The Mango!

 

From seed to fruit ….  what every gardener strives for!  It's been in the making for at least 10 years -

 a Bullock Heart mango lovingly grown by Dave.  It's an absolute beauty, one single fruit in it's first 

ever crop.  It sounds fairly meagre but mangoes in this climate are hard to grow successfully.  This 

particular tree was grown from seed, has weathered frosts, years of neglect while Dave has worked 

offshore with only spasmodic watering by Jean.  It's only been in the last year since Dave has retired 

that it has received regular and generous waterings.

Anyway the 'prized' fruit was watched over for months while it grew, finally protected in a special bag 

from the birds.  It's dimensions were 15 cm in length (I should have measured it's girth as well 

but didn't) and it weighed a whopping 1.1 kg

A real beauty!

The eating ceremony was a big occasion!  Needless to say it was absolutely delicious.  Some may 

not know but this type of mango is not usually sold in the shops, apparently the size is not 

commercially viable.  The characteristics of the fruit is that it has no stringy fibres and has a very 

small seed.

As you can see the tree is a fairly miserable specimen.  The white paintings on the trunk and most 

of it's branches are protection against disease.  It's suffered in it's existence and never really received 

any sprays of any kind when it was afflicted so it's a real survivor.  Anyone, except Dave would have 

chopped it out but his determination to persevere has paid off.  In the past it had borne fruit but the 

winds in November have always destroyed them so we were lucky in a way.

Dave is especially proud of his little mango tree and all efforts … I could be a real killjoy and calculate

the amount of water and fertiliser it received and it would be a very expensive mango.

However I expect there will be more fruit to come so it'll probably be a worthwhile part of the garden.

Onya Dave!