The Tropical Fruit Forum

I planted this tree about 6 months ago into the ground, I got a reduced price since it had some damage to trunk about 3 feet off the ground. It has been slowly healing over, if I leave it alone in a year or so it should be healed up. It has replaced most of its leaves since planting and actively growing from the tips. It has been blooming almost continuously but not setting fruit yet.
  I am more concerned about the leggy growth habit. I am wondering if the tree will put out vigorous growth if it is cut back severely. I tipped the growth at the top of the tree hoping to get more branching but nothing happened in over a month so I just took off about 3 feet from the top before taking this picture. It seems like there are no visible buds on older wood and I am afraid to hack away at existing branches unless I am told it will be ok. Was thinking about cutting most of the branches back about halfway or more, hoping to get more branching to fill the empty spaces, but after no regrowth from tipping the top, am now unsure.
 Would I be better off just cutting back the main trunk to below the damaged area at around 3 foot height? If it is better than having a top heavy tree in the future I am patient enough to amputate the top half of the tree....
Tree is now about 9 feet tall.

I would add one citrus, Meiwa kumquat. Slow grower, get the biggest one you can.
 I had a potted Eureka lemon years ago that had fragrant blooms almost year round. I used to use a crushed leaf as a substitute for a lemon wedge in drinks if I was out of lemons at any given moment.
Ditch the papaya unless you can find a dwarf, most papayas grow very tall. Even a dwarf might be too tall after a year or so.
Get a Bell Carambola  (starfruit). The only readily available variety that is worth growing and eating IMO.
The Jamaican cherry is a very fast growing tree, mine got to 20 feet with about the same spread and a trunk a half foot thick in about a year in the ground. I guess you could bonsai one but its roots dry out quick and I think it would get water stressed easily, the leaves wilt easily if in a pot. The one I had was trying to wilt daily in a 3 gallon pot despite being watered often until I got it planted in the ground. Even then it acted drought stressed for months before it took off like Jack's beanstalk.  Attractive tree and fruit is good to nibble on but don't expect large harvests. Could potentially be a bonsai showpiece if you could figure out the right balance of moisture, pruning, and soil to limit growth, but I think it would be difficult and maybe not worth the space. Would be a really pretty atrium tree in a shopping mall if it didn't drop fruit everywhere.
Sambac jasmine is not really an edible unless you add the blossoms to tea but you won't regret having one.
 Grumichama is an attractive plant with cherrylike fruit.
Miracle fruit is a must. 

One important thing to consider is that varieties described as having a strong aroma can smell like a sickly sweet rotting compost pile or worse when nearing ripeness on the tree,even if the fruit tastes great once it is cleaned. If you clean it indoors your house can smell the same for hours or even days.
  Once the fruit is cleaned the aroma will improve and smell sweet and strong in a lot of varieties,  but will permeate your fridge or freezer and make everything in it smell like jackfruit. I find a strong sweet jackfruit aroma pleasant, but everyone else in my family does not.
 My family won't let me clean a fruit indoors or keep fruit in the fridge or freezer along with other food unless I triple bag it outdoors before I even bring it in.  I need a dedicated freezer for jackfruit.
  If aroma is a potential issue,search for varieties that are described as having little aroma or a mild,sweet one.
  One other tip is to chill fruit in a cooler under ice before cutting to minimize latex flow and minimize aroma when cleaning it. Oil your knife and hands with vegetable oil and cut out the core as quickly as possible,wiping as much latex off of cut surfaces before touching them.
Most varieties taste pretty good,the only one that I didn't like was J-31, it had a definite lingering celery component to the taste and was one of the worst offenders in the unpleasant aroma category according to my family. A few other varieties have a barely detectable vegetable taste only when overripe but J-31 is objectionable to me. It got knocked off my list despite the supposed potential for off season fruit. So did any others described as having an earthy aroma.
Best fruit I tasted was Borneo red, cleaned sections were the about the size of a small woman's fist. Mild aroma and outstanding flavor but heard from the grower is was a very finicky hard to grow variety and VERY cold sensitive. Most jackfruit are pretty good, so having the absolute best isn't that important to me. I also heard that the ripening season descriptions aren't a hard and fast rule.
 I have Sweet Fairchild, Lemon crunch, and Black Gold planted out but no fruit yet.

