Home Depot sells La Verne propagated "Frederick", which look similar to fruit/flowers in your photos.  I thought I read somewhere that Frederick was an unstable hybrid and seeds would not come true - fwiw I planted a bunch of seeds out to see what would happen - flowers look almost identical to parent, fruit are slightly smaller but same color (deep purple).

My grandma in upstate New York has two she got from a nursery that are now 15-20' tall and haven't flowered yet.  I have 5 seedlings in pots growing.  Would love to have them fruiting here alongside cherimoya, atemoyas and sugar apple

Great story and photos!

Would it work to graft a branch from the tree 50 miles away onto your tree?  Would that eliminate the need to hand pollinate?

I am planning on buying the 6x8 greenhouse from Harbor Freight... I need something to get my seedlings through winter and $250 seems like a good deal.

Here is a clue why lots of avocado trees in California turn brown and fail:

How Much Water to Grow an Avocado?

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/10/avocado-drought-chile-california

Avocados do suck up a lot of water - but that wouldn't explain why a seedling directly sown in the ground would do better than a commercially propagated #5 tree.

I have been told that avocados do not take transplanting very well.

Simon's success story would certainly support that theory.

And empanadas

JF - whats the dough you use for the empanadas? They look very similar to Brazilian pasteis (pastel singular)... I've been using wonton wrappers.  Is that homemade dough or do you have a source?

Do you fill with guava shells and cheese?  That looks good.  My favorite pastel is camarao com catupiry (shrimp with a cheese unlike anything I've been able to find here).

I got some tissue culture White Jade pineapple from Flying Fox in March... just put them straight into 1 gal pots with Miracle Grow Potting Mix... here they are 7 months later.

I cant take it anmore...if you guys keep this up...im going to be begging tge neighbors to let me plant fruit trees in their yard!

I'm working on a co-op yard project with my neighbor now... I source and care for the trees.  He waters them.  Fruit will be shared.

GOOD DAY ALL.  AM FROM TAIWAN.  WE HAVE SUGAR APPLE TREES, AND WE USE A HAND PUMP POLLINATOR TOOL TO GET A BEAUTIFUL SHAPE AND GOOD HARVEST.    

This one is on sale on ebay for a mere $45... Time for someone to post an instructable on how to build one of these. 

Under-ripe annonas are horrible (hard/lack flavor), but overripe usually just means more sugars and a softer texture (still edible, but not perfect)

The best sugar apples I have eaten color up between the sections on the exterior - and will start to split with slight pulling/pressure.

Cherimoyas and atemoyas should have some give when squeezed with two fingers (index and pointer) mine also show some dark spots / almost looks like bruising...

For jabos, I think you can tell by color - but you need to know variety.  I bought a kilo of sabara fruit - they were very dark, almost black.  I also found a red/hybrid - a couple fruit still had a tiny but of green in them.  All were good.  The only bad jabo I had was over-ripe and had started to ferment - the taste was horrible.

Hope that helps some...

Good luck and have fun!  Post pictures.

PM returned.  For questions on APHIS permit rules, Oscar/fruitlovers has a wealth of knowledge.  I have documented my failure and success here - DFW took my seeds two years ago (in all fairness, they agreed to ship to the closest APHIS station - but FedEx or APHIS lost them) and Atlanta customs (not APHIS, they were closed when we arrived) cleared them this year.  My general feeling about APHIS/Customs is that they are trying to do the right thing, but there is a lot of red tape and the agents don't always seem to know the rules - it's good to see they're openly discussing change.

Let them hold fruit if they will... This tree grows like a weed in SoCal.  In no time, you'll be pruning it back just to keep it manageable.

Can you scan and upload the letter?  I'd be interested in seeing it.

Edit...

Is this the letter that states the 10 goals of the agency?  Looks like it was originally dated summer 2013. Some pretty lofty goals in there and generally pro-commerce rehetoric.