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stonemavenkmk

Carrie Mango or Little Cado Avocado

stonemaven
14 years ago

I'm thinking of trying a container grown mango here in N. Central Tx. We have classic Texas summers, and although or frost date is Nov 1, we rarely get a hard frost or a real freeze before the middle of December. I already shuttle my Mayer lemon into the house when frost threatens, so a second tree would be no trouble. I have 2 8' southern exposure windows. Would a Carrie or other Condo Mango variety be a good choice, or should I try one of the dwarf avocados like Little Cado?

Any advice?

Comments (16)

  • swrancher
    14 years ago

    Lots of people on this forum who live in cool areas have Mango trees in containers. Most seem to do well with them. The Carrie Mango is a good tasting variety to grow as well, I have one myself. Check out Pine Island Nurseries Mango cultivar viewer to see some other appropriare varieties for containers and to get more info on taste, vigor, etc...

  • mango_kush
    14 years ago

    Carrie is not a Dwarf tree, i would call it a not so vigorous medium tree more suited to a dooryard.

    Pine Island lists Nam Doc Mai and Carrie as condo mangos, i think they are a stretch for a container though.

    true Dwarf trees from PI are Pickering, Julie, Ice Cream, Mallika, fairchild, Cogshell

    i would recommend the Pickering or Fairchild for a container because they are sweet and dont have a resinous flavor like the ice cream and Mallika, personally though i love all of them.

    i dont know too much about avocados. i dont think lil Cados grow down here, i think they are a California thing.

  • jsvand5
    14 years ago

    IMO, you can buy good avocado's in the store, you can't get good mangoes about 99% of the time so I would go with a mango for sure. I think Avocado's need two trees for a good fruit set as well.

  • Andrew Scott
    14 years ago

    Stonemaven,
    Jsvand is right. I did some research on avocados. You can buy an avocado that is self fertile but from what I have read the production isn't that great, at least from what I have seen. If your seious about trying it, I reccomend growquest.com. They have quite a large avocado selection, and they list varieties that are self fertile. You could email or call them and find out how it would do for you. I also agree with jsvand about choosing the mango. I have a heck of a time finding decent mangoes around here PERIOD! I have gone to Puerto Rico and to Florida. TIll then, I had no idea what mango was supposed to taste like. Even when they are in season they are poor representations of what a mango fruit is supposed like. On a flavor scale of one to ten the average mango that I can get from a store is about a 5. If I go to Buffalo and go to some of the latin markets I can sometimes get one that would be a 7. Now when I was in P.R. they were excellent and I picked some of them from the tree. You really can't say you have enjoyed mango until you get them fresh from the tree. I did buy all the fruits from the store in Florida but they were still in season. The smell and the juicy flesh..yummmmmy! I have been craving fresh mango for months but I refuse to buy what the stores have right now. I can also say that growing them in pots is fairly easy. I had an updated blog called Southwestern NY mango update. It will show you how i did it. My trees also have to be indoors a lot longer then yours. I brought them indoors in the middle of November and now they will be in here until at least March. I chose julie,cogshall, and lancetilla. Some people warned me that the lancetilla may get too large. It just means more pruning. As long as you are willing to consistently prune I don't see anything wrong with coosing a dwarf(or condo) or a semi dwarf. I am considering a pickering or a glenn. Glenn is a semidwarf that is supposed to have great flavor. Some people in Florida will say that they are watery but I guess that is from the abundant rain when the tree is fruiting. Something you probobly don't have as much of in Texas. I also like the red colored new growth. There are several members here that grow mango in pots. Pug, Ohio Jay, Tammy, all you have to do is enter mango tree in pots in the search engine and you find us! If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. These trees are very rewarding and depending on what tree size you start out with you can have fruit in 2-3 years.
    Andrew

  • jsvand5
    14 years ago

    Andrew, Do some research on growquest. Try a search on GW. It's not a company you should recommend.

  • Andrew Scott
    14 years ago

    Jsvand,
    I did not know that. I said that as a refrence for Stone. I found there site to be the most helpfull for finding avocado varieties. I never have ordered from them and now I know I wont.

  • Andrew Scott
    14 years ago

    Stonemavin I am hoping you saw the post on growing the tropical avocado. You may just be able to grow an avocado and get a few fruits. I am not sure how successfull you would be. I still am a mango kinda guy but if you really want to try it then go for it!
    Andrew

  • squam256
    14 years ago

    Agree with the previous poster who said Carrie isn't a true dwarf.....I've seen Carrie trees get quite big.

    Fairchild, Julie, and Ice Cream have smaller growing habits (and in my opinion, the first 2 taste better than Carrie)

  • dr_scifi
    14 years ago

    Ha-ha, Agree with Andrew. I prefer the Mangoes Over avocado. Hell, I don't hate them, but I usually give them away 98% of the time. The Mangoes, I do bring some to people at the office simply because I am a nice guy and love to share... haha but I usually stuff my face with the Mangoes. I just love them... I tried the other varieties but still prefer carrie, tree grows better in my area. The julie is 2nd to none, but still I prefer Carrie.

  • hmhausman
    14 years ago

    I will certainly go with the concensus opinion that a mango is by far a better choice to plant than an avocado. The smallest/slowest growers are clearly Ice Cream and Julie. I have a Pickering that looks like it will be close to the same slow growth habit, but I cannot confirm having it in the ground for only about 2 years. Fairchild, Cogshall, Mallika and Nam Doc Mai are all not nearly as slow growing as Julie and Ice Cream. They all have different growth habits and can be trained to be successfully pot grown, but they will eventually get large enough to challenge even a very large pot....but that will take many years (and many nice crops of delicious fruit).

    Harry

  • Andrew Scott
    14 years ago

    I know my julie is showing its firstsigns of growth and I have had this since nov, and I bet anything it is blooming and not actually get larger, but no complaints here! I also wonder if the growth in FL is affected by anthracnose. My apartment is so dry I haven't noticed any more anthracnose since I got it.
    andrew

  • skayc1
    13 years ago

    I started two mango seedlings earlier this summer by placing them in a ziplock bag with a moist paper towel. when the stems started emerging I planted them in a self watering container. I'm keeping them outside for now, and will make a 'grow' room to keep them inside during the winter with a grow light and fishtank running to add humidity to the room. I plan to prune them when they reach 6 to 12 inches.
    {{gwi:111343}}

  • tropicalgrower89
    13 years ago

    I agree. I'd rather grow a great quality mango than an avocado. The mangoes are not nearly as good as the avocados in super markets. I'm always finding bruised or small immature mangoes in the produce section.

  • skayc1
    13 years ago

    here's my first cado.
    {{gwi:111353}}

  • Andrew Scott
    13 years ago

    I have had the opportunity to taste mango right from the trees. 100% diffrence from store bought fruits! I have a couple mangoes growing in pots.

  • stanofh 10a Hayward,Ca S.F. bay area
    13 years ago

    In the years I've been internetting..nobody has posted a good fruiting potted Avocado. Only a nursery selling little cado had one pic of one in a barrel with a few on them.
    Other than that...

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