Anyone got avocado tree experience?

What are the details on avocado trees? Best climate? Does anyone have them? Are they super hard to grow? For some reason I have a feeling they are really hard to grow.. Unless they wouldn't be $2.00 a piece at the store..

Avocados are very easy to start from the pits you get out of grocery store avocados. I have seen where a hot water soak was recommended to help with germination and I use that technique. Just put the pit in a styrofoam cup and cover it with boiling water and leave it overnight to plant the next day. It's not really necessary though, I have had pits that I threw in the compost pile sprout, and a couple months later I am carefully digging it out of potato peels and coffee grounds so I can put it in a proper pot.

You say you are in a 9(b) climate zone -- you will need to protect your avocados from winter frosts. Some varieties are more cold hardy than others, but if it goes below 30F, you will be losing all the leaves and having it resprout from the base. Given that it takes a good 6-8 years for a tree to start bearing, you don't want to be knocked back to year 1 to have to start all over.

Avocados are grown in both Florida and California, so they can take wet or dry climates as long as they get sufficient water. Avocados have similar fertilizer requirements as citrus, probably because they are both trees where the crown comes down to the ground to exclude other plants. They get most of their nutrients from their own decaying leaves, so don't be thinking about companion planting them with some type of legume. I have grown nasturtiums and cilantro in the same pot as my avocado trees, but while they tolerated these companions, they seem to be happier when alone.

P.S. The store price is only indicative of how difficult they are to pack and ship, not to grow. The two years I lived in Santa Paula, CA, I never paid for an avocado. If there wasn't one ripe in the back yard, I could check the trees along the train tracks south of town, or just bicycle around town. An observant bicyclist cycling around town could easily come home with a sackful, picking up whatever fell. Ventura County produces about a quarter of the U.S. production of avocados.

Wow. Thanks for the helpful and quick reply! Yeah I live in the bay area of California so I wasn't quite sure if that would be warm enough for them but it sounds like I could find a little bit of a cold hardy type and I would be fine because it only goes under 30F like three days out of the year here. That probably wouldn't do TOO much harm. Right?. But I would love nothing more than to be able to have avocados all the time. I could eat one a day and never get sick of them!

You can make it work. While commercial orchards will let their trees grow to 50', a home avocado tree can be kept a lot smaller. I have 3 trees now that are in pots (you can read my sad story here) and I hope I can coax them into fruiting in a couple more years. The 3 trees I had in Santa Paula were all small, none over 8' tall, and they were prolific producers. The previous owners had kept them pruned, so I just continued what they had done.

As far as frost protection, the outer leaves form a canopy that gives a couple degrees protection to the inner leaves, so knowing that, you can toss a bedsheet over them on nights with freeze warnings and get even more protection. Against a south facing wall, with a bit of cover, you would probably be good down to 20F. Too bad it got down to 12F here back in January. But they are looking good now!

You are in Georgia and it got that cold?! I would not have thought that! Anyway, I appreciate the advice. I think I will try them. I am sick of paying so much for such a little fruit! Haha

Apparently seedling grown avocados is a hit and miss, they might or might not fruit and sometimes after ten years.
Avocados need perfect drainage if not, they die immediately. The most cold hardy avocado is Bacon.
My bacon survived last winter without further protection but it only went to -1 C or so and I planted it in autumn.
Daley's nursery website has a lot of information:webpage
Depending on your climate you need two trees of different groups.

Yeah I would probably feel better doing it not from seed but I still think it is impressive if you do! Anyway, good tip about the drainage. And why would you need two trees from different groups?

That depends on your climate apparently in cool climate you need only one.

Cassie,

In the SF bay area it's pretty easy to grow avocados. There are a few important things to know: 1) the types of Avocado and 2) growing conditions.

1. There are three general types of Avocado tree -- Mexican, Guatemalan, and West Indian. Guatemalan varieties are the kind most people (at least here in California) are familiar with -- they're creamy and rich. Mexican varieties are smaller, with thinner skin (sometimes edible) and sometimes are good tasting. West Indian varieties are large and watery. Guatemalan trees are very frost intolerant while Mexican varieties are more frost tolerant (for example, the Mexicola variety can handle down to 22 F). Nobody in California grows West Indian varieties.

