A couple months ago i visited a new nursery which specialized in tropicals and sub tropical plants. I saw lots of Mango trees and became intrigued, but ultimately figured my climate is not conducive to growing mangoes (s.california sunset zone 22).
I know im not the only one on this forum who while driving keeps an eye out for fruit trees that people have around their properties. To my surprise i found 2 mango trees within 3miles of my home. Naturally, this made me covet my very own mango trees. Now I am calling on the expertise of the community to help me decide which trees to buy. The criteria for the mango is excellent flavor, great disease resistance, and good producer in Southern California.
I have started my own research based on pine island nursery website, but the website lacks descriptions of flavor profiles. So far, varieties that intrigued me the most: Mallika, Kent, Nom doc mai, Glenn, Pickering, and Tebow.
Goyo, we at my CRFG chapter also bemoaned the inability for some of us in N. San Diego county to be able to successfully grow mangos in more inland areas. If you’re right on the coast and with some care to a rare dip in temps, mangos will grow well. But for us who are a bit more inland, or at higher elevations, it can be a challenge. I have lost two mangos (Valencia Pride), so for a few years, opted not to try. But, we had a member in contact with a grower who has been trying to develop more cold-tolerant cultivars, so many of us opted to give a few of the cultivars a try. I have 3 new cultivars growing in my yard, and doing very well. Even with several nights of close to 32 degrees (maybe even a couple of 32 degree nights - my weather station is not working right, so have to rely on my other smaller weather station that is close to the house). I am growing Gold Coast, Tequila Sunrise and Pineapple mangoes. So far, they are thriving and are getting very big. Very, very shocking. I am zone 10b/Sunset 23. Here is a link to the grower:
I really would love to grow some of the cultivars you’ve mentioned, but just not willing to have to coddle them, cover them, etc. All are great cultivars, but a good temp dip for you, and they may not make it, during their 1st two or three years. I would consider trying some of the cultivars from the above site. Although still too early to give any kind of definitive reports back, since this is their first winter in the ground, I am remaining hopeful.
The average lowest recorded temperature during the “cold” season is mid forties and the lowest recorded temp was 50 years ago and it was 22f. Is guava tolerance similar to mangoes? I have lots of guava trees that tolerate the climate easily.
I was very intrigued by the list of mangoes your link provided but after researching it seems that the man selling them has a ton of trees on back order and doesnt seem to deliver trees in prompt fashion.
Guavas of all kinds (real and Feijoa) do very well in our climate (yours is a little colder than mine, but I have many guavas growing with little to no care that produce very well). I would call him. It took us a while to get our trees as well, but he did deliver, and delivered in a very large way, as it was a group CRFG order. Find out what he might have in stock, now. If not, then frankly, from my experience and the experience of many N. San Diego chapter CRFG members, growing mangos is about as successful as trying to grow papayas in your zone. You’'re going to have to cover them correctly when you have cold snaps for several years, until they are very well established. And even then, no guarantees if you have a significant cold snap like we had a couple of winters ago (5 days of below freezing night time temps for me).
Happened upon this old thread! Fascinating that someone was trying to breed mangoes more adaptable to cold. Totally makes sense of course.
If you don’t mind, how have the trees you had done? Seems like that link doesn’t work anymore so I’m guessing that company went out of business or shut down? Do you have the contact for the former owners? Would love to find out more about what they were doing and whether anyone else has taken up the baton.
last year i grafted two seedlings together, palmer and ataulfo. as an aside, the linguistics confuses me. how do i refer to the plant? “it” or “they”? it survived the winter. they survived the winter. the conjoined seedlings survived the winter outside in the san fernando valley.
basically, it’s possible that atauflo is better adapted to the climate here, but palmer is better adapted to the soil here. the opposite is possible as well. or maybe atauflo is better adapted to the climate and soil here. the opposite is possible as well. i don’t know. i can’t predict the outcome. therefore, i hedge my bets.
with this in mind, the more similar that palmer and ataulfo are, the worse the hedge. in any case, i can improve the hedge by adding a 3rd seedling of a different variety. and a 4th seedling, and so on.
I would stick with the naturally smaller cultivars that would benefit from protection of another trees canopy. I saw one person lost a few Valencia pride mangos, that is a notoriously huge growing tree and one I would steer clear from in a marginal area due to that fact. I’ve heard anecdotal evidence of Mallika being cold hardy to 27, but the key is getting one that is happy to be kept small (like mallika) and planting it around some plants that would be a natural frost barrier for them.
Zone pushing isn’t super difficult if you don’t mind putting forth some effort. If you plan to not do anything, it likely won’t work, however if you plan well (planting location, how to protect and when) I don’t see any reason why you can’t be successful growing most things a zone or 2 out of their happiest range.
I managed to get a Lemon Zest and an Orange Sherbet grafted onto Manilla by some CRFG members. Still in pots but leafing out and I’ll be getting them into the ground soon.