I saw this video a couple weeks ago and thought of this thread. Are you familiar with this avocado in Milan, @swincher ? https://youtu.be/ToO-YoLeov8?si=Ed8UGnzZiRup5HGo
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I don’t know about that one, but there was another Italian avocado tree posted up-thread:
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Just tried some avocado grafting a few days ago.
Just grafted Duke over the two of my three of Reed avos. I’m hoping to save the last one for puting in my eventual hoophouse.
My Mexicola was sprouting out from down low so I grafted over them too.
The larger scion on the left is Jade, the smaller two on the right are Duke.
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Since I’m currently distributing a bunch of trees in deepots to members of the avocado project, and not able to help everyone with planting them, I decided to post a quick summary of the way that has worked best for planting these in the ground. If you saw the earlier post about transplanting from deepots to larger pots, you’ll notice some parallels.
First, of course, I have to pick a spot. It should be somewhere that gets direct sun for at least a few hours (and all day sun is also fine if you’ll be able to water in summer). Here’s the spot I picked today, which gets a few hours of morning sun and a few hours of late afternoon/evening sun, but is in the shade of a large doug fir for the middle of the day:
I then cut a circle in the topsoil or sod (in this case), using a trench shovel, and if it’s sod then I take it out intact like this:
Next, I fill the hole with water (this can serve as a perc test if you don’t know how well your soil drains), and while waiting for that to drain, I stick the bottom of the new tree in the mud in the center, digging down a little if necessary to get it at a level where the soil line in the pot is a couple inches above ground level:
I leave that and go get a wheelbarrow load of backfill, which can just be normal topsoil from somewhere nearby, or a mixture of topsoil and aged compost. In this case I have a pile of “garden mix” from Burien Bark that I’m using instead.
Leaving the tree in the pot at the center, I create a donut shaped mound to a level a little higher than the top of the pot, pat it firmly into place, and then wiggle it and slip it out, trying to leave an intact hole the shape of the pot:
Then, follow the earlier instructions for removing trees from deepots:
Check the roots for any signs of rot or drought damage (in the photo below the roots are mostly healthy, but there are a few blackened bits where I let it dry out too much), and slip the tree carefully into the hole. Leave a hose very slowly dripping to water it in while you go to get some wood chips:
And a layer of wood chips finishes it off!
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Looks like I had 100% take (4 of 4) for my grafts of M.E.G., so this newly introduced variety will be distributed to project members for sure in spring.
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Great to see!
I snapped a few pics of M.E.G August 3rd when we were driving by.
It has pretty large leaves.
The fruit are probably a bit more developed now, but this is what they had been looking like.
Hope those four little guys you have look like that soon enough!
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my greenhouse is set up for fall, and soon will be ready for winter
I was wondering if you had any thoughts on when I should tuck away the avos I have potted here; our first frost isn’t usually until October but it hits hard when it comes, with every night getting cold and bitter after it.
I know the trees will want to be above our hard frosts but at what temp should I start thinking about putting them in the greenhouse? it stays warm in there in the 50s-60s until December, then drops to 39-50F until March. I have a shaded area inside for figs and peppers also, but I’m thinking like last year the avocados don’t need dark, just cool?
can they take a frosty night and then go in, or should I jump and move them in the days before?
the big-fruited giant tropical seed starts will go in about a week before I hear rumor of frost. my more tender figs go in once nights are below 45F, for safety’s sake. for reference
photos to spice up my question!:
number 263 by the tobacco patch
Northrop with “big guy” friend.
grasshoppers have been a menace this year. another “big guy” from seed there
“cold hardy avocado” was the original label on this back when I bought it, this is the old one I had before. I found the yellow slip label in the dirt while watering it!
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As long as the first frost isn’t a really hard one, they can definitely handle staying outside for the first frost. Well, at least the hardy ones, maybe not the seedling of the giant one that was probably a West Indies cultivar, so your plan for that one sounds good.
