The mango tree has 300 varieties of fruit in India

Kalimullah Khan is a grower of grafted mango trees from 300 different varieties. His special mango tree bears fruit of all sizes and colors such as green, yellow, pink, and purple.
The 300-fruit mango tree belongs to a nursery near Lucknow, capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The owner of the garden, the creator of this mango tree, is Mr. Kalimullah Khan, 80 years old, known as the “Mango Man”.

Khan’s farm is located in Malihabad, a mango paradise in northern India with more than 10,000 hectares. Amir Khusro, the Indian-Persian poet, has called mango, native to India and tropical, subtropical climate, as “the most beautiful fruit of Hindus”. The cultivation of mangoes in India began many centuries ago during the Mughal Empire. This country is also the largest mango producer in the world, with more than 1,000 varieties and accounting for more than 40% of production. Mr. Khan and the mango season were good last year. The story of “mango trees 300 kinds of fruits” With the help of his son, Khan has grown mangos on 22 acres of farmland, a property cultivated by his grandfather since the 1900s. When Khan dropped out of high school and started his life, his family planted only a few local varieties, similar to nearby mango farms. Khan’s dream of grafting mangoes rekindled at the age of 15, when he saw a rose-hybrid tree in a friend’s garden. The flower tree had flowers of different colors that made him wonder if a single tree could produce such fruits. “Naturally I want to propagate the mango tree like what I saw on that rose bush,” he said. The 300-fruit mango tree is inspired by a hybrid rose bush. At the age of 17, Mr. Khan successfully grafted 7 varieties of mango into one tree. After the flood killed the tree, he determined to learn more about grafting in the family orchard. Over the years, Khan has been steadily improving his art of grafting. In 1987, he started grafting different varieties onto a 100-year-old mango tree. These mango varieties were collected by him from all over the country, including rare varieties. Mr. Khan said that the tree currently has more than 300 types of mangoes and he calls it Al Muquaraar. “Miracle Mango Tree” has a wide canopy, large enough to accommodate 15 people sitting under it. The branches are heavy with fruit with leaves of different colors such as gray green or olive green … The mango fruit on each branch also has its own shape: round or oval, some green, yellow, others have orange, pink and purple. The variety of each type is identified by a small label on the stalk: Dasheri mango from a nearby village, Himsagar from West Bengal, Langra from Bihar or prized Alphonso mango, sweet, saffron-colored mango in demand. high domestically and internationally. Mr. Khan’s three famous mango varieties are Tommy Atkins, Suvarnarekha, and Husn-e-Ara. “This miraculous mango tree is not just a tree, but an orchard, a universe,” said Khan. Free fruit donation, breed new breeds When asked how to protect trees from birds and insects, Mr. Khan said: “I don’t drive them away. The well-being of nature is for all to share.” During the harvest season, Khan and his son pack farm produce for sale and export. They give free fruit of “miracle tree” to visitors to the garden. “Like two kids from the same parents but different in looks and personality, mangoes sprouting from the same seed can also be completely different,” Khan said of each mango, as if it were kids. In addition to grafting, Mr. Khan also bred new varieties of mango, experimented with flavor and texture and gave them creative names. He named his new mango variety after Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Namo Aam) and Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai. Khan said: “I created a mango after the famous cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. He called to thank him and expressed his happiness.” Most recently, he named two new mangoes “doctor aam” and “police aam” to thank the work of the rescue pioneers during the pandemic. Many famous people visited Mr. Khan’s farm. Mr. Khan won many awards, including the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian awards, and recorded in the Limca record book. He visited Dubai and Iran to teach the art of grafting. In 1999, he created a mango tree with more than 54 varieties for the Mughal garden inside Rastrapathi Bhavan, the official residence of the President of India. “Mango grafting is just an art and has no commercial value,” said DK Sharma, vice president of the Mango Growers Association of India. Mr. Khan disagrees, saying that grafting is very common in commercial fruit and nut production. He considers it an art of practical value.