when this one fell over, i propped it up with some plastic pipe just enough to keep it out of the dirt.  it ripened evenly, and was delicious. ("punta gorda survivor")

hi fisherking,

i have a greenhouse in zone 8b (just east of tallahassee, and my pineapples are stuck in odd corners, so these pics aren't very well organized.  since the greenhouse is crowded ("i can fit this one in over there") everything only gets 70-80% sun. i have begun (this summer) putting my pineapples in containers, and moving them out during the summer.  frequent feeding and better sun have produced these:




front row, except for center, are white jade i got as small plants from adam about a year ago.  they wintered in 3lb coffee cans, and i up-potted them this spring.  center is a "honey gold."






these are kona sugarloaf that i up-potted this spring - also overwintered in 3lb coffee cans. also a variegated sucker that i'm curious to see how it may fruit, and, foreground, a sprouting crown from a mystery variety i call "punta gorda survivor."  -long story on another thread 
by contrast, here are some konas, one the mother of all the rest, and the other her largest sucker, in a not-so-bright corner of the greenhouse.  the mother plant fell over behind some bananas and lay on her side for a few months (neglect is one of our specialties here at treefrog manor).  the mother plant responded to this by putting on a dozen or so suckers.  i planted momma and the largest of the suckers in ground in the greenhouse.  she fruited early this summer, and the largest sucker has a friut coming along.




here's the mother of the variegated sucker above:







it's getting big!  i thought it would blossom this spring, but nada so far.  i'm hoping it may turn out like this aussie one from another thread:








here's the P.G. survivor.  we ate it labor day.  it was great.





no slips below the fruit, and so far, no suckers. 




kona sugarloaf suckers and another unidentified variety.  the label in the pot just said "dark."

i make my own foliar feed mix, and have had great results.  i've been running low, partly from using it, but mostly from giving it away to friends a little at a time.  i just made up a new batch.  here's the recipe:

four cups saltpeter (greenhouse grade potassium nitrate) from the feedstore
half a cup epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) from wallgreens
two tablespoons trisodium phosphate (mildew retardent) from the paint store
two tablespoons iron supplement (iron sulfate granules) from lowes
two tablespoons minor nutrient and trace element supplement from the feedstore

i run all this through a kitchen flour sifter, and any granules that don't pass i grind in a mortar and pestle until they do.  this gets mixed well and put up in jars.  a teaspoon of this mix in a two liter soda jug full of water gives me a good mild concentration for a spray bottle.  i like lighter applications more often.  a light misting of this mix every week or two on my pineapples, and they grow like gangbusters.  they really seem to like the potassium and nitrogen.

gainesville is pretty far north to be raising mangos.    ...but, i'm doing it just outside of tallahassee - in a greenhouse.  mangos will tolerate a little frost, briefly.  accent on the LITTLE!  like maybe about 30 farenheit for an hour or two.  smaller - younger plants are more sensitive - they're babies. 
take heart!you can do mangos in g-ville, but you will need to a) do it in containers, bringing them in for cold snaps, or b) provide some shelter - a greenhouse or such.  if you want to graft a known variety to your rootstock when they are a little bigger, i have maha chanok, lancetilla, mallika, cogshall, and cac.  i would gladly share budwood.
bsbullie's probably right about fertilizer.  read the labels on your potting soil and or fertilizers.  mangos don't like chlorine - not at all.  muriate = chloride.  muriate of potash is potassium chloride.   

good luck

i'm going to give it a go.

i found four plants in a 4" pot at home depot for $9.98.  they were "braided" but not very.  i undid the twist tie that was holding them together and the trunks separated nicely.  tomorrow, i'm going to try to separate the roots and pot them each in a three gallon pot.  i plan to over-winter them in the greenhouse, and then plant them out in the spring.  i have just the right spot.  it's under the overflow for the rain-fed irrigation system for the greenhouse.  it's in a sheltered location which may help them survive the 8b winters.   they look like healthy, vigorous 18" plants.  maybe by next spring they'll be 24" or 30" plants.  my main worry is their frost-hardiness here in north florida.     ...but all i have to lose is $9.98 - plus tax. they were sold as an ornamental, so they were taxed.  i didn't think it was worth arguing with the checkout clerk that they were for food production and thus tax exempt. 
the label just said pachira, so aquatica? glabra?  i guess i'll find out later.  wiki says they both produce nuts about equally.  i couldn't care less which it is.

