Avocado

[mnjrutherford]

I need to try to grow an avocado or two. Technically, there are only a couple varieties that might survive here in Zone8ia. However, with our terra preta pit I'm thinking I would like to give shot to something that normally would not grow outside a zone 9. Theory being that the soil and the air are kept warm because of the constant heat.

Variety wise, I'm hoping to source a paper skin variety. While we were in California Mike collected a swarm of bees from San Jose in a tree that was just LOADED with avocados! The grateful family gave us a grocery bag full of the fabulous flavorful fruit. Mike adores them and they have the added bonus of being "Eye" food. Something we focus on. Anybody got anything going out there along these lines?

[philip]

I am also very interested in cold-hardy avocadoes since the limits as to where they can be grown have been pushed further and further up north by some fantastic breeding work being done in america.
The trouble is that i live in europe and here we have next to nothing like that. I tried several times over the past few years to see if i couldn't order some cold-hardy avocado trees but it's impossible to get them shipped to europe. So i am wondering if there's anyone here on the forum who grows or knows someone who grows cold-hardy avocado trees in florida or texas and who might be willing to send me some seeds of these trees.
Sending the seeds should be no problem and yes i am aware of the fact that they may turn out to be very different than the mother trees.

[mountaindweller]

The most cold hary avocado available in Australia is bacon. I tried and killed one. They need perfect drainage. And another thing which took a feijoa tree out is the snow load. We had one big snowfall this winter and non decidious trees can simply break. That said I would love to have an avocado tree!

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Avocados are interesting fruits. Just don't grow the large smooth ones, they taste horrible! If there were cold hardy ones available for my climate i probably would grow one. But i dont think they are that cold hardy. I've always wondered what an artificial cross between an avacado and a mango would produce. Part of me suspects such a cross would not be tasty at all. But even though avacados might be out (unless grown in a greenhouse), i may someday try planting a grove of cold hardy bananas. Apparently those exist quite readily.

[taihaku]

Oct 7, 2015 12:13:25 GMT -5 keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) said:

. But even though avacados might be out (unless grown in a greenhouse), i may someday try planting a grove of cold hardy bananas. Apparently those exist quite readily.

I grow 3 types of frost hardy bananas and am putting together a grove. I will try and pull a post together in due course but essentially the truly frost hardy banana species do not produce edible fruit - I'm talking here of Musa basjoo and Musa sikkimensis. They do however produce lovely banana leaves that have various culinary uses and they do look really cool.

There are also a few purported hybrids between edible banana varieties and these hardy types: Musa "Helen's Hybrid" is probably the best known - these will fruit in the right conditions but will not give you something that looks (or tastes) like a shop bought 'nana but it will be edible.  New forms in this category seem to turn up pretty regularly.

Lastly there are the edible varieties grown in marginal regions (Sikkim or Dharjeeling are good names to see) or hybrids therewith which are probably your best bet - these will probably need overwintering somewhere frost free but might give you a shout on a warm summer having done so. 

There is some fantastic info round this on musa.org

[darrenabbey]

Musa basjoo and M. sikkimensis are both diploid. Crossing between them will result in very F1s with very seedy fruit. It might be worthwhile to screen a bunch of F2s for increased cold-hardiness. If you want edible fruit on a cold-hardy plant, you'd have to construct a tetraploid from one of the more cold-hardy types to cross to one of the diploid examples. By "edible" I mean, "not full of seeds". I have no idea how the fruit would taste.

[taihaku]

Oct 27, 2015 21:30:08 GMT -5 darrenabbey said:

Musa basjoo and M. sikkimensis are both diploid. Crossing between them will result in very F1s with very seedy fruit. It might be worthwhile to screen a bunch of F2s for increased cold-hardiness. If you want edible fruit on a cold-hardy plant, you'd have to construct a tetraploid from one of the more cold-hardy types to cross to one of the diploid examples. By "edible" I mean, "not full of seeds". I have no idea how the fruit would taste.

To avoid derailing the avos I started a 'nana thread here: alanbishop.proboards.com/thread/8573/bananas-frost-zone

Back on avos I saw an article in a national newspaper this last month claiming someone was experimenting with avocado as a commercial crop in the UK. Obviously if they can do it commercially it could potentially be a gamechanger for the interested hobbyist willing to mollycoddle a specific tree....

[philip]

I will attempt to plant and grow this young avocado outside. It was grown from seed of a mature avocado tree that is growing and fruiting outdoors here in brittany.

The mother tree is growing in a warmer part of brittany than where i live. It has been outside since march and was only taken in on frosty nights.

I had two other avocadoes grown from shop-bought fruit and they both died while this one didn't. Chances are it already adapted a bit.

It is also nicely sprouting back out from the base. All i can hope for is that it will develop sufficient cold-hardiness to survive the winters once it gets bigger.

[notonari]

Nice philip! Do you know which variety the mother tree is?

[philip]

Yes, kind of. The woman told me she grew her tree from a shop bought avocado.
Since at least 80% or more avocadoes sold in france 15 years ago were HASS and the fruit of her tree looks very much hass-like i
strongly suspect that the mother tree is a hass seedling.
I had one green stone-hard fruit from her that ripened in my car a few days later and it was excellent
so we're very lucky as far as the fruit quality goes. Just have to keep it alive and growing for ten or more years now!

[imgrimmer]

Hi philip,

what happened to your avocado tree?

[philip]

This one unfortunately died. But i have gotten better varieties since two of which survived the last winter outside.
Time will tell if they can grow and fruit outdoors here.