Hey Jacob, your mango trees look awesome.  I can't believe how many small mangos your Alphonso is holding.  My Alphonso is about the same size but its partially shaded and its only got new vegetative growth.  My Glenn is only several feet away in full sunlight and it is flowering profusely.  Keep us updated
Simon

I use beneficial soil organisms for the majority of my plants and I like innoculate plants as I take them out of their pots right before I plant them into the ground.  If you are trying to do a direct comparison between plants innoculated and plantes not innoculated with beneficial microbes, you have to be very careful in reading the ingredients lists of your beneficial spores.  Many times, the spores come with some sort of humic acid or some other type of organic fertilizer so if you are doing a direct comparison, its not really comparing apples to apples.  I know many people don't believe in the beneficial microbes but from my research, I've seen that they do work. 

Many studies have shown that the spores will survive even if you use tap water( has chlorine).  If you use beneficial soil microbes, I recommend you take an organic route to fertilizing if possible or try to only foliar feed with inorganics if possible.  Salts from inorganic fertilizers can be detrimental to soil microbes. 
Simon

Joe, all your plants look amazingly healthy.  I hope my plants look as good as yours when they get a little larger.  What varieties of Lychee, Longan and Cherimoya are you currently growing?  You are like the Harry of SoCal.  Please let me know if you ever have a fruit tasting!

Simon

I'd love two of those seedless Lychees myself. Please keep us updated.

Hey Pancrazio, if you have a picture, it would help a lot.  It shouldn't need too much pruning unless it is currently shaped very poorly.  The Lychee is supposed to naturally grow dome shaped and I would only focus on shaping the trunk and main branches.  You should check out Lycheesonline.com for some good info.  They recommend letting your tree have 2-3 feet of vertical growth before a bifurcation or trifurcation.  When my Sweetheart Lychee was small, I used weights tied onto the branches to widen the angles of the main branches coming off the trunk. 
Simon

JF and Oscar, I agree with both of you.  Miami Florida is much warmer than San Diego and can can be warmer than Hawaii.  I believe I heard some of the Hawaiian islands can even get snow but I could be mistaken.  Adam, sorry to derail your thread. 
Simon

Hey Adam, I'm actually glad you think its Sabara.  I've read they are supposed to be good eating and can produce year round.  I was thinking its either Sabara or Paulista as they are supposed to be very common.  I live in San Diego, CA with a climate similar to Southern Florida but with a lot less humidity.  I'm looking for a variety that has large fruit that tastes good with little or no astringency.  I don't have a large yard so I want to be very careful when selecting my varieties.  I'm highly motivated to find these two varieties that you recommend. 

Besides my PIN Jaboticaba, I also have two seedlings of a hybrid Jaboticaba I planted from seeds that I ordered from fruitlovers.com.  It's supposed to be a cross of M cauliflora x aureana and is supposed to fruit from seeds in several years but I'll see about that. 
Simon

That is awesome Lycheeluva!  Your plants look so healthy and green.  I moved some of my plants into the gargage and they are growing pretty well but I started to get spider mites.  Have you had any issues with mites or does the cold keep them away pretty well?  That Maha Chanok looks like its going to be delicious. 
Simon

Hey Ohiojay, Ong's Nursery carries Strawberry trees.  You can try giving him a call to see if he can ship. 

Simon

I believe so Lycheeluva.  In orchard conditions, you are supposed to keep the trees well watered to size the fruit up.  Depending on the type of fruit, withholding water after the fruit has sized up is supposed to increase the sugar content, I guess, from the decreased amount of water in the fruit thus concentrating the flavor and sugars.  I would like to try to keep the fruiting trees well watered and give it lots of Potassium and also cull the panicles when the fruit are pea sized to see the size difference between fruit treated in this manner compared to normal fruit.  I'm just curious.

