Ok, I think we're close to the root causes of this problem. Here is what I did, wrong I think: 1) too much fish fertilizer: I have a 5 gal bucket of decomposed Mackerel fishes. Every two weeks during growing season I took 1 gal of fish water and mix with 1 gal aged water and water the mangoes. This 1:1 may be too strong. I will change to 1:4 ratio. 2) I was too concern with root rot and read that it's best to let the soil dry near wilting and then deep water. This practice maybe too stressful for the mangoes during warm days. I will follow Mdog and water every 2 or 3 days during warm summer. Also more water will wash out the mineral salt in the soil.

Eureka....after many hours of searching I have finally found a paint store in Los Angeles that is ordering me Cabinet Coat! I called the corporate office of Insl-x and found out which of their accounts in L.A. could order the product and I was told Ace Hardware, True Value Hardware and Frazee. I had called Ace and True Value places and both categorically said no. Then I called one Frazee and they said no so I called another store and the girl there said that she would call their corporate special order department and get back to me. She did a few hours later and said she had a call into them, but maybe I could call the special order man myself and she gave me his number. I called him today and had a lovely conversation with him, he was most helpful and said he would find out all the details and get back to me. He did and said no problem...he gave me a selling price and told me I would have to pay for the shipping from the warehouse in Reno-which I figured I would have to do. I went directly over to the Frazee store and did my special order-hoepfully they will get right on it, and talk to whom they have to talk to place the special order, if not my contact at corporate said give him a call back and he will handle it! I'm so excited...my diligence has panned out. I want to thank ALL of you, especially Faron, for helping me - this web site/forum is the greatest.

We went with Milgards Ultra (Fiberglass line) I came across a reputable Milgard Dealer in Long Beach. They were on the Milgard website. http://www.1stwindows.com/ Spoke to the owner Doug Lopez and he is very knowledgable and helpful. We needed the windows installed north of Los angeles so they couldn't provide installation. They had the best prices I could find. Goodluck!

Thanks so much parker25mv! Looks like we're both on the same page. I'm not planning on planting them in the ground, and I agree that they're too dominant in LA right now. When I was trying to find a suitable screen plant I read through all of the ficus discussion on here and decided against them. Then these fell into my lap, which opens up budget for native CA plants elsewhere so I'm trying to make lemonade. I'll leave them in the half-barrels, but I'm also open to any suggestions to make them healthier. Root pruning has been suggested above, which I'm looking into now. Thanks!