Summer in India, Mango season in progress

India doesn't have a real Spring and Autumn - only Summer, Monsoon and Winter in most places. Where I live, a relatively pleasant dry season happens in Jan/Feb, summer runs from about March to September, and the Monsoon from October to December (it approximates to Pleasant; Damn Hot/ Humid; and Wet; respectively).

Summer, while unpleasant, does offer a lot of colourful tropical flora and of course, the main attraction: the Mango season, which begins in April and ends about September.

The varieties that have shown up here so far:

1. Alphonso (Early season, orange flesh, fibreless, excellent bouquet and texture).

2. Himayat (Early- to mid-season, straw-yellow flesh, buttery, fibreless, distinct earthy/pungent flavour).

3. Sendura/Sindoora (Early-season, orange flesh, small fruit, smooth texture, distinct flavour. Hybrid of a cultivar Senorita from the Philippines with older Indian cultivars).

4. Banganapalli (The sweetest peninsular Indian cultivar, and also the highest volume cultivar in the world. Yellow flesh, juicy, intensely sweet, moderately large fruit which is used as a table mango or pulped commercially for juice. Unripe green ones are usable for pickles and condiments.)

5. Jawahar (Modern hybrid of several Northern and Southern cultivars, large fruit, firm yellow/orange flesh, exclusively used as a table mango, keeps for weeks without spoiling at room temperature. Can only be consumed when fully ripe, unripe fruit tend to be tart.)

There are numerous others that will show up as the season progresses, but for now, the best value for me is the Sendura/Sindoora/Senorita, followed by Banganapalli. By end-May/early-June, several mid-season cultivars will show up, including the prized Malgova, a large green fruit with buttery straw-yellow flesh, intensely sweet with a distinct earthy, pungent flavour.

Malgova is not produced commercially in large quantities these days, because it is a shy bearer and bears fruit only in alternate years, hence it has been supplanted by various other cultivars that are prolific bearers and bear fruit every year. I do have a tree that produces about ~50-100 fruits in a good year, but it's shy and choosy. It needs lots of bees and insects during the previous monsoon for pollination, a brief spell of summer rain, followed by a lot of sunshine and hot weather to concentrate the sap before picking. Climate Change and changing consumer preferences may extinct the Malgova within a few decades, after a long run estimated at ~1200-1500 years since it was first bred and cultivated. The trees will be around, but the fruits may not make it to market - it will survive purely as an heirloom variety, like most of the 4000-odd mango cultivars in the subcontinent (only about 50-100 are commercially cultivated at scale).

Edit: The best weather for growing mangoes in the US is in FL, TX and SoCal. Most varieties can't tolerate ground frost, though some Northern Indian varieties have been bred for frost-resistance.