Wow! Jeff I just got back from Lara Farms an hour ago.. I picked up a bunch of trees, and only one for myself... A Pace Mamey by the recommendation of Pablo himself! He didnt even mention the origin, thanks for the info! They are really nice people, he was getting ready for a Pork New Years Dinner! Do you think Pace is cold tolerant enough for Palm Beach?

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This is the tree.. It has blossoms on the trunk!

I have Magana and Pantin ......Pace is the one I'm looking to add. My Magana has lots of flowers on the base of the trunk that I don't expect to set fruit.

Didn't know it was more cold tolerant than most. That's encouraging info.

Great info Jeff!

Yah, Pablo Lara is a genius.

As far as cold tolerance goes, I don't know how it would do that far north. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that it would be fine once established (eg, 4 or 5 years old). Those cold snaps up there only seem to kill off the smaller mamey trees. Even in Homestead, they've lost 3 and 7 gallon sized trees to these last couple of nasty winters. The other thing to be aware of is that the cold will cause the thumb sized fruit to fall off - which means you lose your entire crop for the following harvest which is like 14 months out (not fun). So, a cold tolerant mamey like the pace may hold onto the fruit better while the pantin will dump most of its fruit in a cold snap.

Unfortunately the Pace are in short supply right now. Many of the wholesalers lost their smaller trees during those past couple of nasty winters. And very few shops are even propagating the pace. It's that problem of people buying the cultivar that they've most commonly heard of that was discussed on a different thread. It seems to take 20 to 30 years for a good cultivar to be readily accepted and sought after by the (general) public. The fruit nuts (like us) will jump on new 'rages' right away. Sometimes we win and end up with a fantastic tree. Other times we end up with an overhyped, mediocre product.

The one thing to be aware of is that those trees aren't hard to kill. Too much water and the tree dies from root rot; too little water during a drought and they croak. Once the tree gets fully established (after 2 or 3 years in the ground), they are pretty easy.

Jeff

Jeff,

My pace mamey trees are in sandy soil that sucks-up the water very quickly. Is it bad if the soil stays moist all the time (not flooded)?

I water them once every two days.

Thank you,

Alexi

Alexi - it sounds like you're doing the right thing. Personally I might drop it to once every 3 days and then skip if we get heavy rain, but 2 days should be perfectly fine. You have to be really careful to watch for drought stress (wilting leaves). Unlike the mango, you can't just water it in for a month and then forget about it. Even after it's been in the ground for a year you still want to monitor it during prolonged (2 week+) drought. It can take a couple years to become fully established.

I lost a 25 gallon sized pace mamey to those monsoon rains we had this summer :-(.

I bought a Pace Mamey many years ago...probably 15 or so, from Lara. I didn't do well with it. It did not like the flooding it encountered where I planted it. It grew fast, but died fast also. It bloomed but never fruited for me. I did try the fruit somewhere and thought it was good. I'm not sure I would categorically say that it is better than Pantin, but it was at least as good and possibly better depending upon your taste. I still like Green Sapote better than all of the Mammeys I have had (Pantin, Magana, and Pace).

Harry

Jeff- That sucks. :-( I thought coming from tropical lowlands that it would be a bit more resistant to root rot. Are the signs of water stress the same as drought stress?

My older pace mamey had a weird deformed growth flush on the tips of the two taller branches. Then I noticed that there were red spider mites. I sprayed it with ortho max malathion. I checked it out again and there were zero mites and no more mite webs. I heard that spraying the foliage with water would help to control the mites. They take advantage of dry weather.

Harry- Just curious, have you noticed any blooms from your green sapote?

Since this is going to be my last post of 2011, I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! :-)

NR also lost his pace mamey around the same time period. So, I guess that makes all 3 of us with a lost pace mamey due to wet soil :-(. They can be finicky, but are well worth the effort.

I try to stay away from trees that fruit during the mango harvest (otherwise the mangoes get eaten while the other fruits rot :-), so the pace definitely fits well giving the harvest during the spring. I also like the fact that you do't have to wait a million years for it to fruit! I have a 6 year old 8+ foot tall pantin tree that has yet to fruit :-(. Add in the 18 months from flower to fruit and It's worse than waiting for a jaboticaba.

As far as flavor goes, it's totally subjective. But, you'd be hard pressed to find a mamey eater who would not put pace in the top tier of mamey cultivars :-). Julian (and Pablo if I remember correctly) both prefer the pace (so do I :-). But there is that psychological element to the redder flesh in the pantin, and honestly they are pretty much neck to neck in the flavor department.

Green sapote is extremely delicious. I think the brix on the whitman cultivar is in the low 30's (ie, super high!). But, I'm still waiting for my ~7 year old tree to hold a fruit! Argg!

Jeff

In the case of drought stress, the leaves will droop. They will go from a ~45 degree angle pointing to the sky (healthy) to being parallel with the ground or a droop pointing more towards the ground.

When the tree suffers from root rot, I think it's pretty much game over :-). But I'm assuming that your tree has been planted for a few months now, so I think you're in the clear. Sandy soil really helps. I planted my tree into a compost pit and combined with the crazy monsoon rain it didn't last long.

BTW - I'm assuming that your tree is in the ground. For a potted tree, you want to water every day to every other day depending on environmental factors.

Jeff

So basically, the meat of a pace mamey fruit is a salmon pink color like this?

http://www.familybedding.com/img/p/l/8/4/6/1/130131/Salmon_Solid_Color_Fabric_by_the_Yard.jpg

Thanks Jeff.

Yeah, compost tends to hold a lot of moisture.

The bigger pace mamey has been in the ground since April, the younger 3 gal pace mamey has been in the ground since early september.

Nice pace mamey pj1881. On the pine island nursery tag that was on my older pace mamey, it showed 25-30 degrees as its cold hardiness. If we get a cold snap, you should give it some sort of protection. If you want, transplant it into a 7 gallon pot and plant it in the ground this spring. It's easier to manage it that way and if it gets too cold, you can move the tree into a warmer spot.