Gainesville mango festival draws vendors despite shorter season

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Gainesville is celebrating summer with a mango-themed event Saturday, even as a University of Florida specialist says this year’s mango season was shorter and less productive than usual due to weather-related setbacks.

A difficult growing season

Jeff Wasielewski, the commercial tropical fruit extension agent for the University of Florida, said the mango season shifted earlier than normal this year. He said he has roughly an acre of growth with 20 to 25 mango trees, and little fruit remains on them.

Wasielewski said a freeze damaged mango trees and killed some young fruit earlier in the season. A prolonged dry period then triggered powdery mildew, a disease that attacks mango flowers.

“As far as last year compared to this year with crops, this year was difficult because for multiple reasons, we had a freeze. So that hurt a lot of mango trees, killed some young fruit. Then we had a prolonged dry period, which causes something called powdery mildew, which is a disease that attacks the flowers,” Wasielewski said.

Community event continues despite crop challenges

In past years, areas like South Florida typically produced peak mangoes beginning in early June. This year, the combination of freeze damage and disease reduced the overall harvest.

Despite the smaller crop, Gainesville is hosting a summer mango celebration Saturday. The community event runs from 2 to 8 p.m. and features more than 50 local vendors offering mango-inspired food.

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