Additional 5 residential citrus trees confirmed positive in San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HLB quarantine

General Fruit Growing
#1

https://mailchi.mp/e81ac4351ed7/acphlb-monthly-update-for-san-diego-co-6269807

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#2

Hm. I need to plant a backup winter fruit. Sapote, fuerte avocado, maybe lady williams apple. What do folks recommend?

#3

Consider Holiday avocado instead of Fuerte.
Australian finger lime is very HLB resistant.
True kumquats, including seedless might be as well.
Indoor strawberries under 6400-6500 Kelvin lights is another option.

#4

Willl look into holiday. What makes it special? More productive?

I planted a very small finger lime as insurance in case this happened. Now I’m going to take extra good care of it!

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#5

Fuerte was initially needed here as a cross pollinator, but no more. Back in the day though they didn’t want to throw out the fruit (it’s inferior for fresh eating) so there was a contest held for Fuerte recipes and Guacamole was born introduced to the U.S.

Holiday is a Hass derivative with a meandering growth habit. In southern California climates it’s fruits ripen after Thanksgiving – hence the name.

#6

This sounds somewhat apocryphal, I assume this is a joke? Not to mention the fact that I find Fuerte to be one of the better tasting avocados, at least if they are allowed to mature sufficiently on the trees (so harvested around now in SoCal). Very creamy, high fat content, a nice subtle nutty taste. The skin is thin and they are easy to bruise once they start to soften, though. I’ve ordered them a number of times from a farm in Fallbrook that sells boxes of 8 fruit on Etsy for $36.

Just FYI, guacamole is not a modern invention, the term is believed to have been used in Mexico since pre-colonial times, derived from the Nahuatl ahuaca-molli (ahuacatl “avocado” + molli “sauce”).

#7

No joke.

In South Coast UCR Ag Station’s double blind taste tests for avocado, we could all pick out the Fuerte by taste – and not because it was good.

In praise of the Fuerte avocado
#8

Was this at the peak season? When I posted my surprise about the good fruit quality of Fuerte on the Tropical Fruit Forum after I got my first box of them, a number of long-time SoCal avocado growers chimed in to say it was one of their favorites for both flavor and texture, at least among the varieties that ripen in late winter.

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