Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 24 May 2025

A flavor bomb of sugar and citrus, syrupy when ripe - Mango Sweet Tart

Mango Sweet Tart - tree with fruit on it

🌈 A flavor bomb of sugar and citrus, syrupy when ripe - Mango Sweet Tart

🥭 Sweet Tart is a Florida-grown mango prized for its rich, sweet-tart flavor and silky, fiberless flesh. Created by breeder Gary Zill, it's known for its dense orange pulp, excellent sugar-acid balance, and juicy texture. The fruit is oval, heavy for its size, and sometimes develops harmless speckles on the skin. Great fresh, underripe or ripe. Tangy when underripe, syrupy when ripe and perfect for containers thanks to its upright growth and high productivity. A standout variety that lives up to its name!

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 17 Jun 2025

What is a good late-season Mango? Gold Nugget, a late-season fiberless gem

Mango Gold Nugget

🌈 What is a good late-season Mango? Gold Nugget, a late-season fiberless gem

🥭 Gold Nugget, developed in Florida in the 1990s and patented in 1990, likely originated from Kent seedling parentage . The fruit is large, oval, about a pound, with yellow‑orange skin and occasional pink blush. Inside, it offers firm, fiberless yellow flesh with a mild, classic mango flavor. The vigorous tree is spreading and prolific, ripening fruit from late July through August in Florida, and exhibits strong resistance to bacterial black spot. An excellent choice for late-season harvest and home dooryard planting.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 16 Jul 2025

Who is stealing my fruit?! How to protect mango fruit from critters

How to protect mango fruit from critters

🐰 Who’s stealing my fruit?! How to protect mango fruit from critters.

🥭 It's Mango season! But somehow, the mangoes are disappearing. Looks familiar? Squirrels, bunnies, birds, rats, raccoons… They all love the fruit. But sharing? Not so much. You’re lucky to get their leftovers!
🥭 Here’s what we do to protect our mangoes and avocados - and it works! We use fruit protection bags. They are made of a strong mesh netting with easy drawstrings - keep out bugs, birds, and every other freeloading critter! Just slip it over the fruit and tighten both ends. They’re inexpensive, about 15 cents each, worth every penny! 💰

🐁🐿 Save your fruit - and maybe even have some left to share!

🛒 Don't own a mango tree yet? Plant one now to enjoy fruit tomorrow!

📚 Learn more:

How to protect fruit in your garden from greedy competitors
Penelope, the Squirrel Cat

#How_to #Food_Forest #Mango_Rainbow #Mango

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 27 Jun 2022

Thank you for coming!

Thank you everybody for coming to our Saturday Garden Event! Hope you enjoyed your garden tour, discounts and presents. We were happy to see our favorite customers and made lots of new friends! Come back again, our next event will be in September. Stay in touch, don't miss our Newsletters, more info coming soon!

Upcoming events

New arrivals of Mango, Avocado and more

See all mango and avocado

Date: 20 Dec 2020

Mango ID and ripeness

Q: As the World's Leading Authority on Tropical Plants, I hope you can help us out. We obtained a mango tree from a City giveaway, and planted it a few years ago. This is the 1st year it has produced fruit. They are almost all green color, & range from 6-7 inches in length. Attached are a few photos of the tree & its fruit. Please help to identify the type, and how to determine when they would be ready to pick. Or should we just wait until they fall off of the tree?

A: If the tree is grafted, it normally starts flowering within a year after planting. If the tree is over 6 years old and just now started fruiting - chances are, this is a seedling (possible at giveaways) without specific variety. However the fruit looks pretty good size and shape, hopefully it tastes great. You will find out soon!
Based on the pictures, there maybe a few possible choices, including varieties (or their seedlings) Keitt, Rosigold, it can be even Lancetilla if fruit grows bigger than 7" long. The next step would be, wait until the fruit get some color, then it will be easier to narrow down the variety. Also see if there is a lot of fiber or no fiber.
You may wait until at least one fruit ripens on the tree and let it fall naturally - that will be the color (can be all green, but in your case it looks like it's turning yellow blush). After that, you may pick full size fruit before they fall and let them ripen on a kitchen table. Usually once the fruit starts showing color, it is close to ripening. For all-green varieties, just wait till fruit grows to maximum full size. You may also check if the fruit gets softer to touch, then it's ready.

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