I live in central Fl also and have to cover and put heat to protect all my mango trees since I've had them (2-3 years).These are my dwarf, semi dwarf trees.Cogshall( I have two), Carrie and Pickering. I am an avid pruner and have been known to trim a mango tree very drastically. For me keeping it small is not an issue and I plan on keeping them around 8-10ft...which so far I don't think will be a problem since mother nature does it for me every winter :o)

Here's my Cogshall...a little over 5ft tall
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Another Cogshall in the front...appx 3 1/2 ft.

Glenn, although not technically a semi dwarf...I'm training this one to be one. It's only around 5ft tall right now.

My Carrie...this one is only around 2 1/2ft tall. Every year the freeze gets it.Notice the paint from freeze damage.

My pickering I decided to keep in a container...I had enough in the ground to protect.

Good luck with what ever choices you make. It's a great idea to taste the ones you're considering before you plant them...unlike me who made my decision going by size and what I've read online. I don't regret any of my choices so far though.

I would go for an extended season, with the smallest trees possible to make tenting easy each winter.
My choices Rosigold - Its small and very early. Pickering or Carrie - both small, mid season, tasty and productive.
Maybe consider a Dot tree, they are known for holding their fruit for a long time and its a pretty small as well. Neelum - Small and very late season tree. With these trees your season would start in March or April and go until October and even November, can't beat that with any other three trees.

I was about to type the exact same thing mango kush.

Thanks for all the great input! This is going to be a hard (but fun) choice!

Those are some beautiful trees puglvr1! Great to see that it is possible in central FL! I'm amazed at the great condition of your trees after this past winter. I'd be very interested in hearing more details on how exactly you protected your trees. Did you build a frame over them? What kind of heat source did you use? Glenn was another variety that I have heard good things about, but thought would be too big. Neat to see how your are training it. Could you give any more details on how you are training to control size? Is the Carrie more susceptible to cold damage? It sounded like it took more cold damage than the others? Or is it a factor of where in your yard it is planted?

Anybody tasted the Neelum? The description of "strong to the unaccustomed palate" makes me wonder how well I would like it. I am sure I have a "beginner" mango palate.

I will look up the Dot you suggested, swrancher. I do like the idea of a tree that holds the fruit for a long time. Ideally I want to pick and eat a couple each day for an extended timeframe. Any other input on which varieties hold their fruit well vs. ripening all at once? Mangos from March-Nov would just be bliss!

Thanks for the nice compliments...believe me my trees have been hit very hard...to the point where I thought it was dead. I did lose a young mango and a lychee this winter. Here's one picture just to give you an idea. This was protected,lol...!!
My Glenn taken winter of '09

Here's what it looked like 2 months later
Here's a couple of pictures of my "protection" and heat.
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BTW, my Carrie had other issues before the freeze...some type of die back. The freeze just made things worse. In my opinion all my mangoes have the same cold tolerance, location and micro climates in your yard are your best defense...None of them like temps below freezing, regardless of variety.

As far as pruning goes. I attached a link below that Ohiojay posted I believe? and its a very good one. It has a good section on pruning . I prune mine once a year with a lot of help from our yearly freeze. I trim off branches that shoot straight up. I prefer to guide the growth to go horizontally to make the tree shorter and wider as opposed to tall and lanky.

Feel free to contact me via email on my Page if you have any more questions. I'd be happy to help if I can.I don't claim to be an expert by any means, as I am still learning a lot myself, but would be glad to share what has worked and some failures as well.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Growing a Mango tree

Theres a spray on product I used on my glenn this past winter called "FreezePruf" sold by liquidfence dot com which seemed to work. it acts as sort of a anti-freeze for the foliage, giving it like 2-5degrees more tolerance. I didnt cover the glenn at all but only had a couple strings of the old style xmas lights wrapped around it and it survived great.. although this past winter was pretty mild.

you guys should check it out

Mullenium:

I think you will be seeing some posts by a bunch of our Central Florida posters in response to your post on Freezpruf. Suffice it to say that with our winter, they did not share the favorable results you did. Watch.

Harry

@mullenium, that product that you describe senior members of the rare fruit club that I'm a member of placed too much confidence in it, and they lost all their fruit trees as a result of a deep freeze earlier this year. The best protection comes from a real heat source such as a light bulb and a way to stop the cold wind from coming in contact with the plant such as plastic. This winter I used a thin bubble wrap material together with a 100 watt bulb and I did not loose a single plant. puglvr1 has the right idea, save your money and don't fall for hyped products.

