[nafex] Re: [rarefruit] a mango grows in Berkeley- Cold hardy mangoes.

["Dr. Chiranjit Parmar" <parmarch@vsnl.com>]

Dear Mr. Billings,

Though I do not want to discourage you, but the fact is that germination of
a seed does not indicate that the plant will reach the fruiting stage.
Moreover, the fruiting too should be of viable level.

Though I have visited San Francisco area 3-4 times, yet I do not have an
idea of the degree of cold in the area.

Mango starts from Tropical region and extends upto sub-temperate regions
having stone fruits as main fruit crops.  But the performance and fruit
quality varies.

The performance of mango with increasing cold is like this:

    1.  The fruits will be sweeter and flatter in taste, skin will be thick.
    2.  Flavours will start developing and a pleasant sugar acid blend will
start developing.  WE         Indians prefer this taste.
    3. The proportion of grafted trees will start declining.
    4. Only Seedlings will survive and they will also bear fruits.
    5. Trees will be there but they will not be very productive.  The fruit
buds in mango are at
    shoot terminal which is the first to be damaged by cold leading to loss
in yield.
    6. You find sporadically located large seedling mango trees which bear
fruit once in 4-5 years.
         This happens at 4000 ft in North West India.
    7. No mango trees beyond that.

    In India, mango also occupies a religious place.  Long garland like
things made with mango and Ficus religiosa leaves are a must on auspicious
religious occasions.  So people try to plant and protect mango trees in
every village to get a supply of leaves for such occasions.  Some natural
selection has taken place in this process and one sometimes comes across
cold hardy mango trees surviving and even bearing fruits at places which are
otherwise "SCIENTIFICALLY" not suitable for mango.  The local people do not
attach any importance to such trees as the fruit quality does not match the
commercial types.  But such plants are a very valuable genetic resource and
should be exploited by the people/organizations interested in the promotion
of mango cultivation in relatively colder areas.

    6-7 years back one of our list members, Dr. J.D. Prince from New Zealand
with financial assistance from the New Zealand Tree Crops Association had
got a small survey conducted for this from me and we had selected 7-8
promising seedlings.  I was told by Dr. Prince last year that one of the
plants had started bearing.  It was a very small effort restricted to a very
small area.   Much better results might be obtained if a larger effort, well
planned in advance, is made.

    I request some organization like CRFG or Rare Fruit Council or some
other group of resourceful fruit growers to sponsor such project.

Dr. Chiranjit Parmar
Horticultural Consultant for Lesser Known Indian Plants
SERVICES PROVIDED:
High quality plant material for multiplication, research and manufacturing -
Commercial, agronomical and other information on lesser known Indian
plants - Feasibilty study on manufacturing projects requiring plant material
from India - Information on ethno-medical, Ayurvedic and other uses of
Indian plants.
----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas E. Billings <teb@synergy.transbay.net>
To: <rarefruit@egroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2001 1:02 PM
Subject: [rarefruit] a mango grows in Berkeley


>
> Thought list members might find it of interest that a mango seed sprouted
> in Spring/early Summer 2000 in my garden in cold Berkeley (San Francisco
> area), California. (I used mango peels, seed, and other produce trash as
> fertilizer that I turned under: a few avo seeds germinated as well. The
> heat of decomposition may have warmed the soil and "tricked" the seed
> into germinating.)
>
> Anyway, here it is mid-winter in cold Berkeley, and the (small) seedling
> is still alive!  It is on the south side of my apartment building, in
> a heavily protected area (with additional protection provided
> by heavy mulch). I have no illusions that it will grow/survive
> long term (it probably won't - the climate here is way too
> cold). However, the fact that it has survived so long (we have
> had several frosts already) shows the value of local protection
> for tender tropicals.
>
> I also have 2 Florida sabal (cabbage) palms outdoors, in pots (grown
> from seed).  They grow very slowly in the cold California climate. In my
> previous apartment (no garden) I grew a sabal/cabbage palm from seed and
> had to get rid of it when it reached 8 feet - the height of my
> apartment ceiling! That was donated to the Strybing Arboretum
> in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, where I hope it is happy. :-)
>
> Let me take this opportunity to thank the list owner, Bob Cannon,
> for creating this list, and for his previous service as editor of
> "Tropical Fruit News" magazine. [In my opinion, the overall quality
> of that magazine has decreased under the new editorship, i.e., the
> folks who replaced Bob as editor(s).]
>
> Let me also invite any list members interested in fruit diets, vegan,
> vegetarian, paleo, or other "extreme" diets to visit my not-for-
> profit, information-only (no ads) websites:
>
> http://www.beyondveg.com                  Beyond Vegetarianism
> http://www.transbay.net/~teb/fruitarian   Fruitarian Diets
>
> PS I get this list in digest form, so won't see any replies to this
> post until the daily digest arrives.
>
> Tom Billings
>
>
>
>
>