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Avocados
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Author:  chillidude [ Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:30 am ]
Post subject:  Avocados
I did a bit of reading before I bought my avocado (Persea americana) a couple of years ago as I only have a ½ acre block with a lot of other stuff on it.

Ended up choosing a Fuerte as they are supposed to be self-pollinating, i.e. you don't need to have two trees to get male and female flowers. Having said that, the tree has been in for two years and we're just getting our one and only first fruit after a massive abundance of flowers.

Anybody have any advice as to whether I'm doing anything wrong ? Or do I just need to be more patient and let the tree mature more ?

Attachments:
File comment: The whole tree - 5 ft tall.
Fuerte-Avocado-Far.JPG
Fuerte-Avocado-Far.JPG [ 165.6 KiB | Viewed 16750 times ]
File comment: The precious little fruit - about the size of a chook egg.
Fuerte-Avocado-Near.JPG
Fuerte-Avocado-Near.JPG [ 147.22 KiB | Viewed 16750 times ]
Author:  dufflight [ Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
Frost kills a lot of the ones I've tried growing. Have some weathered ones in pot so hope to get them above the frost line. Most trees take a few years before they hit there stride.
Author:  chillidude [ Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
Thanks. Frost is not a problem I have to worry about fortunately.

dufflight wrote:
Most trees take a few years before they hit there stride.

Yeah, that's what I thought - my only real comparison is the citrus trees that were planted at the same time - they're producing heaps of fruit now.
Author:  Simo [ Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
An old Italian bloke in Kalamunda has a massive tree with heaps of fruit, it must be 5m x 5m x 5m.

I asked him the secret and he said water..... tons and tons of water, mind you I think the tree was 20 years old.
Author:  earthbound [ Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
My two big old avocado trees are starting to die, must be about 25-30 years old, but I'm about to plant my replacement tree. I'm not surprised at your growth rate, and you know that really for the best results you should probably pick that fruit off, let it put it's energy into more vegetation and root growth. But it's so hard to do isn't it....
Author:  chillidude [ Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
As long as I can keep this one alive, it will eventually get it's roots down to where the groundwater is, like the other large trees around the block - at that point I don't to look after it anymore except to keep it under control.

earthbound wrote:
the best results you should probably pick that fruit off, let it put it's energy into more vegetation and root growth. But it's so hard to do isn't it....

Yep - happy to do that with the next few, but just can't do it with the first :roll:
Author:  Granny Smith [ Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
Hi CD. I once grew an avocado from seed and it had the best (large with small stone), tasty fruit of any I've had. It took 10 years, but eventually it had over 200 fruit each year. One trick which I stumbled upon by accident was to store a couple of bales of straw under it and, boy, did it say thank you.

I now have a Feurte that is two years old and not as tall as yours, but it sat in water for most of this last winter which I'm sure didn't help it. I'm surprised it is still alive.
Author:  chillidude [ Mon Jan 18, 2010 3:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
GS - thanks for the hay-bale tip - I'll try and set that up in the next few weeks.

Fortunately/unfortunately, I don't have the water problems as the whole block slopes and the tree is up near the top end. Be interested to see our fuertes perform given they're of similar age.
Author:  Steve S [ Tue Jan 19, 2010 12:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
CD, as I remember, avocado trees do have male and female flowers on the same tree but they are not ready to pollinate/be pollinated at the same time, in the tropics.
By the time the male flower is ready to shed pollen, the female pistil is past the time to receive it. In the cooler region there's a bit of overlap,
so its selfpollinating, sort of.

Being pollinated by bees and maybe some other insect, there's precious little time for them to do a decent job of it.

Used to have Fuerte and Hass for years, before they had to give way to house extension.
For two or three years in a row Fuerte, polinated by Hass always had over 200 fruits before dropping to about half for a year to regain strength,
while Hass, selfpollinated, would have two, hardly three dozens.

I imagine that to what extend the can get selfpollinated would depend on variety and local climate.

Have a look around your area , if lucky you may find a pollinator close enough in the neighborhood.
Author:  chillidude [ Tue Jan 19, 2010 1:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
Steve S wrote:
CD, as I remember, avocado trees do have male and female flowers on the same tree but they are not ready to pollinate/be pollinated at the same time, in the tropics.
By the time the male flower is ready to shed pollen, the female pistil is past the time to receive it. In the cooler region there's a bit of overlap,
so its selfpollinating, sort of.

Being pollinated by bees and maybe some other insect, there's precious little time for them to do a decent job of it.

Yep, that's my understanding too, however I'll wait another year or so before I decide if I have a problem or not.

We have quite an abundance of bees around here so during the overlap period there should be enough pollination taking place to provide all the fruit we need. Time will tell, as always.
Author:  veggie boy [ Thu Jan 28, 2010 10:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
I recently bought two Haas, a Fuerte and a Edranol. Re polination Hass are of the A type and the other two are B. According to Daley's, of these types it is only the Fuerte that they specifically recommend planting with an A type for better polination and fruit set (not good from your perspective).

As for age, my understanding is that from a grafted tree, which yours clearly is, you'd be expecting to wait a good 3 years to get any decent fruit (a couple more to get quantity I'd have thought).
Author:  chillidude [ Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
Thanks VB - was only vaguely aware of A & B types and was totally unaware of the different maturity timing for grafted trees !

Mmmmm - wonder if I can find room for a Haas somewhere ..........
Author:  veggie boy [ Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
Re: different maturity times, to be clear, grafted will fruit much more quickly ;-)
Author:  chillidude [ Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
No worries VB - cheers - that tree has been in for 2 years so I can wait another season or so without getting concerned.
Author:  fizzyj [ Fri Feb 05, 2010 3:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Avocados
I put in a grafted hass into a hole - no preparation between 2 camellias which were thriving. Camellis dislike limestone which I believe is similar to Avos, so that would mean that they like an acidic soil. Apparently the previous owner had a chook pen over where I had planted it - which should have improved the sand (not soil) and also made it more acidic.

Anyway the root stock took off with a very vertical tree that was over 5m after 2 years in the whole and would now be between 7 and 10m at around 5 years old. Last year was the first time it fruited and boy did it fruit - many hundred fruit. I chose to let the root stock takeover as at the same time a nice 2 storey house was going up behind us and now this tree is a fantastic screen.

I believe the fuerte is often used as root stock but I cannot be certain, the fruit was not similar to fuerte's that I have had in the past, however they were larger than the hass.

Anyway I think it's growth success was due to the soil type. I never fed it anything more than bore water - which went on at least 3 times a week over summer.
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