KA Seedless Mango

RFCWA proudly presents a seedless mango cultivar we have named in honour of the collector, Ken Adcock, a former (now deceased) member of the club.

While internet searches describe several seedless mango cultivars, these are small-sized and only slightly larger than what are known as 'nubbins', un-pollinated mangos that are not shed but remain on the tree. Nubbins are sometimes cleverly marketed as 'cocktail' mangos, but in reality are more of a nuisance to growers because they're so small.

The unique feature of the KA seedless variety is that fruits can weigh 500 - 950 g, way more than nubbins. Following experience from 2017 to 2020, we have now confirmed the seedless trait in two separate Perth metro locations, with 30 - 50 fruits being produced from two separately propagated trees. In the present context, we define seedless as normal-sized fruits that contain only aborted seeds - thin enough to be cut through with a knife and probably no more than 2% of the total fruit weight.

More data are needed from other propagated trees in different localities as we still have no knowledge on how the cultivar may behave in the Perth hills or in other regions of WA. We have noted that a small minority of fruits actually contain a viable seed, and one of these is currently being grown as a KA seedling. One finding to date is that all fruit below 700-800g are guaranteed seedless, while those over this 'critical' weight are capable of producing a viable seed.

The promise of this variety is such that we initially considered going down the road of gaining plant breeder's rights & had lined up a grower to test performance under orchard conditions. But ultimately as the RFC is not a commercial operation and there are considerable costs, time and administration involved, we opted to forgo this opportunity & instead release only to club members. Yen has indicated he's prepared to donate a grafted plant for our plant auctions, so this will be your chance to acquire a unique variety.

We look forward to learning more about this unique cultivar with the help of other members. Needless to say, the taste is wonderful, but of course we are biased!

Michael Crone & Yen Yap