By Clint Thompson
Count the Florida mango supply as a victim of a cold temperatures this year.
Alan Chambers, plant geneticist at UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center, said Florida mango supply will be extremely limited this year.
“This is the first time that I’ve seen and from some of our historical knowledge, this just doesn’t happen very often. We had one day in the upper 30s, which is really good because it synchronizes the flowering. The mango said, ‘Here’s some stress, so lets flower.’ Then we had another one maybe in the 40s,” Chambers said. “It wasn’t cold, but the flowers, it was just the perfect time where the tree had sensed that it had flowered and then almost everything died. The panicles, the flowers died. The plant figured it was done flowering for the year.
“We’ve still got some mangoes, but it’s nowhere near where it usually is.”
Timing was the difference in the impact the colder temperatures in January had on Florida mango supply, a tropical fruit.
“For the six years that I’ve been here, I haven’t seen this before. We’ll get a chill event, but if it was at any other time than it was this year, what you’ll get is a reflowering. The branches will put out their panicles,” Chambers said. “Just looking at the trees, it’s relatively pathetic. It reaches from us up north to about an hour and a half to two hours. It’s widespread the farther you get away from the water.
“My house is four hours closer to the ocean than where I work. My mango trees in my backyard look great. I’ve got mangoes in two different stages on my trees. That second chill wasn’t as severe at my house.”
