You've googled your area down there for mangos, yes, Jon?

Can't believe if you went to a local nursery they wouldn't be able to help you in some way.....or if you've been to a few, what do they say?

MangoMutt

I don't find it difficult at all to believe that you can't find a Julie there. Here in Florida many nurseries are getting "new designer" mangos to satisfy a need. Older cultivars aren't as much in demand.

I only personally know of two Julie mangos here in personal collections. Why Julie? They are good, but other common cultivars are just as good. Are you looking to grow one from seed?

Cultivars are developed in certain areas and usually don't get much further. I've never heard of "Julie" and we're a major (commercial) mango growing and exporting area. Brazil is the same so I'd expect they have their own cultivars that you would probably not find anywhere else. And because they're developed for a particular area (temperature, hunidity, soil, pathogens/pests and local tastes), they're often not as good in other areas.

Yeap. It really all depends on the supplier in the area, what they decide to produce in their fields is generally what is dominant in the region unless you find a niche supplier that went through the trouble of importing foreign cultivars.

For example, in California, the citrus suppliers for the big box stores do not grow the more exotic varieties, so our citrus selection is not as exotic as those supplied by FourWindGrowers in Nor Cal. So even though our state has many citrus varieties I have a difficult time finding blood oranges or Buddha's Hand citron because the wholesale growers down in San Diego that supplies these citrus to the big box stores aren't interested in growing them (may be a different story if you live in a posh area with a boutique nursery).

What state in the North east are you located? There is a town about 300km from Fortaleza called Pentecoste in Ceara State, and they have allot of mango trees. I visited there in 2010

First of all, many thanks for all the replies.

I'm based in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. 12.9833deg S, 38.5167deg W

Trying to track down a source for "Julie" mango, very popular in the Caribbean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_(mango)

MangoMutt: I have only been asking friends and locally in markets and garden centres. My idea is to ask friendly agriculturists for ideas. I know a few in the south of Brazil, they're more familiar with cherries, apples and grapes, but they may have friends in the same field north of Salvador who might have some ideas. No one here I've spoken to has ever heard of "Julie".

Gnappi: I grew up with Julie in St Vincent and Barbados (and London), and never liked anything else until I tasted Alfonsos from Bombay, and two varieties from Pakistan whose names I don't have. There are about 10 varieties in the local markets here, none of which come close to a Julie (or the above mentioned), but I'm open to suggestions. My only sticking point is flavour. I am thinking (in desperation) to find a friendly grower who would grow trees for me. Or try to find out if import licences are as nightmarishly difficult as I imagine.

Tropicbreezent: I've read that "Julies" are not commercially viable, and are susceptible to the fungal disease called anthracnose. Julies are shipped into London from the Caribbean, but I guess in numbers too small to be considered truly "commercial", and they mature only from May to October.

Musaboru: I found a "grafted" mango, (Manga Rosa and Espada), which was kind of close to Julie, but nothing like as sweet and aromatic. My wife's cousin, agriculturist in Rio Grande do Sul, just replied regarding importing a specific fruit, and as I suspected, it's a huge bureaucratic process, involving proof of being disease free, ministry of agriculture licences, etc etc. Best bet will be as he suggests, getting him to ask someone he knows in the ministry in the north east for suggestions.

Grungeel: We're in Salvador, Bahia. I go to Fortaleza, Ceara from time to time and have friends there. Will ask about Pentecoste.

While I've been writing these replies, I found a Julie manual in pdf format, produced by CARDI in Trinidad, which describes how the Julie scions are grafted onto a "Long" or a "Rose" mango rootstock. So that's step 1 discovered.

Does anyone know if these mango names have Latin equivalents, or how I could find out?

In the marketing section of the "manual", it says: "To ethnic West Indian populations in both Europe and North America there is ecstasy when Julie mango is available". To which I hope to add, "Europe, North America and Brazil". Ha ha.

Many thanks for all the replies.

Will let you know if I have any luck.

Regards

Jon

I don't know if it's legal to send seeds of tropical plants from the US to Brazil?

I have a Julie that's delicious... delicious enough to have thieves steal most of them every year :-(

BTW, I know of several Julies that were grown from seed and all were true to the parent... but they were all from the same parent tree.

Jondear, mangos are Mangifera indica. They've been in cultivation some 4000 years. So many varieties have been produced in that time, especially in more recent times. But they're all still the same species.

When it comes to fruiting/maturing time, remember you're on the same side of the equator as me, fruiting time is pretty much opposite to the northern hemisphere. So keep in mind which side advice on dates is coming from.

Gnappi, it's always a battle. People go to great lengths to protect their mangos. Others go to great lengths to steal them.

Hi Gnappi

As I understand it, you can't grow Julies from seeds. They'e grafted from a cutting from an existing tree. "... I found a Julie manual in pdf format, produced by CARDI in Trinidad, which describes how the Julie scions are grafted onto a "Long" or a "Rose" mango rootstock."

Plus it's so bureaucratic here it would be a nightmare to try to import seeds. I'm still hoping to find someone one day who's already growing Julies in Brazil. Maybe far north, because I read they don't like the humidity and suffer from mould. We're in the 80% humidity bracket here in Bahia.

And yes, they are delicious enough to inspire thieves.

Hi Tropibreezent, Julies are May-June in the Caribbean, so would bearing season be Nov-Dec in Brazil? And they may all be the same species, but there are only a few others which come close to Julie. And none of them are here.

I should look in Guyana and see if anyone's growing them there. Then work my way south.

Thanks to all.