Filipino Mango Cultivation

Green Is Sour, Yellow Is Sweet

• Also called "Manila Super Mango," "Carabao" is sour when green, but Filipinos eat the unripe fruit dipped in shrimp paste. Fully ripe, the fruit has yellow, sweet, less fibrous flesh. The Guinness Book of World Records lists "Carabao" as the sweetest of its kind. The skin is green flushed with yellow or fully yellow, with elongate, kidney-shaped fruits weighing around 10 ounces and ripening early to mid-season. In the Philippines, trees grow in backyards and in commercial plantings. In the United States, this variety is less cold hardy than other mango cultivars and needs a greenhouse to survive.

Getting a Start

• "Carabao" grows from seed, but there's no guarantee that the seedling will be a "Carabao" instead of a hybrid with different qualities. As a member of the strain of mangoes from the Philippines and South Asia, "Carabao" has polyembryonic seeds that can sprout up to four possible seedlings. One seedling is a hybrid, and the others are vegetative reproductions of the parent. You won't know which you have until the seedling grows large enough to see if it has the parent's characteristics. The only sure way to get a "Carabao" is to root cuttings from a known parent. In the United States this is difficult because this variety isn't widely grown. Even if cuttings were available, only 40 percent of cuttings root successfully under optimum conditions.

Sprouting a Seed

• Remove all the flesh from a fresh "Carabao" seed and remove the husk by paring around the convex edge with a sharp knife. Avoid nicking the kernel inside, which will finally slip out of the husk. Dust the kernel with a fungicide, plant it in new, well-draining potting mix, placing it on its concave edge and leaving 1/4 of the seed sticking above the soil. Seedlings take about three weeks to sprout, shorter with bottom heat. Carefully separate the multiple seedlings right after sprouting, taking care not to harm the seed leaves. Seedlings flower and fruit in three to six years.

Growing the Tree

• As the mango seedling grows, transfer it to larger containers as the roots fill each pot. Since in the United States it will be growing indoors or in a greenhouse, use a large tub mounted on casters or a plant dolly for the final transplant. "Carabao" is more tolerant of high humidity than Indian cultivars, but will still benefit from proper air movement. Hose down the tree on a weekly basis to remove possible mite infestations. Do periodic inspections to catch mealybugs, aphids and other plant pests while populations are still small. Keep trees well-watered until after fruit harvest, then reduce watering to a level that just prevents wilting for one or two months, when you can resume a regular watering level to promote flowering. Prune the tree in late winter or early spring to keep it to size.