I used to live in Orlando and you would do great growing a Brogdin avocado, most persimmons and many types of citrus. If your careful where you plant you should be alright growing lychee and atemoya as well. Mangos and other tropicals be warned...I planted a Carrie mango tree that did great there for about 10 years, then two years ago it died in one of the fairly rare hard freezes that hit central Florida. So you may want to plant a smaller mango variety such as Pickering so you can easily protect it or not bother with them. Good luck with your move.

swrancher - what is your definition of hard freezes ? I would say it would not be rare that Orlando receives a substantial freeze.

A hard freeze to me would be temps dropping down to the mid-low 20's for a few hours. Basically when its cold enough to kill unprotected citrus trees which hopefully I won't ever see here in South Florida.

You can grow and fruit sugar apple, guava and carambola in containers. No need to plant those in-ground and subject to any freezes.

Citrus will do very well in-ground. That and persimmon are care-free as mangos in S FL. A tolerant avocado is another.

If you're living in FL with sandy soil, I think it's obligatory to plant a mango. You should feel more confident with mangos if a Jacksonville grower can do it.

-Tom

Were you in SFla in the winter of 2009/2010 ? Sure saw extended temps in the low 20s and an many nights with lows below 32.

All citrus except maybe Key Lime and avocados like Brogdon and other Mexican-types or crosses should do well in Orlando. Maybe Hass or Bacon. Lula might do ok there too. Persimons should be good there and you can probably get away with lychee and white sapote in the ground.

I would only grow mangoes and anonas in pots there.

How about you plant one low growing mango like Pickering? You can read up here on past threads (do a search) where winter protection of mangoes is discussed. Who knows, maybe the next ten years will be frost free in Orlando so the mango tree will do great

Also plant another mango but in a pot that can be taken inside during a freeze. So two mangoes, one planted and one in a pot

plus---- Your potted mango is your backup mango. If the planted mango gets killed by frost then you plant the potted mango. Plus you start raising a new potted mango. Same as "Game of Thrones" there is a line of succession, but with some black swan events thrown into the mix.

For citrus I would get a pummelo, here is a pic of a hirado butan. I am in a colder area than Orando and do not protect my citrus at all, so they should do fine like the others have said:

and here is some fruit coming:

I believe white sapote should do fine. Other tropicals to consider that I think would work well without protection are jaboticaba, grumichama, cherry of rio grande, banana, canistel and cattley guava.

You could grow a host of non-tropicals such as fig, low chill plum, peach, apple, jujubes, feijoa, pomegranate, persimmon, loquat, grapes, kiwi ect

I'm in orlando and am growing peach, banana, lychee, mango, atemoya and citrus. Bananas can fruit fast enough that even when they get froze back they are successful without protection. Citrus do well. All the rest require protection. I planted all my trees last year, and lost only 1 mango to cold. But my yard did look like an invasion of the pod people for a while with all my frost shelters.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread with cold protection pics