Great success story, Simon, and thanks for sharing. I am going this route with mangos. I bought 4 grafted ones from Emily, and 3 died. Only Glenn survived. I am now planting mango seeds in the ground to graft in the future. My cousin had 2 avocados from HD that died. Mine, a Hass, is doing OK though (knock on woods) in its 3rd year with 20 some fruits still hanging.

Thanks, Mark and JF.

I am planning on planting mango seeds in the ground to graft in the future. I have read that the best root stock for SoCal is Manila, but let say I would like to graft a Kent or a Keit, would an Indian type mango seed be more suitable to plant?

Get well soon, Millet.

Gary, I don't mind a soursop forest in SoCal.    I am working toward a little oasis of annonas, mangos, and papayas in my neighborhood.
Newgen, I love the soursops' shiny leaves too. They look so healthy.

These cute 5" tall soursops were from seeds kindly given to me by a forum member. I planted the seeds exactly 10 weeks ago today. Only 2 out of the 22 seeds didn't make it. I am planning on keeping them in this planter until next spring before I put them in separate pots, so I can cover them during the wintertime. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but from my limited experience with soursop trees, I notice they lose their leaves when it's cold, and that although they love the hot temperature, they don't like hot sun. They prefer some shade. In the first picture, on the upper left corner you'll notice a stowaway Cherimoya, probably from a previous batch of them grown in this same planter.

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"some bad pruning decisions on my part"

JF, I need to learn how to take care of my annonas as much as possible, and I have learned a lot from you. Could you share what those bad pruning decisions were? I read on different forums that the branches need to be pruned by 1/3 in March, and I did it this year, but I don't know if it was a good thing or not. My tree put out a lot of branches but not too many fruits, only 4.

Thanks, JF, I am going to follow your lead next February.

JF, do you defoliate the whole tree?

JF, your avocado trees do look good. Do you ever have to deal with spider mites?

Thanks for the heads up, JF. I hope it's not going to be as bad as the heat waves we had in March, because of the high humidity we have now. No Santa Ana winds helps too.

Thanks, Warren. The fruits were ripe, so they were very fragrant, which is nice, because I can rarely smell store bought mangoes anymore. Taste wise, they were just very sweet, no complexity. I have only tasted store bought Kent, Manila/Ataulfo, Tommy Atkins, so I don't have much to compare to, but I think I prefer Kent and Manila, even store bought. Maybe if I pick the Glenns a little less ripe they would taste better? Which of the mangoes you grow do you like best? BTW, I let my small tree have fruits on purpose because I don't want it to grow too big.
Thanks for mentioning "cukes". Now I have to look that up. I've seen egg-size Manilla mangoes in the stores, but have never tried them. The ladies that bought them told me they were very sweet. Are those cukes, or a separate varieties of mangoes?