Avocados don't grow true to seed, so growing it from a seed (unless you plan to graft it yourself) isn't really worthwhile. So buy a grafted tree from a nursery. If you live in a part of the bay area that's coastal and has minimal frost (e.g. East Bay from Fremont to Richmond, San Francisco, San Rafael, etc.) then a Guatemalan variety is a good bet -- Reed is a good choice, as is Lamb Hass, Hass, Pinkerton, and a few others. If you are in a less coastal area, one that gets more heat in the summer and frost in the winter (like San Jose, Palo Alto, Morgan Hill, etc.), a hybrid Mexican-Guatemalan variety like Fuerte is a good choice. If you're in a spot that gets a lot of frost (like Santa Rosa, Napa, Petaluma, etc.), then go with a Mexicola.

2. Avocados like a mostly-sunny to sunny spot, with as little frost as possible (so not in a low spot) and in a spot with good drainage. They don't really fruit in containers, so it's not worth trying that route. The best approach is to dig a big hole to loosen the soil but then just push the soil back in, and plant the tree so it's about 6-12 inches above the natural soil grade. Heavily mulch the mound with tree trimmings and leaves and such, and keep any weeds or grass or other plants away from the tree. In the summer the trees can be watered 1-2 times a week -- deep waterings are best. In the winter there's no need to water -- the main danger is root rot if you have bad drainage. As the trees mature you can water less frequently.

Some people talk about the need for cross pollinators -- this is more true in Southern California and Mexico. It's not that important in the bay area. Reed is known as a good self-fertile variety, but most will fruit without another tree here.

Bob, thank you so much for the information. I am now in Santa Rosa so I would probably want the mexicola.. But it sounds like those are pretty hit or miss taste wise. I am not sure I would want to put all the effort in to not get good tasting avocados. But, on a side note, how do you ensure good drainage?

Cassie Langstraat wrote:how do you ensure good drainage?

Drainage is not a problem in California. I know that's a broad brush statement, but I really can't think of any swamps that I have seen in California. Ballona creek in Los Angeles county? Even that only has water trickling through it a few months of the year. The south part of San Francisco bay is more marshland than freshwater swamp.

For there to be drainage problems, you need to have a clay hardpan that keeps water from draining away plus rainfall that is well in excess of the evaporation rate. California may have plenty of clay hardpan areas, but most of the state, with the possible exception of the area around Eureka has such a negative water balance that it's never going to get swampy and anoxic.

Awesome. Thanks John.

Maybe no swamps but when my dad lived in San Francisco he had clay soil that certainly didn't drain well. He never tried avacados. Maybe it drained enough for them. I am going to get some avacados trees in the future I think. Adding to list of trees I want.

Drainage can be a problem for Avocados in California -- enough to get root rot anyway. The main problem is that we get our rain in a small number of winter storms, so there can be a few weeks at a time in the winter where cold water pools around the roots. The general solution is to 1) plant the tree above grade (in a wide mound) and 2) make sure the soil nearby drains well (and if not, plant some fava beans or other such annuals to break up the soil). Also planting on a higher spot in the yard helps so the water drains away, along with the cold air.

Starting an avocado from a sprouted seed is not a good idea for more than one reason. The first is like apples, the fruit will not be true to type, and you're likely to get an awfull product.

More importantly though is root-rot, caused by the fungus Phytophtera, which gradually kills the trees. Here in southern California I can see many, many avocados with large portions of their crowns totally dead, with skeletal branches reaching up to the sky. All successful avocado plantings need to be on rot-resistant rootstock. That's why good drainage keeps being mentioned in these posts.

Michael Qulek wrote:Have a clue! I've had trees die right in my front yard because of poor drainage, from my sprinkler system. You don't have to be in a swamp to have poor drainage.

This is "poor drainage":



Anything that can be fixed with a shovel and 15 minutes is not "poor drainage", it's "improper planting".

