The Mallika mango in Hoskote

 

The young trees need bamboo support with heavy fruit

So I needed to plant fruit trees 15 years ago on my farm. I had bought two acres of absolute waste land from my son's French teacher and then had no money to rejuvenate the mess. It was left for 15 years just as it was as all my money was going to running the house, paying the boys fees and encouraging them to be sportsmen.

Then one day when the neighbours told me that there were men coming at night and stealing tractor loads of the red soil -- I woke up and decided to just enclose the place. If the soil was going -- a whole swimming pool sized tract had been dug out -- I had better enclose it.

Such a beauty

So along with a helpful friend, I began to do the impossible, as in the village, no one had enclosed land. The villagers agreed provided I gave them a 10 feet road along the side. I decided to enclose the land with kucchas or poles of granite and from a convent that was upgrading its walls, I bought the chapdi kal or the slabs of stone used to wall in the front and the back. Then an electrician told me another convent was upgrading its gate and so I bought the old, solid iron gate and fixed it with pillars. Then a culvert had to be built so we could drive into the land, without the pain of slush if it rained. So iron rods were bought and a culvert was built.

When the time came to choose the fruit trees I went to Lalbagh which Dad and Grandpa swore by and asked them which mangoes to plant. We have a new variety grown in a lab I was told.The 'Mallika' mango is the result of the hybridization of the Indian mango varieties Neelum and Dasheri. The variety was introduced by Dr. Ramnath Singh and my salaams go to him. When grafted, the tree will remain a manageable size and is appropriate even in small gardens as it does not turn massive. So far we have found, the fruit is normally ready to harvest from June to July.

Thank God people think they are the cheap totapuri and leave them alone!

For the first round of planting trees, I put down Raspuris as those were the variety of mangoes that I knew. Raspuris are an oval shaped mango, with a delightful flavour and are juicy and stringless in texture. They are considered the Queen of Mangoes in India. They are known as Peddarasalu or Rasapuri in Karnataka. I can eat a dozen in one sitting quite easily!

Then when I wanted to put down another dozen trees, I was advised by the Lalbagh specialists to plant the Mallika. A new hybrid that had been their successful experiment. The Mallika produces high quality, fiberless orange fleshy fruit. The fruit has prominent citrus, melon and honey notes and is exceptionally sweet. I was told that the cultivar met with a positive reception, at the Fairchild Botanic Gardens, International Mango Festival. 

Bonny and Steve thrilled with the first crop

The Mallika tree is also more disease resistant and easy to grow. The Mallika mango is considered among the best dessert quality mangoes from India. I found them wonderful to pulp for jam and juice and freeze in large containers for even upto a year. The fruit must be picked mature green and be packed in a cardboard box and kept at room temperature for them to ripen.

Do not hurt the fruit in any way. Just snap off the fruit, away from your eyes, as a lot of deek squirts out and then put them gently into the soil and mulch around the tree to drain out before carrying inside.The excitement we felt to see the young trees covered with mangoes after five years was the moment all farmers wait for. Steve, Bonny and I had such a wonderful morning removing only some of the fruit which were almost a kg each in weight.

Taken off two dozen and will take off the rest in stages. Need to sell the crop.