1st fruit of the season. Bloom to harvest for this cultivar is 12 months here, compared to 7 in Costa Rica.
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I love them. It’s the variety i like most.
Infortunately i can’t have them here… Too much cold sensitive.
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.I grow avocados too like Bacon, Ettinger and Duke7. This are very cold hardy varieties. Infortunately Reed i can’t.
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Hi Richard. I came across this thread while trying to find a source for a Reed avocado tree in Costa Rica. I’m really excited to find this community!
We live at an elevation of 2,500 ft about 6 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and 9 degrees north of the equator. Our temperatures are always in the 70’s, and we typically receive 150 to 200 inches of rain per year. This year was crazy wet, and we got well over 200 inches.
During our first year in Costa Rica, we rented a house at 5,000 ft. elevation that had a mature Hass tree which produced hundreds of delicious avocados. When we purchased our property seven years ago, the previous owner told that Hass avocados won’t grow here, but that didn’t stop me from trying!
There are two mature avocado trees growing on the property. One is quite a large tree that produced hundreds of small, tasty, red avocados. But the tree only produced a few fruit in 2020 and none since then. The other smaller tree produces bumpy, roundish fruits with no flavor. I’ll attach a picture of fruit harvested from our property in 2019 that included both types of avocados.
I got very serious this year and planted 50 fruit trees in June and July, including four avocado trees in July, using a planting technique that a friend in our area uses successfully (1 meter deep holes, with a one meter deep tube for watering the first dry season and a 1/2 meter deep tube for watering through the second dry season). I read your article that someone in this thread linked, and that’s very different than your recommended method.
I planted four grafted avocados, types Vulcano, Catalina, Hass, and Booth 7. Now, five months after planting them the Vulcano and Catalina appear to be healthy and vigorous, but the Hass and Booth 7 are barely hanging in there. Unless they turn themselves around, I plan on replacing them with other varieties when our rainy season starts again in April. This was my third try at growing Hass avocados here, so I’ve decided to hang it up. I would sure love to try planting a Reed if I can find one. A small grower in our area lists Simson, Puerto Rico, Simmonds, Hall, and Kahalu in addition to the trees I obtained from another nursery. Do you have any thoughts on any of those for our zone? Thanks for any insight you can share.
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@CRFruitLady
I’m sorry, I have no experience with those varieties. I recommend you create a new topic under General Fruit Growing and ask your question there.
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I have been trying to grow a Reed tree for the past 2-3 years. The tree looks healthy but it lacks vigor. I have a Hass tree right next to it that I have to continually top to keep it a manageable size. The leaves on the tree look consistent with Reed. Is it possible the seedling tree that Reed was grafted onto is a runt?
Here is a photo for reference with Reed in the foreground and Hass in the background.
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You have been growing that reed for 2-3 years? That is quite a small one for that age. It is definitely possible that the rootstock can be a runt. I have a Stewart that is on the opposite spectrum, it’s trunk is 2-3 times bigger than the other trees I started the same year. My reed that I started in a liner last year is in a 15g pot and maybe twice as big as yours.
My Reed avocado tree is also about 2-3 years old and hasn’t grown at all, even after being up-potted to a 50-gallon grow bag. It’s actually smaller than Richard’s. Now I’m thinking that maybe the rootstock is a runt
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I watched some of your avocado videos on Youtube. Where did you get your avocado trees on clonal rootstock?
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Oh thank you! I responded to your comment. I got all mine from Laguna Hills Nursery in Santa Ana. They get them from Brokaw in limited quantities randomly through the year, AFAIK. I have seen some being sold on the Facebook avocado group, also Brokaw trees on clonal rootstock. Search for Southern California Backyard Avocado Growers.
It’s possible. A picture would help 
They sell clonals? Only ever seen the zutano liners there for $37. I had to source all my dusa clonals from an arborist in SB county.
Brokaw does not sell the clonal rootstocks ungrafted, so I think they meant you can buy already-grafted trees on clonal rootstock from nurseries that get their trees from Brokaw (i.e., they are already grafted when the nursery buys them wholesale from Brokaw).
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Yeah that’s what I understood too, what I was surprised about was that Laguna Hills Nursery ever sold clonals. I’ve been going there for a few years now and have never seen clonals there.
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