The evening was recorded and posted on the Orange County CRFG YouTube channel. You can watch it there or watch it here.
Consider subscribing to the OC CRFG channel, as they have many excellent videos. And consider becoming a member of the California Rare Fruit Growers too. If you happen to be in Orange County, check out the website for their chapter here.
My presentation starts at about 22 minutes in. Don’t miss the Q and A session at the end with Julie Frink and Denny Luby starting at about 1:24.
Original post: (You are invited to join me and the Orange County Chapter members of the California Rare Fruit Growers for a talk via Zoom on Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 7:30 PM.
“Growing Avocados: FAQs and Your Qs” is the title I’ve chosen. I’ll show pictures and discuss frequently asked questions, especially those related to this late winter / early spring time of year. There will also be time to ask your own questions.)
All of my Yard Posts are listed HERE
Very excited! Thanks Greg
I tried to attend your zoom meeting tonight, but you had reached the maximum number of participants, so I wasn’t able to attend. Did you record it , by any chance? or do you have info you could send to me. I have a lamb Hass fairly young tree (planted in 2010) that has about 18 avocados on it this year. I’m in Santa Cruz. I’ve been burying citrus peels under it, but perhaps warm evenings is inhibiting it from being pollinated more fully. It’s on a little hill and has a little screening from a few branches of other trees so it doesn’t freeze. When is the earliest I could pick the fruit to ripen indoors (since rats and squirrels are a problem).? I planted a Pinkerton in 2010 about 2′ from the Lamb Hass, thinking that I didn’t want them to get too big. the Lamb Hass is dominant–Pinkerton very small and scraggly (small caliper and about 5′ tall with only a couple of branches). A Bacon is about 5′ away and has produced only 1 fruit. It was planted about 15-18 years ago.
Hi Liz,
Sorry you couldn’t attend. See the note in the post above about the recording. I hope you can glean some ideas to help with your trees from the video. Any leftover questions, feel free to ask.
Any chance you or someone could upload the presentation? I tried to watch it but my 4 kids had other plans…
Thanks for all the gardening help!
Hi Eric,
See the note in the post above about watching the recording. And in the video you might hear my own kids in the background from time to time, playing in the bathtub, arguing about having to go to bed, etc. I can relate!
Hello,
I had a question about Nabal avocado and you seem like the person who would know. At around how many years does the tree start flowering? I got a grafted tree recently and was curious on when to expect fruit.
I couldn’t attend the presentation last night and would love to view it if there is a recording? Thanks Greg for always sharing!
Hi Jean,
You can now find information on the recording in the post above. Thanks!
Also would be keen to see any recording of this event if this is possible? Greg I am very curious, I live in Portugal and my climate is as follows: Rainfall 13-19 inches per annum, primarily from late Nov to March/April and can be heavy rains of 3 inches in one day. Dry season from April-Nov almost zero rainfall during this time. Summer temperatures can go as high as 113 farenheit and winter lowest temp reached 24 fareneheit this year, we experienced mild frosts here for 2 weeks in January (apparently first time in years) but the daytime temperatures can be 64 fareneheit during this time. Is this reasonably similiar to your local weather, I know we are somewhat comparable to California but I would be curious to know your location weather as your resource information on watering is very helpful and I think you may be closely aligned to our weather here x I would really welcome your reply so I can work with your resources if so and indeed share them in our groups here, sadly resources for Portugal are very limited so any comparable info is very much welcome x
Hi Michelle,
I just posted a note about the recording of the event in the post above.
Your climate sounds strikingly similar to mine, in every way. My specific location is called Ramona, and you can have a look at this area’s climate data at this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramona,_California
Where are you in Portugal?
Oooh excellent l got the feeling it was similar, l am an hour inland from the algarve coast in the south of portugal, my nearest village is called Azilheira and the nearest weather station is Sao Barnabe but the weather data isn’t really the same as my place, this is great news! Thank you for your reply and l am very glad l found your info, l am just about to plant out a Bacon, Hass and Reed tomorrow so your site has helped me a lot! I am pushing it with 5m spacing but it’s kinda the only feasible location where they will be suited, which of the three do you think is more heat tolerant if there is much difference at all?
Hi Michelle,
In terms of heat tolerance, I would tentatively rank Reed and Bacon slightly above Hass. Good luck on the planting!
Bacon’s don’t like heat at all. Expect lots of fruit drop
I finally replaced a good healthy tree here in the San Fernando Valley
in So. California.
If you do one thing with avocados this year, start spelling HAAS correctly. Retire Hass. Turn it into bark chips.
Hi Brenda,
I’m not sure I understand. Please elaborate. Are you requesting that I or others rename the Hass avocado variety as Haas? That would be a strange request. A man named Rudolph Hass grew the original tree of that variety and named it after himself.
You can read more about this here: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/the-hass-avocado-tree-a-profile/
The original patent that Mr. Hass was given for his avocado variety can be seen here: http://www.avocadosource.com/links/hasspatent_1935.pdf
And a bit more interesting history on the variety written by a neighbor of Mr. Hass back in 1945 can be read here: http://www.avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_30_1945/CAS_1945_PG_027-031.pdf
Brenda – Where did you come up with HAAS?
HI Greg, during your presentation you spoke about hard pruning your Hass this year. You commented about doing so to reduce alternate bearing since this is a massive bloom year. Is the idea that the hard prune now will be followed up by new growth, that will bloom and produce next year? So you’re trading some fruit production this year to get production next?
