Mango!

This is my first mango, on Mangifera 'Ice Cream'. Anyone know how long these take to ripen?

Hey Indigoez!

Patience is a virtue...why don't you watch and let us all know LOL. I bet you can't wait!!!

Happy eating!
Lizzy

So what happened? Did they ripen and if so, how did they taste?

Well, it ripened in early September, and despite the outside looking very icky it was only skin deep and the fruit was quite tasty, the usual smooth Mango flesh, nice and juicy too. Hopefully there'll be more than one next year:-)

Where did you find your tree and what do you do for winter protection? I know that in 8b I would really be pushing my luck, but sometimes the risky ventures do pan out........

I got it at Rainbow Gardens (the one over on Thousand Oaks) last year at the end of season clearance they do.

I'd never seen a Mango tree before, so I had no idea what it was when I went over to it, but being something I knew I didn't have it had to be investigated LOL. It's actually a dwarf variety, so I put it in a 24 inch plastic pot and kept it on my covered patio through the winter, where it actually bloomed (nothing to look at), but the fruit came from a blooming in April after I had moved it back outside.

If I recall correctly, the tag said it was hardy only to 30 degrees, but it's worth growing if you have somewhere to haul the pot for the winter.

I might also mention that the seed from the fruit pictured above was already semi-sprouted inside the husk or shell thing, so I planted it and now have a little mango seedling, but I don't know if they are true to variety from seed, so it'll be interesting next year when it starts growing faster:-)

Thanks for the info! Rainbow Gardens (on Bandera) is just about my favorite source, and a dwarf in a pot is certainly a can-do project. I'll investigate right away. Yuska