OB - I bought a Poncho Avocado from Mass Nursery in June 2016. I transplanted it right away into a larger pot. It's done really well and has grown a lot, but no fruit yet. It has new buds this year. I'm not sure if these will be fruit or not. Please let me know if you have any thoughts or advice about the finer points of growing avocados in Houston. Also, I'm thinking of planting it in the yard later this year, so any advice on that is appreciated too.

Tree 6-2016:

Potting Soil:

Transplanted 6-2016:

Tree today:

I had always heard an avocado plant/tree takes 10 years to produce fruit. Wikipedia says 4-6 years to bear fruit, but can take up to ten years.

Thanks. Guessing it is 4-5 yrs now.

I have had an avocado tree for about 3 years and finally got blooms! I have read that this is about a normal time to wait for blooms and hopefully avocados. Since my wife bought this one, I do not know the variety, but it is one of the more cold hardy varieties.

[url=https://imgur.com/orpriw9][/url]

I am in Medina County and have this one planted near the south side of the house. Everything that was above the gutter froze back.

I bought an Avocado tree from the Harris County Extension sale a few years ago. I planted it in the backyard of my house in Katy and that thing took off like mad. When I bought it, it had small avocados on it already even though it was only 4 feet tall or so in a pot. It took a beating from freezes over the years but was still going strong when I sold that house last summer....

Get a fertilizer that is specific for Avocados. I forget which micronutrient is critical for setting fruit and holding it, but after a few years I learned that using the right fertilizer on the right schedule is critical for those trees. I never got a LOT of avocados off, but the ones I did get were really good.

The fertilizer I used was THIS ONE from Home Depot.

So I just bought a Mexicola Grande at the Galveston County Master Gardeners Spring Plant Sale today. Have no idea how this is going to go or what I'm doing. Thinking I'll leave it in a container (need to move it to a larger one) for the first year so I can move it if it gets too cold next winter (should be fine the rest of this winter I figure).

Where are y'all buying these Avocado Trees. I am looking to get 1 Cold Hardy and 1 Haas (They cross polinate with each other).

I got mine at the Harris County Master Gardeners Fruit Tree Sale. The West Harris county one was a few weeks ago, but there is an upcoming one in Pasadena.

Link is below. They also have a vegetable sale coming up.

https://hcmga.tamu.edu/plant-sales/

RCW nursery at BW8 and 249 is a good place to get avocado and citrus trees.

ForeverAg said:

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Where are y'all buying these Avocado Trees. I am looking to get 1 Cold Hardy and 1 Haas (They cross polinate with each other).

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Do you plan to plant the Haas in the yard? If so, my understanding is that they absolutely will not tolerate freezing temperatures and so it will likely never make it. May want to leave it in a container so you can move it inside when necessary.

The multi-year wait on fruiting is based on growth from seed. hybrid/grafted trees will fruit quicker. I've had my tree for 4 years (I think) and I got fruit the first season after planting (just over a year in the ground).

Haas will freeze most winters in Houston. Only avocados that will do well are hybrid/grafted trees that are "designed" to survive teens & 20s. Something to think about with these though, the root ball will survive low temps but the branches may not. Last winter when we had snow for a couple days, I covered my tree with a makeshift plastic greenhouse and ran a heat lamp under it 24hrs a day until the temps got above freezing. I still had to cut back a bunch of limbs. And when you have to cut back that means no fruit that year. This winter It looks like I will have no pruning due to temps so hopefully we will get fruit.

Also, most avocado trees won't live but maybe 10 yrs in a pot. Need to be in the ground to get big and thrive.

I just put ours in the ground last fall after being in a container for a year. It is much happier this year and seems like we may get some fruit this year. I picked the most cold tolerant variety RCW had when we bought ours (Joey maybe?), and I think they said it was ok down to the low 20s. Right now it is about 5' tall and I have 4 T-posts sunk into the ground around it that I can drape a plant blanket over to protect it. When it gets bigger, I will make a wooden tee-pee like structure to support the blanket(s) and use Christmas lights under it if needed to keep it warm in future harder freezes.

So here's my Mexicola Grande that I re-potted today. We're off to the races

i'll go take a few pics of mine in a bit.

Main shape of tree. Should be a 1.5-2 ft taller given the size of the trunk.


You can see the lopsided-ness from pruning after last winter's freeze. Heat lamp was on the ground on the right. It saved the base and upper right but upper left was hosed.


Got some buds this year. Hopefully they turn to fruit.

chjoak, what variety is yours? And can you say about how many fruit you got off of it this past year?

I don't recall. Got it at RCW 3-4 years ago. It was one of the grafted/hybrid varieties that was supposed to be hardy down to 20-22 degrees.

3 years ago I had 4-6 fruits reach maturity. Started off with 30+ marble size fruits. Lost some to wind, natural loss and kids/animals. Last 2 years I had no fruit. Too much pruning from the winter (last year being far worse). This year it looks like I won't have to prune anything from the cold so I hope I will have another good year.

Looking at the 2nd pick still pisses me off how much effort I went through to save the damn thing only to cut back 2+ ft in places. As much growth as I tend to get in the spring the entire tree should be atleast 1-2 ft taller.

Thanks. I like the way you have yours in a slightly raised bed. I think I am going to do the same when I put mine into the ground.

I had to do that. Live on a corner lot and the entire back yard slopes down to that side of the yard. Lost 2 peach trees before I realized they were being drown by the underground runoff. Raised up the bed and now have an avocado, nectarine & lemon along that fence that have all been doing very well (save the cold issues above). Plus I kind of think it looks nice too and I don't have to worry about accidentally beating up the trunk with a weedeater.