FINALLY....A fellow Coachellan mango grower! Yippee!!!!!!!! Forget everything you've read on those Fruit Tree Selling websites...our unique weather patterns change everything around. My Alphonso, Rosigold (allegedly an early bearer) and Manila all produce in July and August, depending on the amount of heat we get. The only one I've found so far that will fit your desires is the Keitt - begins ripening in Sept.ish and can hold fruit for like 3 months...and a delish fruit....just bought a couple more to plant this last fall.... But really, Claire you should come over and see my set up! Mdoggie

Hey Bo, Please don't get discouraged! My cogshall bloomed around the same exact time last fall. harry is right about the heat and lighting but we will be moving our plants in for the winter in a few more months. Man, that last sentence sure left a bitter taste in my mouth!!! This is why I want the HID lights. They provide good light for the winter months and also some heat. If you did this Bo, you should be able to keep a few fruits but also remember the size of the tree will decide wether you will have fruits or not. your buddy, Andrew

Having the tomato plants in a 30 gal. pot makes a difference. I'd mobilize that pot so that you can move it into a garage every evening and roll it back out into the sun at mid morning. This may be more work than you want to do but this is only the beginning. In a few weeks you will not have as much sunshine and the fruits will develop more slowly. Many of them may be disfigured by the cool weather during polination and you should cull those to help put more energy into desirable fruits. Plant foliar diseases will also take their toll on your plants in the more humid fall weather. More and more of your time may be devoted to caring to dying plants. I'm going through this with greenhouses so I emphathize with you. Usually around Thanksgiving you get involved with other seasonal distractions and the plants just don't fit in with your plans. But, don't dispair. Seed catalogs are in the mail by then and you can begin planning for an early crop for '08. Take a few notes now of things you would do differently next year.

Tropicbreezent - HOLY COW! That's a big tree to pug but very cool. You do have an advantage. I'm in SW Florida... As a transplant, by way of Chicago, to me it FEELS like the tropics in summer but I'm still sub-tropics so I probably need to be a bit safer. Thanks so much for posting the pics; I feel better about pugging my tiny woody ones. Duly noted on painting the cuts. I'll hit the hardware store this weekend for white latex and then I'll wait to see these guys recovering before I think about cutting. Tony - That's really cool. I am not an intuitive person at all when it comes to gardening so I'd love to take classes! how many mangoes do you get from a tree the size in your picture? I'm trying to figure out in my mind how you balance keeping a tree small for picking while still big enough to get a lot of mangoes. I could have an 80 ft. tree in my space but I don't want to struggle to pick them or have 100s of rotting fruit on the ground when I don't pick them.