Mango variety: Kensington Pride

Ian Bally, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries Queensland

Kensington Pride is the most popular variety grown in Australia, making up 80 per cent of all trees planted. This variety is grown throughout the sub-tropical and tropical regions of Australia. The major production areas are: Queensland Dry Tropics, Atherton Tablelands, central Queensland, south-east Queensland, northern New South Wales and, Darwin and Katherine (NT) and Kununurra and Carnarvon (WA).

The variety was first discovered in Bowen, north Queensland, but is thought to have originated as a seed imported on a shipping line from India. Kensington Pride has been known under several different names such as Bowen, Bowen Special or Kensington. Although this variety is the most popular in Australia, it is not grown commercially overseas.

Although Kensington Pride prised in Australia for it's unique flavour, it is an irregular bearer with poor flowering in the northern regions and poor fruit set in the southern production areas.

In 1997, there were approximately 650 000 trees planted in Queensland, with 800 000 planted throughout Australia, producing approximately 43 000 tonnes of fruit.

Fruit characteristics

Weight:	300-600 g
Average length:	106 mm
Average width:	79 mm
Average depth:	83 mm
Shape:	ovate
Flesh fibre:	medium
Skin thickness:	medium-thick
Beak shape:	slight-prominent
Stem end shape:	level to depressed
Lenticel* size:	medium-large
Lenticel colour:	yellow-white
Fruit flavour:	sweet, tangy
% flesh recovery:	63%
* Refer to Glossary

Tree characteristics

Kensington Pride is a large vigorous tree that can reach heights of 8 metres if left unpruned. The tree has a dense spreading canopy. The new leaves are initially purple, turning green as they expand and harden.

The tree has a tendency for irregular bearing and medium to low yields. Seedling trees will bear fruit in the second or third year after field planting. Although widely grown, this variety performs poorly in the cooler sub-tropical regions where temperatures are often too low for pollination, and in the Northern Territory where the trees are excessively vigorous at the expense of flowering.

Flower characteristics

Panicle* length:	30-35 cm
Panicle width :	20 cm
Hair density	none to few
Colour:	dark pink
Colour of wilted petals:	faint pink
* Refer to Glossary

Propagation

As a polyembryonic variety, Kensington Pride seedlings will fruit true to type, so trees can be planted from seed or grafted. Seedling trees take up to three years to start cropping from field planting and are more vigorous than grafted trees. Grafted trees will often produce fruit in the first year after field planting and, by five years, can produce up to 100 kg per tree. Because of the earlier cropping, grafted trees tend to be less vigorous and easier to manage.

Plant density

Because of Kensington Pride's vigour, trees have been planted at relatively wide spacings in the past, 10 x 10 metres or 12 x 12 metres (100 or 96 trees ha^-1). These trees often reached diameters of 10 metres and heights of 6 metres or more. In recent years plant spacings of new orchards have been reduced. An average plant spacing today is 6 x 9 metres (185 trees ha^-1). These closer spacings require annual pruning to maintain a smaller canopy size. Canopies generally touch in the row and heights are kept to about 5 metres for ease of spraying and picking.

Pruning and shaping

Kensington Pride trees grow rapidly in the first few years after planting and, if left un-pruned, will develop long branches with few fruiting terminals. In the first two years, the tree will need pruning twice a year in order to develop a well-branched frame that will be capable of holding heavy crops in later years. The limbs should be pruned every second growth flush to force them to branch regularly. When the tree begins to bear regularly, the vegetative vigour slows and annual pruning should be adequate. When trees reach a desired height (usually 5 metres), annual pruning is required to thin out the canopy, reduce the height and diameter of the trees and to remove any sucker growth from inside the tree.

Harvesting and handling

Kensington Pride fruit are relatively soft when eating ripe and have a short shelf life. Fruit should be harvested when fully mature, but still firm. This allows the harvesting, handling and transporting operations to be carried out before fruit soften. Fruit ready for harvest should have a minimum dry matter of 14 per cent, be well filled out at the beak and shoulders and be yellow internally (refer Stage 3 Mango Picking Guide).

Harvesting Kensington Pride requires greater care than many other mango varieties because of its sap. The sap contains a caustic oil that can cause sap burn and skin browning to the fruit, as well as burn human skin. Detergent sprays or dips are used to coat the fruit and protect it from the sap during harvesting operations.

Pest and disease status

The major pre-harvest diseases that are of concern with Kensington Pride are bacterial black spot (Xanthomonas sp.) and powdery mildew (Odium sp.). Anthracnose (Colletotrichum gleosporiodies) is a major cause of fruit blackening in ripe fruit, as is stem end rot (Dothiorella dominicana and Lasiodiplodia theobromae).

Kensington Pride is affected by the major insect pests, mango scale (Aulacaspis tubercularis), tipborer (Penicillaris jocsatrix and Chlumetia euthysticha), fruit flies (Dacus sp.) and planthopper (Colgaroides acuminata).

Fruit disorders

Kensington Pride suffers from several disorders. "Sap burn" is a particular problem. It appears as a black depressed mark on the skin and is caused by sap coming in contact with the fruit during the harvesting process. Skin browning is a major problem, which appears during postharvest handling and marketing. Kensington Pride suffers from "stem end cavity", which appears as a cavity at the stem end between the seed and the stem attachment. The disorder is worse in late season fruit. The variety is also prone to "jelly seed" where the fruit pulp softens prematurely around the seed to become overripe and decay.

Marketing

Kensington Pride is the most widely grown mango variety in Australia. Fruit are marketed from mid September to March with the early fruit coming from the Northern Territory, followed by the Queensland Dry Tropics, Mareeba, central Queensland, Bundaberg and south-east Queensland.

Approximately 90 per cent of the Kensington Pride crop is marketed within Australia and the balance is exported. Eighty percent is sold as fresh fruit and 20 per cent is processed. Kensington Pride has export clearance for Japan after treatment with approved vapour heat treatment (VHT) for fruit fly disinfestation.

See your DPI&F Client Service Centre or contact the DPI&F Bookshop for other sources of information on mangoes.

Glossary

Flushing	Periodic growth
Lenticels	Pores in the skin of the fruit
Monoembryonic	Single embryo in seed, producing a seedling that is a genetic cross between the mother tree and pollen donor.
Panicle	Branched flower spike with many flowers
Polyembryonic	Seed with multiple embryos, producing seedlings that are genetically identical to parent tree
Ovate	Egg-shaped

Further information

Agrilink Mango Information Kit provides information on all aspects of growing and marketing mangoes in Queensland. It is available from the Agrilink website or office (phone 1800 677 640) or the DPI&FShop On-line.

DPI&F Business Information Centre on 13 25 23 - local call 8 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday (non-Queensland residents phone 07 3404 6999). E-mail: callweb@dpi.qld.gov.au

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Information contained in this publication is provided as general advice only. For application to specific circumstances, professional advice should be sought. The Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries Queensland has taken all reasonable steps to ensure the information in this publication is accurate at the time of publication. Readers should ensure that they make appropriate inquiries to determine whether new information is available on the particular subject matter.

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File No: H0006
Last updated 5 February 2004