I've got a Mexicola Grande and am looking for an Ettinger to at least graft a branch to the Mexicola for pollenating.  Mexicola is a type A but flowering overlaps so it will pollenate, and you can help it by q-tipping flowers in the morning then saving that q-tip and re-q-tipping them late afternoon. Ettinger is a type B, so would make the pollenating easier and a higher production. In the field the most common ones planted are Hass and about 1 in 10 trees a Fuerte to pollenate them, or the grower just grafts one branch of Fuerte to each Hass so they take care of it themselves (and they harvest each variety separately).

I get to -10F so my avocados have to come in for the winter, it's believed that an ESTABLISHED Mexicola Grande can survive around 22F for very brief periods (it won't be happy and it'll dump all the leaves). Mexicola is a smaller tree so I hope to be able to keep it trimmed down. It won't be happy though and will reportedly give me less of a yield but. Also another note that slightly potbound produce more fruit. SLIGHTLY. And that in about 8 years of production and having to uppot, your potted Mexicola will get too big and you will have to start over. If you can get the below graft to give you a shoot, propagate that, then graft some of the top to it; you could keep going. (yes I know, a lot of work and not for the really faint of heart)

Since my teens I have done grafting, air layering, and various other propagations and had my share of stellar failures. Still.

Cassie, if you can espalier your avocado to a protected south exposure with lots of mass (such as a house) and provide for some sort of temporary greenhouse or cold frame type cap for the cold season, you could probably grow yours outside in 9b (I have a friend in the Bay area, that is a 'mediterranean' climate and you can see snow and temperatures around low to mid 20's in winter). Invest in a good floor dolly for your avocado pot that can take up to about an 18" to 20" pot and some straps for two man lift of said pot for moving in and out. You should be able to maintain a tree under 7' with the pot included in house. Be prepared to play Bee to get a good fruit set. Don't take it personally but you can cry and have a big glass of wine and some ice cream if your tree pouts and dumps leaves (that always makes me feel bad, my Sycamore Figs do it to me all the time, they're three times as picky as I have to bonsai them to keep them, else they are 50' trees!).

This thread is kind of old, so please let us know how your endeavors are going, Cassie.

Hi, i'm from Viet Nam. At my place (highlabd abd midland) with temperature night and day 18-32c. Almost avocado set fruit and strong growth..
I have some buyer from india and i bring Hass, Gem lamhass..boooth, 034.. i mean the scion to them. And now the bud shooting after 40day graft.
Avocqdo not hard plant, just love thrm and will be easy

I have tested this easy method on a lot of grocery store avocados, and the germination rate is quite good. You can also try sprouting avocado seeds directly in moist potting mix, but that too can be hit and miss. I’d rather know the plant is going to succeed before going to the bother of planting it. It takes 4-6 weeks for avocado seeds to be rooted and ready for planting.

Remove the seed (pit) from a fresh, ripe avocado. Avoid using a knife so there is no damage to the seed.
Gently clean the seed under warm, running water using a soft brush or cloth ensuring all flesh is removed.
Wrap the seed in a sheet of damp (not dripping wet) paper towel or tea towel.
Place in a plastic food bag (do not zip shut) and store in a dark cupboard.
Check on it every 4 days or so. I put a reminder in my phone calendar so I don’t forget.

At first you just need to ensure the paper towel stays damp. After a few weeks you’ll start to notice signs of germination.

When the seed is germinating, it will gradually crack open, revealing a deep split, and, eventually a root (or roots) will grow from deep inside the seed.

Do not break the seed apart: the seed body feeds the root growth, and the roots are delicate, so handle with care and do not break them.
When the root is 3-inches long, your seed is ready for planting in a flower pot.

www.mccorfresh.com

What if the seed is polyembryonic?

Bob Starn wrote:Drainage can be a problem for Avocados in California -- enough to get root rot anyway.  The main problem is that we get our rain in a small number of winter storms, so there can be a few weeks at a time in the winter where cold water pools around the roots.  The general solution is to 1) plant the tree above grade (in a wide mound) and 2) make sure the soil nearby drains well (and if not, plant some fava beans or other such annuals to break up the soil).  Also planting on a higher spot in the yard helps so the water drains away, along with the cold air.

Yes exactly
This gas been our experience w avocados and pooling in a similar climate.