Ripe mangoes serve as a sign of summer joy in Hawaii.
Originally from India, the mango has been described as the “king of fruits.” Francisco de Paula Marin, who is credited with introducing several agricultural products to Hawaii in the early 1800s, includes the mango on his list. A happy introduction.
There are probably more than 500 mango varieties in the world, yet we have only a handful here. Many of us favor the Pirie or Haden varieties, but these tend to fruit heavily one year and skip the next.
The traditional school of thought was that mangoes like hot, dry places like Makaha, Kekaha on Kauai and Lahaina on Maui.
When my parents were first looking for a home, my mom wanted to shop in Kapahulu. Why? Mangoes grow great there and it’s close to the ocean.
Lynn Tsuruda and Frankie Sekiya of Frankie’s Nursery in Waimanalo lead the endeavor to import more and newer varieties of mangoes to Hawaii. They travel and search for varieties that would do well here, such as long green ones from Thailand, which thrive in wetter places like Palolo and Manoa.
As people grow and field-test these newer, Hawaii-adapted varieties, we learn how they do in the specific microclimates and soil conditions in our gardens and fruit farms. It takes time to find out how they will grow, produce fruit and taste.
Mark Suiso and wife, Candy, his ohana and their family farm, Makaha Mangoes, have been big mango advocates. For 10 years we have been holding a summer event called Mangoes at the Moana at the Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki. It features educational sessions with scientists, farmers, horticulturists and arborists, along with recipe contests and a best-tasting mango contest. Local chefs participate, and some funds from the event are donated to Kapiolani Community College’s culinary arts program.
The event evolved, but every year we find people — locals and tourists — are ONO for mango. We learn new things each time and get to taste some epic old and new (to Hawaii) varieties of mango.
ONE GREAT variety developed here is the Rapoza, which fruits well in wet areas. It has a nice skin color, often with tones of purple and red. One thing I’ve learned by growing and observing this variety is that it produces fruit for an extended time.
Our friends Susan and Dudley Kubo are great horticulturists with a garden full of fruit trees and native plants. They planted a Rapoza a few years ago, purchased from Frankie’s. In the first years Dudley bagged every precious fruit to protect them from hungry birds and fruit flies, and waited for them to perfectly ripen before picking. This year on the Fourth of July, I was barbecuing some eggplant under the tree and could see some almost-ripe ones, and lots of little and midsize fruit (he no longer bags the fruit). The tree will steadily have fruit throughout the summer.
The Rapoza variety was named for Herbert Rapoza, who worked at the University of Hawaii’s experimental farm at Poamoho. It came from an open-pollinated seeding of the Irwin variety. After being grown and tested, scion wood pieces were distributed to growers in 1985.
One of my neighbors cut down their lychee tree, which made me very sad. Then they planted a Rapoza. The first few years it produced a lot of fruit, but some had skin cracks (too much water). The wife was very impatient, “That tree’s no good, Heidi, it’s gotta go, plus too many leaves to rake.” I advised patience: “It’s like your teenage son, you need to be patient, nurture, observe and things will turn out OK.” Happily, they listened and this year have had a steady harvest of delicious and colorful mangoes. Plus, they benefit from nice shade during the hot summers and the leaves make great mulch and compost for other trees and garden plants.
THIS YEAR brought tons of mangoes early due to increased rainfall and hot temperatures.
My friend, who has two giant Haden trees, invited me over to pick. They were like jewels. Part of the beauty and joy of a Haden is its color. Its skin is so attractive in hues of red, purple, yellow and green.
But my favorite variety is the Mapulehu, a Haden-Pirie cross which originated on Molokai. Some of the first super ono ones I tasted were from one of my students from Molokai. “Always feed the teacher and let’s have a paina, too,” is one of my introductions to haumana (students).
This class was about growing native Hawaiian plants, but we had some great tasty treats, too. One student was a Molokai farmer and she’d bring a big box of Mapulehu mangoes to each class (she got an A). I kid since this was a class with no grades, just participate and grow for it!
Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.
