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Avocado Tree Planting
updated: Jan 26, 2013, 11:30 AM

By Edhat Subscriber

I'd like to plant an avocado tree but don't know the first thing about where I should get one, how to plant it and how to maintain it. Thanks for any help!!

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 367717	2013-01-26 11:35 AM
Buy an avacado at the grocery store. Look up on the internet how to germinate the seed inside it.
COMMENT 367721	2013-01-26 11:47 AM
If you follow 717's advice, you should also learn how to graft on that root stock The better thing to do is go to one of the local nurseries like Doug Knapp, Terra del Sol or La Sumida and ask about the trees they offer, how to plant etc. They are pretty easy, but you do not want close to your home and they require watering. My favorite is the Haas
COMMENT 367722	2013-01-26 11:47 AM
You won't get good avocados starting from a pit. Good trees are grafted onto a different rootstock. We have several great nurseries in town. I like Knapp's Nursery in Goleta. They're affordable, helpful and informative. Avocados do not transplant well so you'll have to start with a juvenile tree and won't get much fruit for years. If you're not planning to move anytime soon, then good luck and be patient.
COMMENT 367738	2013-01-26 12:31 PM
Avocado trees like lots of room. Also, they are shallow rooted so you should not have a path that crosses the root zone. They will require more frequent watering than stone fruit. They have few pests so spraying is not normally requited. The commercial nurseries in Santa Paula require you to walk through a special powder to sterilize your shoes. They are a rewarding tree.
COMMENT 367742	2013-01-26 12:36 PM
All the avocados grown in the trade are hybrids, mostly from Mexican or Guatemalan parentage, sometimes a mix of the two. They are indeed grafted onto root stock which will perform better than non grafted trees. Grafting is different than hybridization, speaking of biology and missing class. Hass is a good avo for around here but other varieties are more cold tolerant, depends where you live. Lots of info on the internet.
COMMENT 367753	2013-01-26 01:10 PM
8 comments and only one even close to the answer. Actually better than average for around here. I'd recommend you wait until after the chance of frost and if you are a costco member, they are usually on sale in the spring for $16 (vs $25+ everywhere else) for haas. They can be tempermental, and are actually descended from jungle trees, so do some research. One thing I learned is that they don't like direct sun and can be burned for the first two years, so find a place with lower shade, that has sun exposure higher up. Again, frost will burn a new tree and set it back years of growth, so wait a few months until spring and give them some space to grow.
COMMENT 367755P	2013-01-26 01:16 PM
We killed 3 of them before we figured out that wet clay soil for 2-3 months in the winter led to root rot. Pick your location carefully too.
COMMENT 367760	2013-01-26 01:28 PM
We bought ($300) one 3 yrs ago that was 3 yrs old already. It had one teeny avocado on it at the time. We deep water it (slow flow for several hours) once a month. We fertilize it in February and August using organic stuff from Sumida. This is the first year we have tons of avocados. It has doubled in size also during that time. Oh, it's a haas. Beautiful avocados this year. Way bigger than the ones at farmers market or the store and way yummier of course!
COMMENT 367775	2013-01-26 02:41 PM
I bought Holiday (fruit ready in November) also known as XX3 because of the super large fruit. I bought two because I heard they need friend to pollinate them. One died and the other has never set fruit. I've been looking for a friend for it. Turns out two for the "same" don't pollinate very well. You need a different type that blooms at the same time in order to get fruit. Unless you live in the vicinity where there are tons of avocado trees anyway.There are Type A and Type B, you need one of each and blooming the same time of year. Ask lots of questions about hardiness, when it blooms, what kind of mate it needs, how much space it will take up. Check this out... www(dot)ucavo(dot)ucr(dot)edu/AvocadoVarieties/VarietyFrame(dot)html#Anchor-47857 You have to replace the(dot) with a period.
COMMENT 367789	2013-01-26 03:21 PM
I saw some for sale at Home Depot in the garden section.
COMMENT 367920P	2013-01-26 10:14 PM
Stay clear of buying fruit trees at Costco. Actually anything other than maybe bulbs. They never water their plants and they become very stressed inside in the dry air with little light. Do some leg work by checking out the trees (which will come in later this spring) and staff at the local independent nurseries suggested above. They will have the advice for your site and soil, as well as ongoing care advice for the life of your trees. Avos do get large and spread out, so not for small yards, except the "dwarf" ones. Do your homework and you'll be rewarded. Nothin beats a homegrown tomato except a Homegrown Avocado. The County Home and FArm Advisor's office has free booklets on all types of home gardening subjects. Call the office or go online to download PDF's.
