Dwarf avacado trees

Has anyone grown dwarf avacado trees? I saw one in Parks catalog and was wondering what minimum temperature is. WOuld it survive in plastic hoop house in zone 8B? To propagate, would you have to graft and if so what would you graft onto? Thanks for any info.

Howdy Lady...

When I lived in Florida (central) we had huge avocado trees.
Do you think your really need to protect one in your area? (I thought it stayed warm pretty much yr round in your
area.) Does it give the requirements for the tree in the catalog?

I do remember being told once that avocado trees needed another tree to pollinate, so in order to get fruit you may need two.

As for grafting, that's an area I'll have to check more into. (I've started many a tree from sprouting the seeds tho!) :>)

Hopefully someone will come along with more definitive answers.

As I recall, avocados need another tree nearby to polinate but I don't remember anything about male and female trees so probably just another tree.

Good info here. http://plantsdatabase.com/go/2092/

Amazing what's under our noses, eh? ô¿ô

Thanks, Shoe... "CHICKEN SNOUTS?" LOL!

Hehehe...I saw that! :>)

So back to one of LaLady's questions...it looks to me like a dwarf avocado would survive in a plastic hoop house in her zone.

Yes, sounds that way... but still unknown about polination, isn't it?

Yeh..the closest I read was the one person mentions an "A" plant and a "B" plant for better pollination.

I've grown trees from the seeds before, and a friend has one that is nearly twenty yrs old (in her house) and it's never flowered. (Then again, she's not really a plant person.)

I think my curiosity is piqued enuff to do a more in-depth search (later today). (I love avocadoes...I realize they are high in fat tho, aren't they?)

avocado culture http://crfg.org/pubs/ff/avocado.html , http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/avocado.htm

Thanks MaVie.

The first link is full of info (haven't read the second one yet).

And lookit this:"Clinical feeding studies in humans have shown that avocado oil can reduce blood cholesterol."

Shoe, as i understand from previous reading, sometime back, avocadoes does have good cholesterol. got to do more research... will keep u posted when i see it again.

always a pleasure to give a helping hand on informative infos.

edited to add http://www.annecollins.com/diet_nutrition/avocado.htm
http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/11/1671_51079.htm?printing=true


This message was edited Nov 12, 2003 8:49 AM

This message was edited Nov 12, 2003 8:54 AM

Hello Lalady,
I have been doing all sorts of research over the past 2 weeks on avocado trees. I have seen some growers that offered Trees but not in Texas. Chestnut Hill Nursery offers several varieties, some of which will withstand 18 Degrees F. you can visit their website at www.chestnuthillnursery.com

Last May I bought two avocado trees from Wayside Gardens. THe one I gave my dad is kept in a south facing window where it gets full sun on it. Mine is in front of my doulbe glass doors and I believe gets enough sun as my dads does but his was full of blooms a month ago and mine has none. I bought these becuase they were said to be self pollinating so I'll keep you updated wether my dads makes fruit or not. I'll attempt to add the link to the site and if anyone has grown this variety in the past, I'd appreciate any growing experience you can share. THanks and I hope this helps you Lalady.

Gemila

http://www.waysidegardens.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TextSearch

I purchased a dwarf avocado from Parks or Wayside about two (+) years ago. I planted it in a large pot and it did OK the first year. The plant increased in size and stem girth by about 50%, so far so good! Then came winter.... I over wintered it on my back porch, which faces kind of Northeast so the light is not that great. Only a couple of hours of direct light in the morning and diffuse light the rest of the day, I knew I wouldn't get much growth so I was trying to just maintain it. Miracle of miracles I had several blooms in March! Last summer I put the plant where it received six to eight hours of full sun, kept it well watered and fertilized it several times. It had fantastic growth! The plant just about tripled in size to about 3.5+/-feet and had a very lush leaf canopy. I was flying!! I planned to again over winter it on my back porch. But about two weeks before I brought it into the house I sprayed it with "neem oil" to prevent my bringing any "critters" in. Big mistake! avocado’s don't like "neem oil". Within two weeks the plant had lost about 95% of its leaves. I could have cried. But it didn't die, just looks like. As I write (mid January) the plant is on my back porch, I water it about every two weeks just enough to keep the soul dry but not bone dry. I try to keep the temp around 45 degrees, although it did drop to 38 or so once. As a gardener I have hope! and await the coming of spring.