I just found out around a year or two ago that culling fruit like mandarins, Longan, Loquat when they are pea sized will drastically improve the overall size of the remaining fruit and also help with the flavor and sweetness of the fruit.  My friend has a Loquat tree that gives tons of smallish kinda sour fruit(it was grown from seed) every year and this year, I helped him cull about 1/2 of all the total fruit on the tree.  This year, his green fruit are already larger than his fully ripe fruit from last year and they appear to have several weeks left to grow.  From what I see now, his fruit may be approx. 1/3-1/2 larger than when he didn't cull and add Potassium. 
Simon

Check this out, maybe not as large but pretty close.
http://thingsweloveparty.blogspot.com/2011/06/giant-lychee.html

Planting instructions should be site and species specific, all too often nurseries give very general planting instructions which may not work for all situations.  Most tropical and subtropical fruit trees require full sun and good drainage so know your property.  If you know you have very poor draining soil, you may want to install drains to prevent your trees from getting waterlogged.  The South facing area of your yard typically gets the most sunlight.  Exceptions are if there is a large tree on an adjacent property or on public land that casts a shadow over your south facing property.  Most of us know already that fruit trees with the most sunlight will likely grow faster, produce more and sweeter fruit and will likely have less frost/freeze damage.  A little planning makes all the difference.

Plan on planting your shorter trees in the front and your larger trees in the back(South to North), this way, as the trees grow, the shorter trees will shade adjacent trees much less than if you were to plant the larger trees in front of the smaller trees.  You generally also want to plant your shorter to taller trees from East to West.  Take into consideration the final size of your trees and not what size they are at now.  In some instances, you may want to plant your larger trees in front of your smaller trees, say you wanted to plant a windbreak for instance. 

I have had many discussions with local growers regarding whether it is better to backfill holes with native soil only or to amend the soil and have come to the conclusion that is is site and variety specific.

For planting tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees in the San Diego area where our soil is typically poor draining, hard with lots of clay, here is how I generally plant my trees:

Water your trees very well several days prior to planting in the ground, I like to give my plants very dilute feeding with B-1 even prior to transplanting.  If your plants were in a protected area or in a greenhouse, you should acclimate it to the outside conditions about a month or so prior to transplanting into the ground.

Try to dig a hole about 3 times the width of the container and about 2-3 inches deeper than the original container and set the native soil aside.  Sprinkle some Gypsum on the bottom of the hole(according to the instructions) and gently work it into the soil and water it in.  Put back about 2-3 inches of the native soil and step on it to compact it.  Because our San Diego soil typically lacks organic matter, mix the rest of the native soil that you previously dug with about 1/3 to 1/2 organic soil ammendments.  Do not use potting soil!  At this time, I also innoculate my mixture of native soil/org ammendments with beneficial bacteria and fungi. 

Put about 1-2 inches of the mixed soil into the bottom of the hole and compact the soil by stepping on it.  Set your potted tree into the hole to ensure that it is about 1-2 inches above the soil line.  Remove the tree from the container and scrape the sides to loosen the roots.  If there are a lot of roots completely encircling the bottom, cut away most of the encircling roots.  Set the plant into its hole and water the exposed roots with the beneficial microbes/mycorrhizal fungi if you decide to use it.  Make sure the tree is straight and backfill the hole with the mixed soil.  Use your hands to gently tamp down the soil in the hole.  You want to compact the soil but don't overdo it. 

Water in your plants with B-1 and Superthrive (according to instructions) and keep it well watered for the next month.  If you had to cut away a lot of the roots because your plant was pot bound, you should also remove some of the branches/foliage.  I do not recommend transplanting on hot sunny days unless you can provide shade to your trees.  Build a birm around your tree with the remaining soil and mulch around the plant. 

After about a month, I innoculate the soil with earth/red worms.  I like to add worms even though most soils have them already because they tunnel through the soil thus aerating it and also provide worm castings which will help add nutrients to the soil.  It has been suggested that the chitinase in worm castings  may be taken up by the plants and any plant sucking bugs getting a taste of chitinase will opt for other plants without chitinase. 

These are just very general guidelines I follow when planting my trees and I did not go into specifics about the additional steps I include for each variety of tree I'm planting.  Always do your homework fist, especially regarding the pH of the soil each particular plant species prefers.  Most my trees prefer a soil pH around 6-6.5 so I usually add some peat moss.  I also recommend checking your pH every 6 months or so because even if you add acidifying amendments, frequent waterings can wash away much of the acidity. 

Sorry about the poor grammar. 
Simon

Hey Adam, have you tried "Big Jim" loquat?  It is pretty common here in SoCal and the fruits are very large, sweet and not watered down.  If you like them more tart, you can pick them slightly early. 
Simon