Description
AVOCADO TREES-“Joey” cold hardy Zone 8a
·Avocados should be planted on highground.
·They need adequate water but needgood drainage.Tropical broadleaf butwill not tolerate wet soggy soil.
- They need adequate water but need good drainage. Tropical broadleaf but will not tolerate wet soggy soil.
- Trees need to be in a raised bed or mounded.Over time mound the ground around the trees so it covers the graft so that if a bad freeze occurs the plant can come back from “Varietal Wood” instead of from the rootstock.
·The trees “will” need to beprotected from the cold for two to three years.As the tree matures, thegreen bark on the trunk will begin to turn brown.
·Start fertilizing young trees afterone year of growth, using a balanced fertilizer such as 8-8-8 twiceyearly.
·It is also recommended to protectyoung avocado trees from direct sun for the first year.
·One option is to paint the greentrunk and main branches with a whitewash.
·You can also drape them with a shadecloth or light burlap sack over a wooden or PVC frame a foot or two above thetree.
·The trees should begin to bear fruitwithin 2 – 3 years.3-5 Gal trees bear somefruit now in the pot
· Joey, Lila, Lula, Fantastic, and Arizona arejust some of the cold hardy examples now 14-18 degrees
· All avocados are self-fertile butproduce larger and more fruit if cross-pollinated, can grow to 30 feet at maturity in several years or 10-15 feet in a large pot, but can be cut back.Remember fruit comes on new growth.
· Zone 8b ALL AVOCADOS come only in 5gallon pots, but we designate 5 gal and 7 gal sizes so that the 7gal sizedesignates older larger trees with calipers of the trunk over 3/8 inch orlarger and the smaller trees as only 1/4 inch caliper and smaller. The 7 galtrees are not much taller, but are bushier and as mentioned a larger in caliperin trunk size.
