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Fairchild Mango growing in Florida sand - err I mean soil. |
I can hardly believe it, but my newly planted (December) little 4 foot tall Fairchild mango, is having a growth spurt and its sporting a flower raceme on one of those growths ! I never even anticipated it bearing right after planting it and at such a small size even though is a dwarf or condo mango! I probably will have to remove the fruit because the little tree is not mature enough to hold fruit. Even more worrisome, since it so small,l how will I keep the raccoons and other animals at bay ! Maybe time for some electric fencing ! |
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Fairchild mango
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Congrats! That is way cool. Maybe you'll be able to prop up the little mango so it can ripen. Keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteI'm in SE FL also, on the Treasure Coast. I planted my mango 1-1/2 years ago. It produced fruit last year, but the 3 that "survived" fell of prematurely. It's looking great this year and blooming like crazy! I feel your excitement..hope I have fruit this year! And I hope you do too! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteWell that's a great problem to have! That's a pretty big for a 3 1/2 month plant. That means I should see the same thing in two months. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIts a grafted nursery-grown tree - I'm lucky to find new varieties at my local Home Depot every now and then (I should have bought the mallika mango when I had the chance), so its probably over 3 years old. If yours is seed-grown, it can take from 5-12 years to fruit.
ReplyDeleteOh...
ReplyDelete**looks longingly at the horizon...**
Lets hope yours is a 5 (or even less) year seedling :)
ReplyDeleteI'll be experimenting with grafting this spring - I have about 7 seedling mango's all ready to be grafted.
I plan on grafting a fairchild, lancetilla, valencia pride and my neighbour's hatcher mangos - these are from a local place called HATCHER MANGO HILL, seriously, its the closest thing to a hill in South Florida, and yes, its covered in mango trees.
Seriously, I can't even tell one variety from another. I just notice if the fruit is sweet or not. Do blog about your grafting adventures!
ReplyDeleteI've experimented with grafting too. I just don't know if it worked. I'm still waiting for new shoots on the grafted stem.
The varieties differ tremendously. For example, the lancetilla mango is very spicy, for some almost objectionable. The store bought mangos don't come close to tree-ripened ones.
ReplyDeleteThen you have the fibrous varieties, the Haitian mangoes are quite fibrous compared to the Florida varieties for example.
I grafted some of my neighbours Hatcher and some of my own lancetilla mangos onto 8 month old rootstock last weekend, now its wait and see.
I experimented with grating when I was about 15 years old - we had some wild peach trees growing in our garden, I grafted some yellow clingstone peaches onto it using t-bud grafting. Of my 5 or so grafts, one did start to grow, unfortunately we moved before it could start to produce.
I think my own grafting experiment failed. After a couple of promising weeks because the stalk remained green, it's now turning brown. I'll have to try again I guess.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of a spicy mango. So the Lantecilla is both sour and spicy (when raw)?
Maybe aromatic is a better description for the lancetilla mango.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they were spicy because I had to pick them while still very green, because the raccoons were clawing them, testing them for readiness.
Too bad about your grafting - maybe you can remove some of the tape to see if the graft took before giving up altogether ?
I did check it out. The stem rotted, so I guess it wasn't deep enough. Although I suspect water seeping in to the taped part contributed to the rotting.
ReplyDelete