Hi
I am in Florida and our SoCal and Arizona members would be able to give you better advice. But me... I would start by planting two Manila mangoes that come from LaVerne nursery. Seems Lowes and Home Depot carry them or maybe you get a local nursery to order one for you. They seem to be well suited to your arid Western climates. I would also get set up drip irrigation for all the tropical fruit trees you mentioned. My personal preference is guava is last on my list to plant. Cherimoya are delicious but I don't know how they do in Arizona

Phoenix must have frosts? If so you will have to protect your young mangoes etc. This will affect your garden's layout. What some do is construct temporary cages from PVC pipe and 4 mil plastic sheeting

yeah check out my last post "Mull's backyard extravaganza"

im located down in maricopa and am able to grow everything fairly well

dont you grow lots of potted loquat's already phxplantaddict?

If I were you, id look at a Jaboticaba, they are frost hardy and do well with afternoon shade.. and very very unique tree

I have a Glenn Mango, a Kari Starfruit, a Mexicola Avocado, an Allspice and a Big Jim Loquat all in an Eastern exposure type area. So far, all are doing well but it's only been about a year.
Those guava are supposed to be able to take more heat so, since I never have enough "Eastern" exposure type places, the guavas are planted on the West side of my house but had sunscreen on the west side of them for last summer and probably one more summer until they have sufficient foliage.
I was also told that Mango can take the heat too if protected the first couple of summers. So, I bought a cheap Manila to test this theory.

I would go with some guavas. Strawberry Guava is a great one, it should thrive in the AZ heat.

Hi PhoenixAddict - I don't know if you've seen my eight (is it 8?)year old manila purchased at Home depot...i'll attach a photo. it's been a champ, though I must say has probably benefitted from being planted near the house and under some tall palms as far as frost protection goes, Palm Springs is extremely similar to Phoenix.

As far as the mango itself goes - it is greeenish yellow when ripe, sweet,fiberless and deeeelischious -

I've just bought and planted another 8 mango trees this year, some much more exposed, so we'll see how their vulnerability to more direct sun holds up....like someone was saying, they may need shade protection a bit for the first few years until the foliage thickens...

and all of Zands advice seems sound to me, and agility mom's too.....

and all I grow is mangos, so can't give you advice on the other fruit types.....

mangoFang

MangoDog

Stop showing off you know that old Manny is the envy of the forum!lol

jfernandez ----
That's just some mo' mango mojo magic from mangodog. His killa is his thrilla from Manila.

Here is a link that might be useful: thrilla from Manila

LOLOLOL.....

I'll admit - I secretly snuck in to this topic FIRST today just to look at my Thrilla Manga Mojo pic and schwell with pride!!!!!!!!

You know it's funny, I really draw a blank when I think about the years it went from Twiggy to the Manny Monster it is today - all that growth and flush and flowers and fruits -completely wiped from my memory - and then suddenly I woke up this last year and WOW - I can't believe it's that big!!!!!!!!!

Zanzibar - I hope my mojo magic holds up with these little yearlings - they'll probably end up frost-PUGGED little tough guys, not even head high.....lol.....

...and yes I remember that fight.....ALI ALI ALI!!!!!!

mangymoxsy

MangoHound---

You have every right to be proud of your Thrilla from Manila. Your success motivated me to plant what is labeled a Philippine mango here and hope it is a heavyweight champ like yours. My first preference would be a Laverne Manila mango but that would have been near impossible to arrange. Growing mangoes is such a challenge where you are. You can be dumb as a post and grow a good mango tree here in South Florida. There are billions of frontyard and backyard mangoes that are thriving and never got a lick of fertilizer. Some years are wipeouts like last year. Just too much dew and rain at critical mango blossoming time

How about a loquat tree? At full ripeness they taste like apricots. They are hardy and are planted as ornamentals. The fruits are small so thieves ignore them. I'm thinking of planting a hedge of them

As far as your other mangoes........How the frost gets them and not your Thrilla from Manila?

Z - I dont really like apricots - dried are good, but I think I've eaten one to many that were mushy and overripe - so no loquats for me.

I did plant low chill apples/peaches/pears this last year so we'll see how they do over the next few years.....

As far as other mangos getting frosted - it's the near the house location that Manny has that seems to protect - I have some in the more-exposed back yard area that got hit harder - could be a problem over time, but I'm hoping once they get to 6-7 feet tall and wide they will self-protect to some extent, and get frost "pugged" to control their height...at least that's a loose plan.....

Good luck with your "Philipine"....

MangoStrudel

mangoDog--

"In Northern Florida they used to plant mango trees right up against the South side of the house where the hot water heater was, so the tree kept warm at night. During cold weather, even if there was a killer freeze and some limbs died, the trunk above the graft was still warm and would sprout new limbs and yield delicious fruit in the Spring.

In an emergency, you can heat just the trunk, (it will save the graft and the tree), you will be sacrificing all but one of the scion's branches. But it will save the life of a grafted tree.

There are several ways to heat it: put hot wet towels, electric heating pads, an electric blanket, or hot water bottles, etc. wrapped around the trunk clear up to a few inches ABOVE the first branch. And put some warm water on the ground near the base of the trunk. Remember you must save at least one limb (small is OK) ABOVE the graft or else the tree is worthless.

It is possible to use sprinklers to spray water onto a tree to save it. BUT you must not stop spraying until the temperature is up to 36 F. Don't just stop the water at dawn. You can try to divert the flowing water away from the base of the tree and the roots with plastic sheeting, (mango trees like dry winters).

In places where it freezes all night and all day you must keep the tree inside the house near a big South facing window (for light) until the frost threat is over. Lots of light is the main concern. You can phone your local NOAA weather station and they will read you the historically earliest and latest freeze dates in your area so you know about what date to drag it inside. Of course a sunny, heated greenhouse or pool house is nice!"

more here--->>>

Here is a link that might be useful: more here--->>>

I have come across a website full of information on growing tropicals in your area. I'm not allowed to mention their name on this forum. Email me and I'll forward you that website.

Hello ,
Read that someone might have yellow Jaboticaba seed and wonder If you would consider parting with a few seeds
Ursula
culejools@yahoo.ca