I probably won’t update this thread again until there’s a hard frost or some calamity befalls the trees, but for anyone interested in more frequent updates on this project, I created the twitter handle @the_drymifolia just for this project, and I’ll be posting photos and minor updates there going forward.
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I just couldn’t help myself and I kept planting out more avocados! Currently up to 21 trees (here’s a twitter thread with photos of all 21), which is almost certainly all the ones I’ll be planting out before winter. The only exception is I’ll probably plant out any trees that are too unhealthy in their pots, as a form of euthanasia.
So far we’ve had two mild frosts (ice on the lawn ~33°F), but no hard frost, and all the trees seem unaffected by either that or the steady month of rain we’ve had recently. But there’s a lot of cold, dark, rainy (and maybe snowy) weather still ahead for these trees to prove their hardiness (or maybe more likely, not).
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Back when we were kids we spent a week with friends in San Buenaventura, Coahuila. And there were so many Avocadoes! And one day we went west to the area around the small town of Lamadrid. It was like an oasis in the desert, at the base of the dry bare mountains. We even went up into the edge of the mountains. There were lots of avocadoes all over and I just would love to get sone of their seed now that I know more. I imagine those are pretty hardy ones! Since that valley probably sees some severe cold come out of those mountains over the course of a century!
I just looked up the weather and it shows 14F last feb:
And that valley is not the coldest, i think Lamadrid is about 2,150 Ft, but we asked our friends and they said they had been up in those mountains to the west and found wild stands of avocado up in areas that got a lot colder that he said something to the effect “i cant believe they can take the cold up there”.
Thats been a long time ago…
Those friends now live at Del Rio TX and are getting old but now that I know more i hope to cross paths and get him to show me on the map where that is!!!
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Now that we’re a day and a half out from our first proper freeze (we were at or below freezing for 5+ hours with a low of 30.9°F/-0.6°C), I decided to go around and inspect all the trees for any signs of frost damage. Most are totally unaffected (some photos later), but there are a few that don’t look like they are going to be hardy here if this mild freeze caused even slight damage.
The most colorful Royal-Wright seedling had never really entered dormancy, so it still had more tender leaves than most of the other trees. However, some other trees with tender leaves still had no damage, but this seedling has its youngest leaves curling and clear cellular leaf damage on even the older leaves:
This is what that tree looked like yesterday morning:
One of the only other seedlings showing frost damage is this Mexicola seedling, which is actually the very same seedling that melted from a hard frost in late winter.
It will be interesting to see if it continues to die back to the ground and sprout from the roots, but even if so it seems like it’s not a strong contender for hardiness here.
Another Mexicola seedling shows the slightest bit of cellular damage, but since this also hadn’t entered dormancy I won’t judge it too much:
Meanwhile, the rest of these photos are all avocado trees that were also outside for this same brief freeze, and show zero damage even on tender new leaves. First up, the grafted varieties Poncho, Brazos Belle, Winter Mexican(!!), Duke, and Joey (in that order):
These two seedlings of Mexicola Grande also show no damage:
Neither do these two seedlings of Royal-Wright:
The experiment continues!
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Ettinger is doing very well to me! The best or like bacon… and bacon was the only one that survived here. The ettinger is a new tree…
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That is interesting since those are usually described as only moderately hardy. Have you tried other Mexican types like Mexicola and found they were less hardy for you? Or do you mean Bacon/Ettinger are doing well compared to other commercial Guatemalan-type cultivars like Hass?
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I can’t have hass, pinkerton or reed. They all died except bacon and ettinger. My ettinger is much younger than bacon, but even so is doing very very well.
Just last spring i plant my mexican varieties on ground, so i can’t tell nothing about it…
Ettinger is very very good flavour too…
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My 3 avocados I ordered online arrived yesterday. Lila, Joey, and Fantastic. I am planning on planting in the spring. I will be following these posts even more closely now.
Tacoma, WA
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Let me know if you’re interested in a scion swap in the early summer! I could make it down to Tacoma pretty easily and if you’re not experienced at grafting I would be happy to help out with that so you could add a second variety on to each of those after their first flush in the ground hardens. I still haven’t gotten my hands on Fantastic or Lila, so would be most interested in those, and should have tons of choices to trade by then.
One factor to keep in mind with your trees is those are probably grafted on Lula seedling rootstock (if they came from a Florida or Texas nursery), which is not particularly hardy. I planted out a couple trees I bought that are on Lula seedlings, so it’ll be interesting to see how those fare compared to other trees on hardier rootstocks.
My biggest outdoor tree was sold by Plant-O-Gram as “Poncho” but someone on another forum in Texas said the leaves don’t look like his Poncho, so it could be a mislabel. But if it makes it through the winter ok then that’s a good sign for that rootstock being ok at least. I planted it with the graft union fully buried, and so far it’s handled a couple mild frosts without any issues:
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Why would they graft a cold hardy scion to not cold hardy rootstock and then advertise it as cold hearty. Bastards. I saw that they are definitely grafted and the rootstock is not mentioned.
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As long as the ground doesn’t freeze solid, conventional wisdom seems to be that rootstock hardiness doesn’t matter too much, especially if you plant with the graft union below ground (or more accurately, with soil mounded above it).
Florida and south Texas nurseries tend to use Lula seedlings for all grafted avocados because they are readily available in the trade, tend to be vigorous, and can handle their local alkaline or higher salinity soils better than hardy types. Of course salinity and alkalinity aren’t really concerns for the PNW other than maybe some low-lying coastal stretches.
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Just realized I should probably update this thread with a recap of the results of the late December killing freeze (6 days of freezing temperatures starting with a low of 18°F and ending with a low of 15°F).
I’ve posted a tweet thread with photos and specific details about particular trees, but the gist seems to be that all the in-ground trees survived below the snow line, a few of them survived to varying degrees above the snow line, and even a few of the potted seedlings appear to have survived. Here’s a grafted Joey tree that looks mostly alive despite defoliating:
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Hello everyone, il from France, il looking for cold hardy avocado seedling or scionwood, does someone could help me with that? 
In france there are nurseries that sell hardy varieties…
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Hello i have never find some
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@Luisport may be able to recommend some to you, or if you check through this thread you may find some options.
It is not possible for any US members to send you materials unfortunately. Welcome to the forum!
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Hi! Here you have several hardy varieties: I advice you ettinger, bacon and fuerte. On fruit quality ettinger is really good. Regarding hardiness bacon and ettinger on my location are the best ones.
Vendita Piante da Frutto Tropicali ed Esotiche - Vendita Piante Online (venditapiccolifrutti.it)
Here you have the ones above and zutano too:
▷ Comprar Árboles de Aguacate | Tropicales Málaga (tropicalesmalaga.com)
In France you have this two:
AVOCATIERS – persea americana – La Pépinière du Bosc (pepinieredubosc.fr)
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Hello,
I was wondering if mexican variety as ,lila, brazo belle , stewart and other.
Would be better for me…
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Not in Europe… duke7 is mexican and very hardy and good avocado…
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Ettinger, Duke7, and Fuerte are all Mexican types, and out of those Duke7 is probably the hardiest. Bacon is a relatively hardy Guatemalan type that is sometimes mischaracterized as a Mexican hybrid.
And as for the cultivars not readily available in the E.U., obtaining phytosanitary certificates seems like a bit of a challenge for avocado cuttings or seeds, so I’m not willing to send them internationally myself.
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