Mango Success

Maha Chanok Seedling: Three Years from Planting

Our young mango trees have produced their first fruit. This week we have picked three fruits of varying size, the largest weighing more than a kilogram, from our Maha Chanok seedling.

The parent fruit were purchased in Cabramatta in January 2011 and the seeds were successfully sprouted, the strongest seedling being planted in January 2012. 

The Maha Chanok variety of mango is mono-embryonic in nature. Therefore, resultant seedling trees will not necessarily replicate the mother tree. 

Shop-purchased Maha Chanok mangoes

When ripened, however, our fruits bore a remarkable colour resemblance to the original fruit: background of lemon-yellow with a pink blush. The overall look, however, clearly was not that of a Maha Chanok mango, diverging in shape, being broader and less oblong, lacking the distinctive Maha curved shape. 

The flavour was very mild and the flesh was relatively fibre-free.  Two of the three mangoes were far larger than the original fruit: this may be attributed, however, to the young age of the tree.

This is a late season variety of mango. Because of the cooling autumn weather, we were forced to complete the ripening process by placing the picked fruit in our bagged rice supply. Nevertheless, we were thrilled to have home-grown ripe mangoes in late March and early April.

Earlier in the summer our seedling Nam Dok Mai tree, of the same age, produced two small fruit which, unfortunately split before fully ripening.

Mango Selection

Immature Nam Dok Mai Mangoes

The most advanced of our mango trees is a Maha Chanok seedling, known as Pelangi or Rainbow in Malaysia for its distinctive pink blush on a yellow background. Almost equally advanced is a Nam Dok Mai tree. Both are Thai varieties. 

We also have two other small seedling trees growing: Harumanis (Fragrant Sweet) from Malaysia; and Chok Anan, another Thai variety.

All these trees were grown from fruit purchased in Cabramatta, except for the Harumanis. The seeds for this tree were provided by a friend from nursery-purchased stock.

We look forward to the prospect of long summers, consuming our delicious Asian mangoes. 

Is it Jackfruit Season?

First fruits have appeared on our 3-year old seedling jackfruit, the largest measuring 14cm. The tree itself has developed many fruiting spurs.

With winter approaching, the question is whether the tree will retain its fruit. And should it not shed the fruit, will they ripen sweetly and successfully?

Our Jackfruit Trees...


Planted in early 2012, our three trees have progressed well. Our most mature tree was grown from a seed discarded in Cabramatta... Jackfruits will grow readily from seed provided that the seed is fresh.

Jackfruit trees are beautiful, shapely trees with their glossy dark green leaves. With their dense foliage, jackfruit trees can be used as a screen and provide good privacy. Over the past two years we have lopped two of the trees so that their height does not become excessive, and so that the trees remain manageable.