These were my Lychee trees after I used freeze pruf...a VERY sore subject with me. It might have worked for others, but did NOT for me.
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Can't comment yet on Jean Ellen, small, April-June
Angie, 9', Early, Manilita, 7', June.......I have the first two (newly aquired) and from what I have read, the last (Manilita) would not be something I would grow.....but as for all the other varieties, it is kind of like asking some friends what kind of ice cream they wanted from the store you were on your way to......Chocolate, Vanilla, Pistachio, or Butter Pecan. The previous advice about spreading the cultivars by their seasons is my way of thinking. So for me....begin with Rosigold and end with Neelum. The middle selection could be any of the others, depending on flavor preference.

Harry

Thanks puglvr1 for all the great info & pics. Very helpful to see how you protected your trees - looks like huge paper lanterns. I will follow up with you on email to learn how you built them.

So sorry to hear about the losses people suffered this year due to poor FreezePruf performance! Thanks for sharing your results so I can learn from them. The bubblewrap is an interesting idea enduser. Where'd you obtain it?

Harry, thanks for your input. What do you dislike about Manilita? Did you taste it and not like it? Or something about growing the tree? I'm wanting to learn what to look out for when choosing. I totally understand about taste being hugely subjective. But any input on ease of growing or tree size is great for helping me narrow down my picks.

Anybody know if any of the cultivars I've listed are particularly disease prone?

I'm also wondering about how the Fairchild Mango festival works. I want to go and taste & then decide what trees to buy. For those of you who've been, do they run out of trees to sell early in the day? And if they run out of trees to sell on Saturday, do they put up a fresh batch of trees for sale on Sunday? Trying to decide which day to go=)

Sun worshiper, I added a great link below from a thread from the Florida gardening forum, a GW member (floridays) posted a "how to" great instructions on building a PVC frame with great pictures.

Will look for your email.

Here is a link that might be useful: Some info on cold protection...

Sun Worshiper:

Sorry......I must correct myself, I was confusing Manalita with another mango which is small and fibrous. Manalita is just small and I don't think it is fibrous. I haven't ever tried it so I can't give you any more guidance on it being a good choice or not. All of the mangoes you mention can be grown easily and have good disease resistance.

On the Fairchild Festival, I have only been on Saturdays as I had thought that all of the tree were sold on Saturday monring and that they would always pretty much sell out and there would therefore be none on Sunday to sell. I could be wrong about that. Unfortunately, by the time you taste anything, they will also probably be gone.....that is if the few years that I went are indication of present supplies. You wll also find that the tasting won't necessarily give you a good idea of how the fruits really are as there are too many people to serve which necessitates using mango that is not at the peak of its ripeness or freshness. It is best to buy actual fruits if they are available and then eat those at their peak. This may cause you to have to buy your trees from another nursery source, or even wait until next year to buy your trees....but you will much more sure of what you like.

Harry

Harry,

Thanks for the information on disease tolerance, and the update on Manilita.

As for the festival, that's kind of what I thought might happen. Well, I'll certainly go on Saturday instead of Sunday. And I'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll plan to buy a Rosigold for its early season and then just do some tasting and learning. Do you have suggestions of other places to buy mangos to taste while I'm in that area? Where I live, there are very few mango growers, so my opportunities to sample at home are limited.

Not sure who would have mangoes for sale in Dade County...I am sure there are some growers but with this crazy season, I am not sure who has fruit. In fact, I wonder where all the mangoes are going to come from for the festival. On your way north, you might try New River Groves. I know they have about 10 different varieties in their grove that will be producing fruit for sale this year. Not sure if they are ready for picking as of yet, but should be by the time of the festival. I think they are shippping Tommy Atkins right now.....don't bother with that. If you stop by there I believe they wil let you walk through the grove and select your own fruit.

Here is a link that might be useful: New River Groves

@sun_worshiper I got my thermal bubble wrap from a friend of mine who works at a wine distributor. They use the material to line the inside of a semi trailers in order to insulate the wine and keep the temperature stable when shipping in the summer time. They discard this material after each shipment so I got it for free. The size of the product that I got is 9 feet high by 60 feet long. The product is called "Astro Cooler".

Here is a link that might be useful: Astro Cooler

Here is a picture of some my plants this past winter. Not a single leaf was damaged on the non-deciduous plants as a result of the brutal winter temperatures. The tall brown stick on the right is a soursop tree.

I used up to 3-100w bulbs when the temperature dipped into the low 20's. One of the light bulbs can be seen clamped to a 2x4 in the middle of the picture. The reflective bubble wrap material seen in the center of the picture lined the perimeter of the fence to keep the cold air from infiltrating the makeshift greenhouse. I used 6 mil plastic for the roof. It is shown on the left hanging from the fence. The green wire near the top of the window was used to tie the plastic material that formed the roof. I built this structure in the south side of my house.