It would be easy for your friends to root a small cutting from it just by placing the bottom few inches in water a few weeks before they next see you, that way you could literally have the same plant back next time you see your friends....

It has surprised me that my small tree is not looking one bit stressed though. Powdered kelp is wonderful stuff. I will probably pull the fruit off so I don't get branch breakage but juvenility doesn't seem to be an issue with it wanting to set fruit. (assuming my tree wasn't mislabeled...)

Pruning a naturally vigorous tree to an open center like that helps keep it much smaller and stimulates fruiting. I have also heard it described as pruning to a basket shape or vase. Trees like mangos and peaches can be kept much shorter with several competing leaders, it minimizes apical dominance. The Japanese have been masters of the art of pruning for centuries, if they can bonsai a redwood, I am reasonably sure that I can keep a VP productive between 15-20 feet indefinitely.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apical_dominance

 My Dad's Valencia pride was out of control only a few years after planting, it was over 20 feet and growing fast. I topped the central leader(tallest main stem) and any other side branches at 10 feet in mid October 2015. All pruning cuts were made above outward or downward facing buds when possible.  It only produced about 30 or so mangos before pruning. In 2016,The year after I topped it, it produced more than double the previous crop. It regrew to about 15 feet by the end of Summer 2016. Vigor was visibly reduced the first year after pruning.
  After it cropped last year, I took out the central leader completely at its base, so the lower side branches are the new leaders. It is important to keep the new leaders competing so one doesn't regain apical dominance. It was at about 12 feet after pruning. This year it has set from 3 different blooms. The tree now puts more energy into fruiting. I have not pruned since after the crop was done last year and it has only gotten about 3 feet taller. That shows that vigor has been further reduced by removing the central leader.(the apex of the tree)  The basic idea when making pruning cuts is to make cuts above a bud that is facing in the direction you want the new branch to grow.(usually not vertically unless you need to replace part of the inner canopy.) This makes the tree spread out rather than up. Every year the inner canopy branches will need to be topped and rotationally replaced every few years, but I bet I will be able to keep my Dad's tree indefinitely at a height such that all fruit are harvestable with a picking pole.... The tallest branches in late Summer might eventually reach 17-20 feet in a few more years, but the fruit should hang no higher than 15 feet. After the crop is done this year, I will prune it to about 12 feet. It looks like the vigor is reduced to the point where I will just need to do maintenance pruning back to about 12-15 or so feet yearly to keep its yearly maximum height in the high teens. I feel keeping a very vigorous tree semi-dwarfed is a reasonable compromise.  If I had not pruned my Dad's tree I am sure it would be well over 30 feet by now. Pic is tree in 2016 before I took out the main central leader.

Mayhaws make one of the very best jams you will ever taste. I have a bearing age tree at my farm in South Carolina. I will get you some fruit to start seeds from if the last frost didn't wipe out the crop. Worth a try I just don't have room at my place in Cape Coral to grow one.

What product is it? Sprint 138? I am in Cape Coral and need something better than Ironite for the crummy high pH canal fill "soil" in my yard...

