Brassica does not grow well in summer in the deep south, that's a fact. Cabbage, collard, kale, broc and sprouts are all high-latitude cool weather adapted. They do well in the cooler seasons in the southern states, not summer. Some cauliflower and broc strains are adapted to the mediterranean type climates, but that is a long way from the near sea-level tropics. This odd request pops up perennially on these boards. It's an odd and rather presumptuous idea, that people in the tropics don't know anything about growing adapted vegetables to their climate. Doesn't it seem likely that at least some gardeners in any tropical region are experts in the matter?

Shameless plug Tammy. I should have thought of that! I had some terible Mango luck this year-the largest just dried out and fell over. This had been a very fast growing tree(Manila)for two years,flowering last February 08..then,last June 08,went into a sudden decline,seemed to have started to recover..then again in spring 09 gave its last exhale! Another was hurt last winter by frost,has respouted six main trunks of a foot.I think I'm going for a multi-trunk Mango bush as a hedge against frost. Might work. I do know that some cover in winter is a must this far north.Only for mid Dec-Jan from what I have seen so far. They can take cool..but near freezing ,even without an actual 32F,for too long will kill also. Cherimoya in comparison are hardy as apples. I have seedling now on 4-5 years,twice broken to the ground by my old dog-and it still has come back. So now I'm on the lookout for a large grafted plant. BTW, My first try with Cherimoya was from seed in the early 80's(Safeway sp.) I t bore sweet fruit for years until 1990's great freeze.

Harry, Thanks for the link. I had read that information on a webpage but someone had posted something about this earlier and I wasn't sure if it was true or not. Not saying that I will buy an avocado. I could only eat one every couple days. I like them but they are savory and I know you can mix them into smoothies. Thats what I was thinking if mine ever flowered but I know it is highly unlikely to happen. I would rather save the space for more mango trees. That is my biggest challenge right now is what to do with it. I am surprised at how resiliant of a tree it is. Mine was infested with mites for a short time outdoors last summer but I got rid of them fast. I didn't always get to watering it when it needed it and it never suffered. Especially now that it is indoors for the winter. I know darn well that it is not in a good spot, it barely gets the light it needs but it has not slowed down at all with its growing. I am not quite sure what to do with it. Part of me regrets ever germinating the pit. I have such a hard time just getting rid of something because I don't want it anymore. That normally never happens, especially with fruit trees. Thanks for the help. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it next. Andrew

Update: Eucalyptus deglupta that I raised several dozen of and only this past winter I planted 6 of them into the ground at an elevation of around 150 m above sea level, into a poor "soil". They did not grow too large in their pots over the past 5 years. After clearing an acre or so of shrubby woods with an excavator I was struggling to find some soil to purchase in order to cover the field. The soil I covered it with by just a barely a foot or so is very poor and has a lot of volcanic "gravel" in it mostly, stones and clay. It is dug up from down deep so it has got no organic matter yet. Finally the 6 x "Arcoiris" (Rainbow Eucalyptus) are in the ground and are slowly growing. Some showing deep, red foliage and some green foliage. The bark is still mostly light brown with some opened up patches of light green. They should show more colour when the trunks grow to at least 10-15 cm thickness if they will have tropicals colours here at all. Will see how their bark will look after several more years, whether all brownish and light green or will show some more tropical colours such as orange, red and especially blue. I will post an update then and now here are some photos of the pot-grown ones after 5 years (they grow very slowly in the pots): Anyone growing these in Portugal or Spain please post up close photos of the bark of larger E.d. (Eucalypto arcoiris) trees if possible.