Chokonan Thai honey mango shows promise

Results of initial planting of double rootstock chokonan mango show a very promising income-earner for orchard and backyard farmer.

Five years of observation shows that chokonan mango bears fruits continuously, prolific and heavy fruiting even during rainy season. It has been observed that the hot temperature during summer months of May and June induce profuse flowering of chokonan mango, with the fruits maturing in August and September. There is no need to induce flowering by spraying potassium nitrate.

Chokonan mango is also a fast grower and bears fruit much earlier than carabao mango. It can be planted in big containers that will serve as decorative plants in rooftops or in urban areas with no soil. It will flower after 18 months from planting the double rootstock grafted seedlings.

On the other hand carabao mango takes six years before producing 10 kilos and fruiting season is limited to dry season only. The flowers of carabao mango are easily attacked by anthracnose disease that is prevalent when climate is humid and the fruits crack when it rains. Cost of production of carabao is very high because it needs chemicals to induce flowering up to ripening period. Spraying of fungicide and insecticide, foliar fertilizer is done almost weekly which makes production cost very high for carabao mango production.

The chokonan mango can tolerate adverse weather conditions that even without spraying insecticide and fungicide the flowers will develop into quality eating green and sweet fruits that taste like honey. It has thick skin so the fruit shelf life is longer than carabao mango and resistant to attack of fruit fly.

The original chokonan mango tree planted at Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife was brought from Thailand to the Philippines by Dr. Tito Aguinaldo and Dr. Vinai Klajring (a Ph.D. alumnus of Central Luzon State University) from his farm in Chantaburi, Thailand.

Inferior varieties of carabao mango and Indian mango can be transformed to superior variety of carabao mango and chokonan by means of topworking. Last December 2004 the inferior shy bearing Batangas carabao mango strain planted by Justice Romeo Capulong in his orchard in Quezon, Nueva Ecija were topworked (grafted) with scion of chokonan. In May and June 2005 grafted chokonan scion flowers profusely and harvested in August and September (see picture).

Prompted by this success in topworking Arayat Mayor Luis Chito Espino, upon the advice of orchard grower Benny Flores, is adopting as his project the topworking of Indian mango at the mountain of Arayat inferior mango. Espino is worried because his townmates are cutting Indian mango trees and converting them to charcoal which contributes to deforestation of the mountain. Topworking of Indian mango with chokonan will prevent deforestation and provide income to orchard farmer.

Aside from chokonan mango, a lot of things can be learned from the seminars by Bernie Dizon every Sunday at the DENR-PAWB-Dizon Botanic Fruit Techno Demo Farm on growing of exotic fruit trees. Thousands from all over the country have visited and learned a lot from the techno demo center.