o.k.  wtf is (are?) the redlands?  is this an area, or a soil type?  i gather from the context that south florida types know what it is.  (they are?)  please realize that there is a vast majority of people who are not south florida residents.

i'm near crawfordville.
c-ville is south of tallahassee, i'm east.  about 15 miles each.  i suspect the mid to low 30's figure you have is an average.  we frequently get lows in the 20's and occasionally in the teens.  outside of a greenhouse, i don't think cherimoya would be a good choice.
there are several cultivars of avocado which will do tolerably well here.  bananas can fruit, but it's iffy. 
http://blog.al.com/living-press-register/2011/12/guide_to_growing_bananas_on_th.html
guavas do well  in protected locations.  they freeze back in hard winters, but resprout.  mangos are a greenhouse crop. 
heating a greenhouse isn't as expensive if you just try to keep it above freezing.  the temperature differential isn't that great, and it isn't needed often.   twenty to fifty hours of heating in a cold winter.  fifty gallon plastic barrels full of water make a good passive solar heat sink.  warm up in the day, give off heat slowly at night.

hi  solko,
your idea of planting many avocado seeds is interesting.  there are some points to consider.  many types of fruit go through an extended period before they reach reproductive (fruiting) maturity - this is parallel to puberty in humans.  with avocados the length of time is variable, five to fifteen years, depending on the individual seed, and on growing conditions. 
in grafted nursery stock, the scion is from a reproductively mature plant, and will blossom as soon as the rootstock has enough vigor to support it.  (often before it has enough to carry the fruit to ripeness.)  don't be surprised if your seedlings take forever to bear.  likely, they will give you less than optimal fruit, but we should remember, every desirable cultivar started with a chance seedling. 
if you get a tree that survives your local conditions but bears undesirable fruit, you have a good chance to practice your top-working skills.  if you have the seeds, and enough space, go for it!

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at5+shtml/210014.shtml?5-daynl

there are several varieties of avocado that will tolerate a moderate amount of frost once they are established.  poncho, joey, brazos belle, fantastic, lila, mexicola, and  others.  if care is taken in planting, they will survive and resprout after a hard freeze.  a very effective tactic is to plant them considerably deeper than they were in the pot from the nursery.  plant them so that they end up in the bottom of a hole 15 to 25 cm below the surrounding soil level.  soil or mulch will wash in and cover the graft union.  if/when, you have a hard freeze, the underground parts will survive, and resprout the following spring.  if the graft union is below the frost line, it will resprout with tissue from the scion.  if you planted too shallow, the scion will die and the respprouting  will be from the rootstock - in all probabliity, an inferior plant.
once they are planted deeply and well established, avocados will tolerate fairly dry conditions, but they don't like soggy, poorly drained soil.  the first year or two are critical.  if you can get them past that, they are hard to kill.
good luck

i never thought i could get so excited about mulch.

tree trimmers just dropped off a giant pile....essentially pure oak branches, with tons of green leaves...this stuff is like gold to me...and it was free!!

it's going right into the jaboticaba grove!

I already laid down pinestraw, but that stuff is way too expensive to use all the time.

pine straw and oak leaves both are pretty acidic.  a handful of lime might be helpful.  i use "rice rock"  pretty much everywhere.  it's very small grained limestone gravel.  much less surface area than powdered lime.  slow acting, lasts almost forever.

mazeltov!  it can only get better from here!

fertilizer issues come to mind.  the ferts included in your potting mix, or ferts added later.
read the label, and watch for chlorine.  west indian varieties are more tolerant than mex or guat varieties, but none of them really like salt.  chlorine is often the worst offender.  in your ingredient list, look for chlorine, chloride, or muriate.  these are all names for chlorine.  muriate of potash is potassium chloride.

i find it helpful to use a very light hand on ferts, but do it more often.   a quarter (or less) the reccommended application, twice as often.