of its two fruits, so I have one left on the tree (it's now about the size of a small orange...but oval in shape). I think that mango trees are pretty good at determining "what's good for them," i.e. whether or not to drop their fruit, so I am letting mine do their own thing.
I ordered an "Alphonso" mango tree via Mercy at Rockledge Gardens. It is supposed to be in this Thursday! I think there were 3 available (all very small: 16" trees in 3 gallon pots)...so if you have any more room Gary, you might put one in. Also...do you like your Barbie Pink guava fruit? How is the taste on a 1-10?
I've spent the last two nights dehydrating bananas (given to me by my neighbors) and Haden mangos...scroll to the bottom of the page for the pic:
http://wardmango.com/AssortmentII.html

Also, my bananas just started flowering!

Is he a son of the 'mango man'?

I may have room at some point, I have a couple mango trees which have had problems since the hurricanes a couple years ago. I'll give them time to decide if they want to make a go of it this year. I have a philippine mango which only has had one growth flush a year, I'll give it at least this year also go show more than it has. I believe something more like Eric, but not as patient as him. I like to have about a 4 or 5' wide canopy until letting most fruit. Fruit is a terrible drain on a small tree's energy reserves. It will take more years to reach a size which it would be resistant to cold and other negative influences, if it is allowed to fruit while small. Everybody has their own theories though.

This'll be my first barbie pink harvest. It almost died from a frost, last year it spent recovering. I'm picking most off to limit how many I have to bag to protect from fruit flies. The fruit will also get bigger that way.

Alphonso sounds good from Asit's posts about it. I asked about it a couple years ago on central fla palms website, no one was familiar with it then. How much is RG asking for the mango? Their prices sometimes are steep for me.

I've got raja puri, pisan ceylong, namwa, apple and sweetheart bananas in fruit right now. Should be the best harvest year for them yet, barring hurricanes.

No, it was the Mango Man himself, Ed (he's in his 80's).
I have read on a couple of places on the internet that the "Alphonso" mango is considered the best tasting mango in India, if not one of the best in the world. That sounds pretty good to me! If I remember correctly the Alphonso tree will cost me $39 (a little steep for a tiny mango...but I don't know where else to get one for a comparable price...since it won't have to be shipped to me). I wanted to order a Graham, but their vendor didn't have any...so I'll go for an Alphonso instead.
I was pleasantly surprised at how good the bananas dehyrated. It sounds like you'll have 300 lbs. of bananas soon! I wonder if anyone has any experience in dehyrating longans? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I thought I had heard he had passed away, glad its not true.

Gary, I got the Alphonso mango tree today (24" tall). I hope it is as good as they say!

I'd love to have a Philippine mango tree. The imported mangos are hard to find here (still haven't found a market that carries them) in the U.S. since the only place currently exporting them is Camiguin island in the P.I.

The closest thing are the dried ones, but even those get a bit tiring.

tropicaliste- Have you tasted a Philippine mango? I'm wondering how it measures up to others. I haven't had one yet. I've read conflicting info on whether its the same as Carabao or not. I've been told its worth keeping. Its growth flush is looking good so far. Its really strange only having one growth flush a year though. Hopefully the root system is bigger and it'll do more than that. I'll try to get together some mombin cuttings for you this week. Just ate my first of the year the other day, not a lychee, but not bad, and easy to grow.

BlueP: Be interesting to see how the alphonso does. Eric from PI was saying how the true indian mangos have a 'bigger/stronger' mango taste. Its fantastic all the different tastes available in mango.

Gary

The Carabao mango is sour when it's green, but when it's ripe it's sweet, it should be big in flesh. It should melt on the tongue and be almost fiberless. We use the unripe to sour "sinigang" soup.
The carabao mango was renamed the "Philippine Super Mango" because of it's superiority among Mangoes. Because of this reason, the marketing from "Manila Mangoes" a name that comes from the Manila galleons that first brought Mangoes to Mexico, have been known to switch to calling their Mangoes "Philippine Mangoes" to compete (Check the shipping box so you know where it's produed!). So now what you need to know is whether or not your "Philippine Mango" tree was grown from an actual Carabao seed or from the Mexican grown variety which has over time become more fibrous than the it's ancestor in the PI and the sweetness of the PSM is more, I want to say, pure. In a way it's less cloying as if the sweetness comes in just the right intervals and not assaultingly. I know this sounds crazy but it's the national fruit of the PI for a reason. I've seen them in mail-order fruit magazines in Japan going for almost $70 for 6(probably hand-picked blemish free specimens). Meanwhile they're but a dollar for a bag of them in the PI.

Anyway, the reasons that I babbled on about probably explain the conflict. The cultivar "Pico" is also from the Philippines but the Carabao is the "Philippine Super Mango" for marketing reasons.

Basically, KEEP IT! Oh and thanks for the cuttings, I've got the pots all ready.

tropicaliste, wonder why do you say manila is more fibrous in México than in PI?? Did you tasted ALL mexican manila mangoes grown in every little town in México???. Non sense.

Well now you would have to taste the PSM Mango to know why. On the other hand, I can only get Manila Mangoes (from Mexico) and they do have a significant amount of fiber in comparison, not a major, but it doesn't melt on the tongue. So I have compared the two. Obviously I can not speak for every single mango in Mexico, but can for the ones qualified for export.
Please do not take offense, the Manila Mangoes are still good, but just not as good as the PSM.

There are many orchard mangoes which can´t export ($$$) to the US and still got very good mangoes. As you know México is a large country and there are always surprises around the corner, we should taste fruit from every single manila mango tree and then give a hard opinion.

Cheers.

"we should taste fruit from every single manila mango tree and then give a hard opinion"

where do I sign up for that job? Perhaps I should taste all of Mexico's fruits, just to be sure. They wouldn't even have to pay me.

-Ethan

-Departamente de Fruitas Comidas-

I've tasted the Mexican mango and today I also bought the Haitian mango sold from PB , they tasted superb

I didn't mean to cause any discontent. Frankly I'm not talking about finding the possible handful of trees that produce what is the norm and standard in the PI. I'm only speaking that on international marketing levels, the PSM has fared the best on all levels. If it were not for fear of bugs, similar to those of the Mangosteen, they would be more than abundant in the American market.

Right now only irradiated mangoes from Guimaras Island are approved for import into the U.S. These are hard to find and when I want a similar and delicious, nonetheless, flavor I get the ones from Mexico. In Canada, the PSM is available without a problem and they fly off the shelves.

It is simply about getting the best and getting it consistently. For the same reasons I would prefer Lychees from China, and Apples from the Northeast U.S. I would prefer the Philippine Super Mango. These are places where certain fruits are apart of their identities. I encourage you to try the PSM when you get the chance. I guess only then can you really compare.