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Soursop tree now
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Below is my priced Ruby Supreme guava tree and other seedlings. No wind break just the reflective bubble wrap material and a single 100 watt light bulb kept them alive even with temperatures in the low 20's. For the roof I used no plastic, I just folded the bubble wrap material over the top. So, what's so special about this Ruby Supreme guava? It produces round baseball sized 8 oz bug-free guavas. This variety is the 6-29. The more common pear shaped variety is the 10-30.

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Ruby Supreme guava tree now with over 700 fruit on it. Compare the change with the plants above and below specially the ones in the red tray after using water soluble 20-20-20 fertilizer.
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wow nice guava tree, do you have problems with fruit fly up there?

that soursop is going to be a big tree, its pretty close to the house, its going to end up growing outward. are you going to keep it pruned?

Great pictures enduser! Nice guava tree...

I like that thin bubble wrap you're using. Do you know if we can order it and how affordable it is? I sure would love to get my hands on some of that stuff! Looks like it would work great for me! Thanks!

@mango_kush yes we have problems with fruit flies here also, but they don't attack the Ruby Supreme guava. They do attack other guava varieties with a strong guava smell. I have even picked rotten guavas off the ground and inspected them for maggots and found none just sugar ants. The soursop has been that height for over 3 years now. When it reaches the height of the house the cold weather kills that wood. All I ever do is trim any dead wood when it goes dormant. This soursop is a Filipino variety. I planted it about 2 feet from the house on purpose so that it could survive the cold weather since its extremely sensitive to cold temperatures.

@pulglvr1 you can try contacting the company that makes the product using the link below. When I first saw the product I knew that it was perfect for protecting plants and this past winter definitely proved that to me. Be aware that just covering your plants using this product alone may not enough. You must also provide a sustainable heat source such as a light bulb of sufficient wattage. I did lay this bubble blanket along the ground to the window sill on the west side of the house to protect sugar apple and pineapple plants. From the picture you can see that all the plants below the bubble wrap survived without any damage even though I did not use a heat source. The bubble blanket was able to trap the heat from the ground and the cinder blocks to keep the plants alive. If you look closely you can see that 3 of the pineapple plants have fruited. In front of the wood fence at the far end of the house are the rolls of the bubble wrap ready for duty this coming winter.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Astro Cooler

Harry - thanks for the tip on New River Groves, I will definitely stop in and check them out on my way down. I've never been able to pick a mango before - that would be a first for me=)

@enduser what a fantastic example of recycling!I can't believe they throw out the Astro Cooler after each wine shipment. I loved looking at the pictures of your setup. I'm very impressed with your results. You have a great, creative setup. Your plants look fantastic! I've never had a fresh guava, good to know that not all types are equal. Good job getting your pineapples to fruit this year! All mine were killed this winter - I tried protecting, but it wasn't enough. The last night of cold got them. The AstroCooler sounds excellent. Any change you could connect me to your friend to get some of the material they throw out? I'd totally be up for driving over to Tampa to fetch it. You can send me an email from my user page if you'd like to discuss.

sun_worshiper,

I found out that not all pineapples are created equal. The type of pineapple that I currently grow came from the grocery store. It is known as the "Smooth Cayenne" and it is definitely the most tolerant of cold temperatures. I had the previous year a plant of the "Queen" variety, the type that has the spines along the edge of the leaf. I found out this past winter that it can't handle the cold temperates that we get in our area.

The best way to grow pineapples was shown to me by a local nursery owner. He showed me that pineapples grown in pots using only fine pieces of pine bark will grow and fruit earlier then those grown in soil or in the ground. I proved that to myself. Two of the pineapples fruiting are about a year and a half old. The third one fruiting is almost 3 years old. I do fertilize them with a cup full of water soluble 20-20-20 once a month poured in the crown.

enduser - thanks for the great advice on growing pineapples! Last year I had just stuck the tops of some pineapples from the grocery store into some potting soil and they grew, which was quite fun to watch. I'll have to try a couple more in pine bark.

sand works very good as well.

bromeliads get alot of nutrients from water in their cup, so they dont need a rich medium to be potted in, they will just rot more easily.

Thanks everyone for all the input. Looks like I'm well on my way to becoming a collector. I couldn't quite get the ones I wanted down to 3 - decided I need 4 - LOL. I bought a Rosigold, Angie & Manilita at the Fairchild Mango Festival. I'm going to buy one more mid-season - probably a Nam Doc Mai. But I'm waiting to decide on that one until I taste all the various fruit I bought on my trip=) I'll post the rest of my comments on the festival under the Fairchild Mango Festival 2010 thread.

Congrats on your newly purchased Mango trees. Four is a good start,lol...Good luck growing them, you're in good company here with all of us addicted fruit growers :o)

I'd like to be the first to congratulate you on your 5th mango tree...in advance, of course.

Haha - I'm well on my way to a tropical fruit addiction=)

God i love this site all the information i needed in one post thanks guys