COMMENT 367923P	2013-01-26 10:34 PM
***looks like the local SB Co. web page for UC cooperative extension is slim, but here is the State page about avos: http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/Fruits_&_Nuts/Avocado/
COMMENT 367937P	2013-01-27 02:03 AM
We were fortunate when we purchased our home because we have different varieties of Avocados . They have a tendency to fruit at various times of the year depending on the Variety. We have Nabald (Huge Canon Ball Like) Fuertes, Hass, Dickson,s several Mexican Varieties and one I have no idea of it's name. I sincerely believe that the builder of our home liked the fruit so well that he arranged to be able to eat avocados all year long. I also believe you can graft various species of the fruit on the same root stock and have one tree which produces fruit that is available for most of the year. I have had wonderful luck with the trees I have purchased from Norman Beard. He is the president of the Rare Fruit growers and very generous with his knowledge and his time;
SANDYINSB	2013-01-27 08:17 AM
And once you have all that delicious fruit, the one seasoning on avocado that few know about is: Onion Salt. Try a dash on avocado. It's not used much anymore, and I have found it only at Gelsons. Enjoy.
COMMENT 367982	2013-01-27 08:59 AM
I have killed three Hass avocado young trees. They were on the same drip in the orchard as my other fruiting trees. I later found out they should only have 5 gallons of water once a week . My next attempt will have a five gallon bucket to fill and water the young tree once a week.
COMMENT 367985	2013-01-27 09:05 AM
I bought a lot of fruit trees from Costco. Lots of citrus, a bareroot and an avo. All are doing great. The avo from last year is about 6 feet tall already. BUT I picked mine up when they first put them out and did not pick up a tree that had been sitting in the store. No outdoor plant enjoys the dark of indoors over time. I picked a spot based on temperature, with all the recent frosts pick a spot that you did not see freeze. They also require a good bit of water, so think about your drainage and how you will be watering. We use a drip on ours. We only mixed a little bit of organic garden soil with our native soil when we planted in to a hole dug much larger than the pot. You do not need a second type to pollinate on many varieties, our Haas will set more fruit if when had a different type, but it will set with out us having one. And since this is Santa Barbara, chances are a neighbor has that second type already.
SLIPROCK9	2013-01-27 04:29 PM
Nabal does not have a "d" on the end.
COMMENT 368102	2013-01-27 05:31 PM
My neighbor has an avocado tree that gives lots of fruit on our side of the fence. A decade ago, my toddler picked an avo from the neighbor's tree and buried it in our yard. Months later, I saw this ft-tall weed and when I went to pull it, realized it was an avo. The "weed" grew into a tree and we did nothing to care for it. It never produced, but we couldn't bring ourselves to cut it down, because the kid had planted it. This year, a decade later, it was COVERED with avos and reaches 10 ft. The neighbor's "mother" tree produces Haas, we think. They're bumpy, round with a round pit and almost black when ripe. The "baby" tree produces a tear-shaped avo twice as large with a tear-shaped pit, smoother skin, and is green-skinned when ripe. How can that be? But it is. We just came home from the Film Fest and found 11 ripe avos fallen onto the patio!
LOURAY	2013-01-28 01:45 PM
Dat Wut, the mother tree had been pollinated at least in one blossom by a non-Hass avocado, and the seed was the hybrid result. If your fruit is exceptional in some way - - takes a beating, tastes extra good, keeps a long time - - you might want to take some cuttings and graft them on rootstock as a science project for the son, or sell them, or start a farm. Ennyhoo, enjoy them, and know that the seeds won't in all likelihood produce more of the same.
COMMENT 368324	2013-01-28 02:35 PM
Interesting, Louray! Thank you fer dat! We've only eaten one from the "baby" tree and it was quite tasty, in addition to huge. That science project sounds like a winner, and the kid/teen is just the right age for it! Thank you!
LOURAY	2013-01-28 07:58 PM
I took my botany classes at UCSB, where we weren't doing avocados, but they are apparently having a great time with them at UC Riverside. Below is a great resource, advertised as being for the pro or the backyard gardener. http://www.ucavo.ucr.edu/ The botanical terminology can be a bit thick at times, so your kid may want to have a reference dictionary handy, go slowly, and soak it up. Read about how many flowers a tree can have on it, and you won't be surprised at having so much fruit if the rest of the conditions are good. Bees are the pollinator, to the best of UCR's knowledge; perhaps you had extra bees this year. Or someone put in a good pollinizer tree nearby, or the mother tree was in a very good state for pollinizing. Happy guacamole-ing!

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