Carambola AKA Starfruit should be number one on your list. I planted a 15 gal out last year and within months had harvested over a bushel of fruit at a size of about 6 feet tall. A seedling would take about 1-2 years to get to that point.
It makes a Summer and Winter crop in Florida, maybe it can carry one indoors in a pot in Winter. It can make a few fruit off partial blooms aside from the main crops, I have seen trees holding some fruit during most months of the year here. Tree is fast growing and comes back well after pruning.  A tree that size can be pruned back to get it indoors to a sunny window or sunroom yearly. Bell is the best tasting variety by far. Grocery store starfruit are terrible,not worth eating. I have tasted a half dozen varieties and Bell is the only one I would classify as a good tasting fruit and worth spending money on. Search google with the search words "Carambola growing in the Florida home landscape" I have a Place in SC halfway between Charleston and Columbia,could pick up almost anything on your list in Florida and bring it back, I make 2 round trips a month. I second the suggestions of pitangatuba and miracle fruit. I could ship a few starfruit or miracle fruit for shipping cost when available.

I have some and am passing by both Sarasota tomorrow before 8AM and St Augustine about 3 hours later, or could stick a few in the mail.  It produces fruit the first year.
 I have a plant I set out last year that I am planning on removing soon to make room for another mango tree. Unpruned it went from a 1 gal size to a 5 foot tall 14 foot wide lanky bush in a year. Fruit is similar to a blueberry but closest to an amelanchier. Flesh to seed ratio is about 50-50  Seeds are hard and about like the largest blackberry seeds. You would probably need a hundred foot hedge to get a usable amount of fruit as they seem to ripen a few at a time, unless you want it to feed local wildlife.
 I drive past both places every other week and could dig it up and have it pruned way back and in a pot 2 weeks from now too....Or available for you to come and dig it in Cape Coral...

In the area around Pine Island and the Ft. Myers area near the water it seems the earliest local mangos I have found go up for sale about the last 10 days of May. In 2016 everything was later, the first I found were about June 10. I think my Dad picked his first mangos the first week of June, but the 2 years before that it was about May 15-20 for the first fruit,his were Carries picked a bit early.He is close to the river in North Ft. Myers.
 I don't know of any DuPuis trees in the area to even graft from.Good to know Lara at least has DuPuis,does anyone further North have them? Now that this thread is up the only Zill in my area is probably gone already, I might need to find one of those too. Duncan trees are scarce here too,the only ones I can find have been in their pots way too long.

I am still undecided about an early season "workhorse" mango. I have recently planted an Edward, 2 Pickerings, a Cogshall , a Mun Kun Si, Fruit Punch, 2 Maha Chanoks , and have Peach Cobbler, Venus, Beverly, and Keitt as later season trees. I had a pot-bound Duncan that did not survive transplanting that needs to be replaced. I have a Lemon Meringue that has mostly just sat for 2 years in the ground that has one more year to at least flush some growth before I get rid of it. I will save a spot for Guava and one for Frances Hargrave. I will probably plant a Glenn as the early season workhorse unless Zill is a good alternative.If Glenn wasn't so washed out with all the rain last year, (Valencia Pride was a disappointment too last Summer) I would probably have planted one already.
I will probably get some fruit most years before June from my other trees, but I would like a tree that would flood me with mangos while the others are starting to trickle in.
 From the descriptions, Zill seems to be a decent enough mango if it can be done by mid June when the better stuff ripens in quantity.
 From scattered bits of information I gather that it produces well ,has a bit of pineapple flavor, and can ripen in May,June and possibly into July. Another source said it has a tendency to ripen all of its fruit within about a 3 week period.If it is freestone as one source says that would be a plus. It would be great if it could be all harvested by mid June.
 By then, some of the others I know we like will be producing enough to keep my ravenous family happy.
  Zill doesn't seem to be propagated much now with all the hype around the newer varieties but I found one tree available nearby. Some of the sweetest and best women aren't in the fanciest wrappers....Same with mangoes.Some of the best of both species don't get the love they deserve.. It is Valentine's day after all! Make your ladies happy today....
 Should I get a Glenn or the Zill? Or Florigon? My first Florigon died but I will try again if  advised to. It took 3 Keitt trees to get one well established...  I am on the Western edge of Cape Coral on the water less than a mile as the crow flies from Matlacha.