There's a number of different dwarf mango varieties. Here's the ones I know of:

Julie
Cogshall
Ice Cream
Fairchild
Lancetilla
Rosigold
Neelum
Pickering
Mallika

You have to prune them to keep them small (except Julie and Ice Cream, which will only get to be around 6 feet or so).

As far as fungus, again those are problems for Julie and Ice Cream (which is a seedling of Julie). Both produce excellent fruit but don't produce much of it.

Cogshall grows slowly and can be kept under 10 feet. I have one growing in a pot. They produce a lot of fruit when mature enough and the fruit is supposed to be good.

Neelum is a dessert variety from India....not sure how well it grows in Florida but I've read it has excellent flavor and have also seen it written that it has some degree of cold hardiness compared to other mangose. They are late season.

Lancetilla isn't that good of a producer but the flavor is very good. The fruit can get huge on those. Its also a late season variety.

Rosigold is early, early season....I've heard that the fruit sometimes ripen as early as March.

Mallika has excellent flavor but you're supposed to pick them 2 weeks early while they're still green and let them ripen off the tree in order to ensure 'best flavor'. These are more 'semi-dwarf' than 'dwarf'.

I don't know anything about Fairchild and Pickering, other than that Pickering supposedly tastes like coconut. I think thats probably a 'semi-dwarf' as well.

If you have the space, I would plant a Glenn, which is not a dwarf per se but can be kept at a height around 15 feet with regular pruning. They are good producers and the fruit is quite good, and they are also pretty disease resistant. They're often described as being 'easy to grow'.

Google the names of some of those and you can probably find more info about them, along with nurseries that carry them.

I'd go with the Nam Doc Mai. It's a compact tree and easy to grow with good disease resistance. They are one of the best as far as taste goes as well, but if you have a large lot you might as well get about ten of them. Believe me, you are not going to stop at just one. If you really want to limit yourself to one I would recommend trying to avoid this forum as much possible. It is a very bad influence.

Thanks to you both for that great info!! Squam, I will look those up this weekend. Jsvand, I will consider myself warned!!

Thanks again.

Cattman, here's a link to a Mango Mania Festival
July 11&12 and it just so happens to be in Pine Island Rd, in Cape Coral. I've never been, but I'm planning on going...there's suppose to be different mangos and tropical fruits to purchase(so you can taste them before you plant the tree...and "might" have some tropical fruit trees for sale? It might be a great place to check out, if not... I'm sure there are several nurseries that sell Mango and Avocado trees nearby also.

I have two Cogshall Mango, one Lancetilla and a very small Carrie mango tree, suppose to be dwarfs. I also have Keitt and Glenn, medium size trees. I don't have any Avocado though...from what I've read Julie is not recommended in FL, due to our high humidity and prone to disease. And was mentioned you can keep almost any tree dwarf or semi dwarf with yearly pruning, that way if you like the taste of Mango that is not considered dwarf...you will have to option to aggresively prune the tree to keep the size you feel is manageable.

Good luck on your move, I have family that live in Cape Coral...I live two hours north of there(central part of state). They have a lot less frost to deal with that I do, lol...

Here is a link that might be useful: Mango Mania Festival In Cape Coral

Awesome - sounds like some very good timing! Thanks for that info, Puglvr, and for sharing about your own trees. I wasn't sure how much pruning a mango could withstand if you were trying to keep a standard tree reduced in size, so I hadn't given it a whole lot of thought. There seem to be so many varieties out there, I can see I need to really, really read up on what works best in the Florida humidity. And what the different ones supposedly taste like!

Thanks again - maybe I'll see you at the Festival!

I am one of those that prune everything, lol...I love fruit trees to stay small, so I prune all of mine, sometimes a little too much! The freeze in Jan. pruned mine a lot this year, so they are recovering and staying small.

Here's what I did to my Lancetilla that I got last summer. Originally I wanted to leave it in a pot but later decided to put it in the ground this January. The location I wanted to plant it is not a large area, so I decided to chop it off now while its still young and train it early to stay small. I would never recommend pruning mango trees like this to anyone in fear that theirs won't turn out the way they want it too. Just letting you know that I've done it. Mango trees usually responds very well to hard pruning.

Hope to see you at the Festival also!

I also attached a good link on Pruning Mango Trees below:

Lancetilla 6-08...already over 6Ft tall
{{gwi:1316072}}
Pruned it to 29" Jan 09

Took this yesterday...

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning Mango Trees

That's AWESOME!! What an amazing tree, too! I was reading a bit about the Lancetilla, and thought it was really starting to sound like a must-have. I realize Florida is in a really dry pattern right now, but I thought the foliage on your tree looked fantastic - not fungusy at all. Gives me great hope for what good choices and bit of TLC can do (notwithstanding the clippers - ha!).

Thanks for writing and for sharing those awesome pics! See you at the Festival :-)

I took pgs advice and also did a major prune on 2 of my trees. An ice cream and carrie and they all have new growth (not like pugs though. I am in northern cali so it is a little more challenging to grow tropicals).

Here is a link that might be useful: northern cali mango pics

Now THAT is what I call a prune!!!!!! I've done some harsh pruning myself but I don't think I have it in me to go that far! Wow! And what a come-back! Very nice. Good example for anyone afraid of cutting their tall, weak, and lanky trees back.

Tammy, I'm glad your mango trees are doing better and getting new growth after that terrible storm! Nice blog...Thanks for posting.

Thanks Jay, believe me I was sweating right after I did it, there was a time when I thought...I think I might have pruned too much, lol...Is this going to live?

Dan

I have not heard of duncan. Can you post pics?

A Lula avocado? Haven't heard of those too much, but definitely will check that out! And maybe I'm crazy, but fiber in a mango doesn't bother me nearly so much as the fruits that just go overboard with the pine-pitch taste. I read occasional descriptions of a mango variety here or there that has hints of coconut or lemon in the taste, and I think that just sounds fantastic!

I'm moving into the Florida home on June 15th, and will be itching to get started. Here's hoping for a not-too-rough you-know-what season this year!

Thanks, Everybody, for sharing your info and photos!

~J. (CattMan)

My favorite Dwarf Mango in Florida is the Carrie Mango. My overall favorite one is the Julie Mango but they usually seem to be problemic here in humid Florida. I'm actually getting ready to put a Carrie in my yard because I like the taste so much.

if you have room you must have a nam doc mai, it is a beautiful medium sized tree. since you have the space you have to have at least one good asian variety like nam doc mai or lemon meringue (po pyu kalay), and one indo-chinese florida cultivar like carrie or east indian

There is a type of mango that is very popular in Jamaica called the black mango, small, very sweet mango with a very thin skin. I have not seen it here in Florida, perhaps it goes by another name? Anybody ever heard of it? It grows to be a very large tree.

i have heard of it along with a few other trini jamaican varieties but have never seen an actual tree or fruit.

down here you mostly see the varieties they cultivated specifically for this region or asian varieties that flourish better in humidity like nam doc mai.

in order to get those varieties you would have to ship a graft and im not sure of the protocol for that.

i am not interested in these haden seedling/florida cultivars too much, i grow julie, alphonse, nam doc mai, po pyu kalay and chocanon

mango varieties from the islands like Julie may have Anthracnose problems here

Here is a link that might be useful: BRVFC has an extensive list of mango varieties

I was just recently talking mangos with some visiting family members and they fondly mentioned the "black mango." I have never seen or tried one myself, but they said its a wild type mango tree in Jamaica that has small intentensly tasty fruit that you eat skin and all. I'm also curious are they available here in South Florida?