Mango, popularly known as the king of fruit, belongs to Anacardeaceae family of trees. Taste, flavor and fragrance of mango is very characteristic to the same. Mango was originated in India. Climatic requirements Mango tree is well adopted to tropical and subtropical environmental conditions. It can be cultivated until up to 1300 m above mean sea level. However, commercial cultivations are limited to areas below 600 m above mean sea level. Optimum temperature for mango cultivation is 27-30C. Mango is successfully cultivated in areas where annual rainfall range from 500-2500 mm. For a successful crop, most important thing is the distribution of rainfall rather than the amount. A dry period of 3-4 months is an essential prerequisite for successful flowering of mango. Rains at flowering may affect yield due to pollen wash off. Soil Mango can be cultivated in a wide range of soil conditions. A well drained soil with 2 M depth is the best. Soil pH must be 5.5-6.5. Soils with high clay content or with frequent water logging is not suitable for successful cultivation of mango. At first, remove the husk of the seed. Make a small cut at the distal end of the seed and pull the husk away to get the seed inside without any damage to it. When the cut is made at the distal end of the seed with husk, even if it cuts the seed inside, it does not damage the embryo. Extracted seeds may have mango weevils inside. When such seeds are planted, whole seed may be destroyed. Therefore, dip the seeds in an insecticide solution such as 'Dimethoate' before planting for a few minutes. Use of fungicides such as 'Captan' at this time is helpful to protect the seeds from fungal infections at the nursery. Seeds treated with insecticide and fungicide solution must be planted in a sandy seed bed. For the seed bed, use a 15-20 cm thick layer of sand. Sand beds must be laid out in a place with slight shade. However, never under trees such as mango or avocado. Then it is easy to protect the seedlings from certain fungal diseases. In the sand bed plant seeds in a row spaced 15-20 cm apart. Curved side of the seed must be downward at planting. Spacing of 2-3 cm is allowed between two seeds in a row. After seeding, keep the sand bed moist at all times. Seeds germinate and seedlings emerge 10-14 days after planting. About three weeks after emergence, seedlings are suitable for transplanting in polyethylene pots or any other secondary nursery. If a media such as coir dust is used for germination of seeds, care must be taken to maintain the appropriate moisture level. At high moisture levels, seedling may be infected with fungal diseases. Plants hardened in the seed bed may be transferred to polyethylene pots filled with a suitable media. Else plants may be transplanted well prepared secondary nursery.

My neighbor, who also has a small fruit stand, has planted out a number of Tommy Atkins trees. This year, in a very poor mango producing environment, the Tommy Atkins did better here in Fkorida than most other cultivars. My neighbor has customers who specifically ask for Tommy Atkins as that is what they have come to expect and be acustomed to. A tree ripened Tommy Atkins is certainly fantastic compared to the store bought picked too early and then cooked in a hot water treatment fruits. However, I do not know of one case in 15 years of doing taste tests with many, many varieites of mangoes where Tommy Atkins didn't come in at the bottom of the heap when preferences were expressed. I sheepishly admit to planting one out (for the sake of completeness) and for the sake of those few people that actually request the fruit at my fruit stand. But, obviously, I am in strong agreement with all of the prior opinions given above advising that you should taste before you plant. You won't be sorry you did. Harry

No big leaves on mine this year either. I did have anthracnose, though, and pretty bad for awhile: I had the tree inside a round plastic greenhouse and leaving the door open during the daytime was not enough. There were I think eight velcroed openings above but I'm too short to reach them. I think my 6'8" husband's almost too short: you have to lean over the curve of the thing and the velcro was so strong that the one time we tried, the handle you pull on for it tore off. To be fair, it was a few years old then. The problem was that water condensed on the inside of it enough to soak towels as I wiped it down every day, and the tree took a hit in that humidity. And yet you had to water it in winter because rain didn't make it in. The door tore and the company replaced the whole thing but then the pandemic hit; the whole reason for buying it was so I could go off and visit my small grandkids, but since we weren't going anywhere we took it down and I went back to my old method of multiple layers of frost covers on cold nights. So those were the drawbacks of that greenhouse--and yet. It made it so we could travel and not worry about losing fruit or the tree itself to the cold while we were gone. It's across the yard from the house, so, no radiant heat to help out there, and incandescent Christmas lights help a lot but you have to hold that heat in. The tree gradually recovered. We still have the unopened replacement greenhouse at the ready.

Found it on a Brazilian website. I also read up on several other crosses originating in Brazil, besides those in the pics but I can't recall the other website. Don't they look delicious? Wish they went even further on the descriptions but they are inconsistent on their criteria when describing some of the other varieties on the website. Sorry, the entire site is in Portuguese. I used my Spanish to decipher the text with relative ease. Check it out: http://www.todafruta.com.br/