Here, I usually leave my potted avocados outside until I expect it to be below about 27°F, and for some of the larger ones that’s more like 25°, and I usually just roll them back out again when the forecast warms up. For you that’s probably not going to be an option, of course.
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I can probably do it for a week or so- they’ll be the only things getting shuffled, so it won’t be as difficult.
still trying to figure out my timing on the olive trees-
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Here’s the very last seed to sprout out of the 150+ avocado seeds I started last fall (a handful rotted months ago, this was the only one to stay alive but not sprouting for the entire summer). Seedling #492, from a suspected Mexicola tree growing in Gainesville FL:
By contrast, this is what the very first one that sprouted from that batch of seeds (Seedling#351) looks like today:
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Here’s an example of a tree that had zero protection other than wood chips being mounded up just above the graft. This is “Jade” grafted on a Bacon seedling, which has regrown nicely and doesn’t seem interested in slowing any time soon:
There was some freeze damage to the trunk above and below the graft union, but that seems to be healing:
Last fall it kept growing until a freeze in November (two consecutive nights around 28°F) killed most of the unhardened leaves. It was otherwise basically unbothered by a few similar freezes until the bad one in January. This is what it looked like just before the January freeze:
And this is what it looked like in the middle of the freeze, showing what protection it got:
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And the cycle repeats! The first two seeds have been placed in their starter pots for next year’s seedlings. Here are the pre-planting photos.
#528, seed parent is Mexicola:
#530, seed parent is an unknown tree (maybe Mexicola Grande) growing in Kenner, Louisiana:
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I’m most of the way through the box of 11 Mexicolas I got from Marta last week, and it’s remarkable how uniform they are in weight and seed:flesh ratio. The 8 that I’ve eaten so far (in grams, and each measurement was made separately so they don’t always add up exactly):
| Total weight | Seed weight | Edible portion |
|---|---|---|
| 68 | 13 | 54 |
| 73 | 12 | 60 |
| 65 | 10 | 55 |
| 66 | 12 | 54 |
| 67 | 11 | 55 |
| 71 | 13 | 57 |
| 67 | 12 | 54 |
| 69 | 13 | 56 |
Their flavor really is wonderful, I would be happy if this was the only avocado variety I could get! Some photos:
One of the seeds has an interesting malformation:
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You eat the skin on those?
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Yes!
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https://growingfruit.org/t/one-for-winn-and-anyone-else-who-is-into-avocados/66310/3?u=cavocado
I’d read that post when you first made it and thought “Hey! By brother in law is coming over and is passing Davis along the way, this sounds convenient.”
Three hours later I had a box of hard mexicola.
So far mine are in no way uniform, the largest is 79 grams, and smallest is only 30 g.
I just ate the cut one in picture. Not quite ripe yet, especially up by the stem. The riper part tasted pretty good, and the second half was nearly a delicacy when I put a little salt and lemon on it. The skin was fairly tough so I could scrape the meat off with my teeth and the skin I did try tasted like anise. It all had the “unripe avocado” flavor and texture going on, but the riper part was better and smooth.
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For these, they are really best when they get soft enough that your thumb easily punctures the skin when you press firmly.
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Finished off the mexicola yesterday. A neighbor gave me a loaf of homemade sourdough so I had avocado toast out of hass and mexicola side by side. Mexicola blew the hass out of the water, some of the best avo toast I’ve had. The hass was stringy and just ok, while mexicola was perfectly creamy smooth and had a wonderful, unique flavor. I prefer mexicola now. I had two different days of mexicola toast so I could have them at their peak. Strangely, their skin came off easy the first time but was a struggle for the second.
Today also I received a box of Marta’s Aravaipa avocados. I ordered the 15 box of her seconds fruit and 10 seeds, but she gifted me an extra fruit.
No taste test yet.
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Let the Aravaipa get even more ripe than Mexicola. They will be rubbery even after they feel soft, but they are much better if you wait a few extra days beyond when they seem ready. They are still just mediocre compared to Mexicola, but not bad.
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