DIZON EXOTIC FRUIT TREES

The Philippine Star - Agriculture/Evironment Sun., Oct. 16, 2005

Chokanan Thai honey mango shows promise

Editor: Roman F. Floresca

PROLIFIC VARIETY: Justice Romeo Capulong (left) poses with his Chokanan mango which has proven to be a fast grower and very prolific, bearing fruit after only 18 months from planting. Also in photo is pomologist Bernie Dizon who helped Capulong establish his orchard in Quezon, Nueva Ecija

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

Five years of observation shows that chokanan 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 chokanan mango, with the fruits maturing in August and September. There is no need to induce flowering by spraying potassium nitrate.

Chokanan 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 flowering 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 carabao mango 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 chokanan 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 chokanan 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 chokanan 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 chokanan. In May and June 2005 grafted chokanan 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 chokanan will prevent deforestation and provide income to orchard farmer.

Aside from chokanan 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.