An Amazing Find- and probably a new cultivar!
I had the great fortune of being gifted a bounty of mangoes by a friend who has a very productive tree in her yard and she doesn't care much for mangoes. The tree is of average height (maybe 20 feet)and growth habit. Perfect size for a small yard!
It was grown from a seed of unknown origin. The woman who planted the tree passed away and took the secret of the seedling origin with her when she departed. I am guessing by the size of the trunk to be about 20 yrs old. Below is a picture of the mangoes. They are very large... ranging from 3-4 lbs. They are super juicy, sweet with a slight hint of spice and almost no fiber. I have sprouted a few already for root stock and below are pictures of my very first attempt and adventure into the world of grafting. Lord knows I read A LOT and watched enough videos to get enough nerve to try it. I got budwood today and grafted two side veneer grafts onto a 2 year old seedling and cleft grafted a younger root stock. I have to propagate this tree, give it a name and get it out there because it is just that amazing!! I hope the first grafts take...sitting here with fingers crossed and prayers. Then I can get some help from the experts in trying to guess at the parentage of this gem.
The Bounty...a small seedless watermelon in the back for size comparison:
The Largest of The Mangoes:
My Tools:
The 2 yr old root stock:
The First of the Veneer Grafts:
With the second graft added above the first:
The Cleft graft on the young seedling:
Comments (25)
nullzero
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agosquam256
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agojeffhagen
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invar69
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomangomandan
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agohmhausman
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomarinfla
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoHere are more photos of the mango cut open:
Cut in half:
In half & sliced:
The seed well cleaned (with the embryo removed & displayed)
I took one of these mangoes by to visit Harry and get his opinion. It was great to have met him (and his really nice staff) and sample some of his varieties that I have never tried before. His fairly well trained taste buds have concluded until proven otherwise that this is most likely a Keitt. I am going to investigate father with attempting to get some more information from the daughter of the lady who passed. I did check the tree and could not find a graft line but the tree is fairly old and has an impressively large sized trunk diameter which could be camouflaging a grafting line. Either way this is one fantastic tasting mango.... from a tree that consistently produces really really big fruit that have an amazing flavor (in my humble opinion of course) So it is a win/win all the way around-whether it's a Keitt or a seedling of one is ok with me!
Thanks Harry! (and feel free to throw your 2 cents in!)
Marinsquam256
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agohmhausman
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoFirst let me say that it was pleasure meeting you, Marin. and that I really appreciated you dropping by with one of your "monster mangoes" for my staff and I to try. Here are pictures of the other fruits we tried.
From August 2, 2011
There is an Abiu from my tree and a few mangoes including Maha Chanook (the second to last one of the season on any of my trees), San Felipe (first time being tasted, Neelum, and Pettigrew (which ended up in the mulch pile as being picked too soon). Unfortunately, as a result of leaving very early in the morning to head to a court hearing, I grabbed only some of what I intended to bring to the office. There was a ripe Keitt at home I didn't find while groping around in the dark garage on my way out. I was able to send you home with some unripe mangoes which included Keitt, Golden Lippens and Valencia Pride.
Turning to the tasting, I do believe that your "monster mango" is a Keitt. However, I must confess that I am not 100% sure. Only about 95%. The reason you may ask? Your mango was one of the best tasting mangoes of the season and frankly tasted much better than my recollection of Keitt in previous years. It is difficult to remember how a particular mango tastes, from year to year, especially since mangoes can vary from year to year in flavor. In reviewing my Fairchild book of mangoes, Keitt is rated Good to Excellent on the Poor, Fair Good, Excellent scale. I planted it out many years ago because it was a very nicely flavored mango and was big, late and disease resistant. I haven't experienced a tasting where Keitt fared as well as this one did. In this tasting, it compared favorably with Maha Chanook and was the felt to be the winner of the taste test by at least a couple of my well experienced mango tasting staff. So.....maybe this is something different.....a seedling, lets say? I wouldn't think that to be likely. The reasons are that the mango looks like a Keitt, is maturing in the season of a Keitt, and has excellent characteristics of a Keitt (at its best and includes meatiness, seed size and fiber content, or lack thereof). Seedlings would tend to be different in some regard....especially with regard to fiber. This is the single most common difference between mango cultivar parents and their progeny. The genetic variability that comes with all sexual reproductions of mango by seed are likely to include some increased fiber. This mango was no more fibrous than a Keitt...or, I guess more correctly said, it was just as fiber free as a Keitt. In any case, this mango was obviously grown on a tree that was very, very happy. I will be interested to find out how my Keitt, which I gave to you, Marin, tastes and appears as compared to your mangoes. Truth be told, I haven't eaten any of my Keitts this year as of yet. I do have one in the refrigerator and will try it tonight. Stay tuned for further analysis.
Harry
squam256
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomarinfla
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoI have a grafting update:
The picture below is the very first graft I attempted
IT WORKED!!!! It has a couple of small buds that look like they are going to try to push out and the entire length of scion is a bright healthy green. I will post the finished result in 2 weeks when I unwrap it.
This is the only graft of the 3 that I did that day that took. The 2nd graft higher up this root stock failed as well as the 3rd try-the cleft graft on the smaller root stock. I germinated 18 root stocks from seeds of that pile of giant mangoes that are growing well. I plan to try to graft more of these wonderful mangoes. Stay tuned :)
hmhausman
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomarinfla
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agohmhausman
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
hmhausman