Pugluvr, Thanks for the advice. Your tree looks identical to what my tree used to look like except yours has a thicker trunk, which i'm sure is why it did so well. I'm seeing much more cold damage with the Glenn then some other types. I think i'm staying away from Glenn next purchase. HappyFlGardener, I'll try that. The are still a bit skinny to graft so i'll have to wait. I'd love to have a tree with multiple cultivars. That would be great! DGHays, I was hoping you'd stop in here. I emailed you a while back asking for some advice on selections, don't know if you remember. I'll most likely end up taking the top few feet off the Choquette. I want to get a good structure for a large tree with the biggest yield possible. I'm not worried about being able to pick them, they usually fall off when ripe. If i have to i'll buy a picker. I have family and neighbors asking for avocados so i want to have plenty to go around. I'd like to see pics of your tree if you could. Thanks everybody

Hi Heather, I just wanted to make a couple of comments. It seems most of your questions and concerns were addressed quite well already from other members, inlcuding tips about compost and mulch which I also really reccomend. About the mango. I can't tell you for sure because I live in the American Midwest, a completely different climate from yours! However, I love tropical plants,and especially mangoes as they are my favorite fruit, hence me being on this forum, so I've read as much as I can on them and have tried to grow tropicals in anyway possible, and I've visited Hawaii and South Florida often. Mangoes are grown all over India, and many parts of India are very hot and dry, with temperatures getting into the hundreds(farenheit). Supposedly they fruit better that way. I think the leaves should get used to the sun as it gets older. And as long as you are irrigating it and mulching it,and all of the other plants you plan to plant, I really think it should be ok. I would really try frangipanis again. Three of the four that I grow seem to be VERY drought tolerant and tough. It can get very droughty here in the summer and they are in pots, plus it's very windy too, so they dry out very quickly. I have a book on them and it mentions that frangipani trees grow wild in the Central American deserts, in rock crevices, among cacti. And I've noticed that they grow very well by the ocean. And they cast lots of shade. I would definitly try date palms. They are beautiful, love hot, dry weather, are salt tolerant, and produce delicious fruit. Antother palm that you could try is the pindo palm or jelly palm. They are supposedly very heat, cold, drought, and salt tolerant. And the fruit can be made into jelly. The sea grape is another option that might work. I believe that they are almost as salt-tolerant as coconut palms, and you can eat the fruit too. Autograph trees are also mildy salt tolerant. The sea almond mentioned above is a really good idea. Try a dragon tree, I think that would proabably thrive there. There are tree-like yuccas that you might want to consider. In fact I think a lot of succulents and cacti as well would be the way to go. Apparently Crinums are salt-tolerant too. There is also the sea lettuce. Bromeliads- I believe the species would be hoyas and puyas(I'm not a bromeliad expert). There are cycads that you could grow, and there is one in particular that thrives in hot, dry areas, unfortuneately I cant think of its name right now. Good luck with your gardens. I hope you can create a little paradise!

the variety will be a seedling of whatever mango you planted the seed from. the picture you posted is definitely an Indian type meaning it will have a monoembryonic seedling which will NOT be true to the parent, in fact it may not fruit at all or produce undesirable characteristics like stringy turpentine flavored mangos susceptible to fungal disease. from my experience and knowledge your seedling will most likely not produce desirable fruit, but it might. maybe even better than the parent, but not likely. the only way to grow an Indian variety of mango is by grafting a known varietys branch onto a seedling rootstock. Asian mangos, which are more kidney shaped and typically green or yellow, are mostly polyembryonic which means they will grow a sprout that is true to the parent along with other sprouts that might be variable this is probably the result of thousands of years of different propagation practices in Indian and East Asia if you go into the tropical fruit forum you will meet many people who grow mangos in zone 9 using outdoor winter protection. mango trees can grow large and vigorous however there are probably well over 1000 named cultivated varieties from around the world, some of which grow slow and dwarf, around 10 foot. this is a relatively new practice, cultivating dwarf varieties and pruning them small for backyard growers instead of large commercial trees. many new cultivars being introduced by nurseries like Fairchild Botanical Gardens are dwarf. mango trees also take extremely well to pruning, all my trees survived borderline freezing temperatures we experienced this freak winter

Just this morning I took another look at the Duncan, this time with my reading glasses on, and guess what -- counted 14 new growth buds total on 6 branches, at the old leaf axils. Just another #.*%)!!! senior moment, eh? I've also learned it is normal for the mango to produce it's panicles from the end of old branches; for the panicle flowers to be short lived and fall off; for only a few of these 100's to form fruit and finally the panicle stem dries up and falls off. All new branches with leaves generate from the leaf axils of the top few of the old leaves. Something new for me.