I actually moved north to Oregon specifically because the lack of reliable rainfall in California. I lived the first 43 years of my life between Southern and Northern California, and got tired of the frequent droughts and consequential fires. I got evacuated from my home 3 times in the 5 years leading up to 2019. I finally said, f-it, and moved a few hundred miles north.
A ‘bad’ rain year here is 30 inches, and while Oregon certainly has forest fires, they typically
aren’t as apocalyptic as in California. Every year, without fail, some California community gets burned to the ground. It’s sad and depressing and maybe Mother Earth is trying to tell us these desiccated canyons aren’t suitable for McMansions. When I was growing up in 120 degree summer temps, 100 miles east of Los Angeles, I used to look outside and think ‘even the Indians left this place in the summer and went to the top of the mountains to camp beside cooling streams in the alpine sky islands.
While I miss some aspects of living in Northern California, the growing zone and fundamental climate conditions are still roughly the same in Oregon. Mostly I miss the extra month without frost in Northern California. While that doesn’t seem like much, gardeners know an extra 4 weeks makes a huge difference for late ripening fruit. California growers get way more main crop figs, not relying almost exclusively on the breba crop. Pomegranates in NorCal are not hit or miss as they are here. In Oregon my feijoa crop is usually done by November, whereas in California I could depend on them well into the winter. Obviously I could grow winter ripening citrus down south. Outside here I am limited to the citrus that ripens by December. I’ve had good luck only with sudachi, yuzu and meyer lemon. The biggest drawback for me in Oregon is the inability to easily grow avocados outside. They grow amazingly well in the ground inside my greenhouse, but I’ve yet to get any fruit. So the verdict is still out on whether or not those are worth the effort.
How about avocados where you are in Georgia? I saw a couple YouTube videos produced by a guy in South Carolina who was having success growing Mexicolas outside in his backyard. Does that seem like an anomaly in the southeast, north of Florida, or is it something people are getting excited about?
It probably could be done, but I’m having trouble sourcing the most cold hardy varieties. Joey, mexicola,;etc are pretty uncommon in the nursery trade and quite pricey when they turn up.
If I had more growing area, I would probably try them.
I’m always happy to send free scionwood to anyone who wants to try avocados. I think rootstocks matter less in the southeast than the west coast zone pushing areas. Your worst cold is usually short-lived and your soil temperatures are typically never in the danger zone for avocado roots, even the less hardy ones. Graft low, and be sure protect the graft and any rootstock stem that’s above ground, and I think you can just use any old seedling as a rootstock.
But maybe not in 7b… I’d say 8b (on the new map) is probably the line where you can get away with avocados without significant protection.
I’d be happy to help you source them. I have a bonsai business, and many sources for ‘clean’ avocado scions. Are you comfortable grafting? If so, I can get you scions from several cold hardy cultivars.
I also just noticed that Winn is offering to help you get scions too. I reckon he’s got a better inventory than I do.
The impediment I encounter most of the time is not sourcing scions, but rootstocks, I’ve got a few Mexicola, a gem and several bacon. Where you are located the bacon might be good enough. Definitely worth a try. I’ve been told it’s too sensitive for Oregon, so I haven’t used them outdoors yet. I plan to, eventually, but I decided to go with the Mexicola first.
Thanks to @jsteph00921 and @swincher .
I’ll probably grab some rootstocks from Fruitwood in the spring and give it a shot…
Never grafted Avocado before, but have succesfuly done pawpaws, persimmons, feijoa and citrus so I think my technique is ok enough.
Avocados are pretty easy to graft, the wood cuts nicely and they tend to callus well. Cleft grafts work great, W&T too. I’ve had lots of trouble trying to bud them, though.
Northern California has a LONG coastline that provides lots of summer fog. So yes, we can have fungus problems. However, I’ve learned to bless the fog for bringing us cooler temperatures and mitigating our long long months of no rain.
I’ve been trying to grow all my plants that I learned of from this forum up in Del Norte County. Being in California’s rainiest county gives us the fungi (but hey, golden chanterelles aplenty). During California’s last drought, we were getting about 70 inches, and in normal years we get over 100. Curly leaf sucks.
Forest fires are definitely still a problem, the closest they’ve gotten was around 600 feet from the property line, basically turning us into a green island. Last year the Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fires was luckily stopped before getting to us, but we had firefighters everywhere. This year in mid August, instead of our annual dry lighting firestarter, we got a small dunking. 4 inches ought to keep the chance of fires down for a bit.
Wouldn’t any fires to burn up my Yuzus or Sudachi, those little guys have been growing too good for that.
Those look great. My citrus grew wonderfully this year too. The meyer lemon is now over 6 feet in its second year in the ground. I suspect it must not be on flying dragon since it’s growing so dang fast. In contrast the 2 sudachis are for sure on flying dragon and are only a little above 3 feet in the same 2 year time frame. They’ve all been fairly prolific bearing the last couple years.
Yuzu on its own roots grows super fast, as does the seedling Carrizo. Both of those are now 5 years old and over 8 feet. Now if they would just
make some fruit. The yuzu made fruit for a couple years but the last two it has skipped. It’s anybody’s guess when a seedling Carrizo will start blooming. Could be in just a couple more, or could be another decade. Even when it does the fruit probably won’t be so good. I’ve gotten mixed reports about its edibility. Some say it’s okay as a lemon substitute, while others say it’s gross. I’m not a fan of the poncirus fruit so Carrizo might not work for me.
Are you near Gasquet? Grassy Flats campground about half way to cabe junction is one of my favorite drive in campgrounds on the entire west coast.
The first one I got was a grafted one, it’s much slower to grow than ones rooted. I root a half a dozen or so every year to give away or sell. I don’t see a reason to graft a meyer personally, wish I didn’t get this tree but it’s finally started to produce pretty well
Interesting, I’ve pretty much only ever seen them on their own roots. E.g., here’s OGW’s listing (which is admittedly confusing until you get to the last part):
Mine is grafted onto standard trifoliate or some kind of trifoliate hybrid. I got mine from a big box store.
Honestly though, while I would lose it if it dies to the roots, I’m glad it’s on the rootstock, the spot it’s in gets pretty wet, especially in winter. On it’s own roots phytophthera might’ve already killed it.
That probably explains it. The guy who gave it to me said it was on flying dragon and he was obviously wrong. I cloned a few meyers last year from the greenhouse citrus orchard in Salem and they are already a couple feet tall and blooming prodigiously.
Its interesting that your experience is the exact opposite of mine. I’ve always been told that citrus is always grafted, regardless of type. I know my meyer is grafted (because its also a key lime) and nearly all the ones I’ve seen are grafted (not sure on what since we don’t use sour orange anymore). This definitely could be an East Coast vs West Coast distinction since we seem to have a lot more diseases (especially here in Florida where every county has a different quarantine).