Rey, that’s precisely it. Very good description.
You might mention that the name of the fruit rhymes with ass, not oz. Rudolph Hass was German, so the name should be pronounced Haaz, but he chose to Americanize it. We name the fruit according to his pronunciation of his own name, which he deliberately rhymed with ass. At least, this is what I’ve heard.
I hear many people incorrectly saying Haaz. That’s why some background info is in order.
Hi Greg,
When do you usually then small avocado trees of fruit. When they’re in flowers or do you let them develop into small trees first?
Hi Greg,
Started a avocado tree from seed about 10 years ago, first in a pot, then to a barrel, now planted in the ground last year. I live in zone 9b, Sierra Foothills. The leaves have never been nice green and glossy, but are somewhat yellow. It looks fine in the morning (except for the color), but by afternoon it is droopy, it receives sun most of the day. It gets watered about every other day with the rest of our garden (right now mostly flowers). Could we be overwatering it?
Hi Linda,
It could be an overwatering issue. Water every other day at this time of year is probably more often than necessary, but if you’re only giving it a little water each time then it might be fine.
Also, if the leaves have never been deep green, it might be the natural color of your specific avocado tree. There are some avocado types whose leaves are more yellowish, and it’s not related to their health.
Greg, if I followed correctly, you showed some struggling small avocado trees near a big oak. In any case, that’s my situation: a Reed and Ettinger 3 and 4 years old barely growing, 4 feet tall only, 2 to 4′ wide, over shadowed in the winter months by a big coast live oak. I’ve transplanted citrus and stone fruit from place to place in my yard with good success, but I’ve never attempted to do that with an avocado… afraid I’d kill it. Do you know if people ever get away with moving avocados and if so what would be the best time of year?
Hi Nick,
You can successfully transplant avocado trees as big as yours. I’ve done it. The best time seems to be late winter. If you are within a few miles of the beach, I’d say you could easily still do it here in April. If you’re farther inland, you’d have to be extra careful but could probably still get away with it. Keys are keeping the rootball intact and getting as much of the roots as possible. Doing it during a cool spell, such as is predicted next week, would be ideal. Shading the tree lightly for a couple weeks after the transplant wouldn’t hurt. I’ve always done it by myself, but having a friend to help would be nice — lifting all that moist dirt is heavy and awkward.
Thanks Greg for the tips about transplanting a small avocado tree. It’s good to hear you’ve had success doing that. I’m about 15 miles inland from the Pacific so realize that I need to be extra careful since it’s supposed to get hot later this week.
Hi Greg! Loved listening to your presentation.
During the presentaiton, you said that for poor draining soil, try to mound the avocado tree and put gypsum on top. I just planted a Carmen and Reed avocado tree on a mound.
Any guidelines on how much gypsum to put on top of the mound? Thanks!!
Hi Kristi,
Thank you! The truth is that if you built a large mound such that the drainage is now sufficient, you probably don’t need to add gypsum. But it can’t hurt. For a newly planted tree, about 15 pounds of gypsum is recommended. For more, see here: http://ceventura.ucanr.edu/Com_Ag/Subtropical/Avocado_Handbook/Horticulture/Planting_Avocados_/
Thank you for taking the time to respond re: gypsum! The info is much appreciated. 🙂
We are interested in planting avocados on our farm. The farm is about 50 hectares, our area has a tropical climate ranging between 12-40*Celcius, relative humidity between 40% to 80% having a mountain terrain in our land. We wish to understand if avocados are possible to grow in our area and will it be possible for you to give us plants as well as technical support for the same.
We agree to pay the cost of consultancy for the same.
we await your reply
thanks and regards
umesh lohia
lohia farms
village kati,
dist palghar,
maharashtra
india
tel:+91 9820043584
Hi Greg,
I am a first time avocado tree grower. I purchased a grafted cold hardy tree online from Florida and I live in Chicago. It came healthy and looked fine when I got it out of the box. I have it in a planter. It is roughly 5/6 feet tall. I realized the first time I planted it, the soil was far too dense. So this week I repotted the plant with new soil and incorporated more perlite and woody mulch for better drainage. The leaves are droopy and the branches don’t feel stiff. I don’t want to water it because I’m afraid it’s already dealing with root rot and we got a lot of rain before I replanted it. The lower leaves have crispy brown edges. Most of the leaves have various spots on the backs of them but not the tops. Some leaves have purplish/black colors on the backside. I have examined for bugs and there are none to be found. There is not any new growth. No signs of sun damage on the trunk. The tree has dropped tons of leaves and most branches are bare now. When I first got it I had it in direct sun all day on my balcony. I have since moved it to a location that gets sun in the morning, a break during the day, and then more sun in the late afternoon. I have looked all over your website to try and self diagnose the issues with my tree but I cant seem to pinpoint it. Are you able to accept photos of the the tree for further examination? Please help! Thanks!
Hey Greg, I enjoy your posts and videos. I have a question. I have two holes where I completely removed some small mature nectarines trees. The holes were about 3×3 deep. If I put some peat moss, perlite, and some sandy clay soil. Could I reuse those spots for new avocado’s. If so what’s the best time of year to plant. I’m in zone 9. thanks
Hi Dame,
You should be able to use those holes for planting avocados. I would refill with your native soil if possible. You can plant avocados any day of the year, just being aware of the tree’s needs according to weather conditions.
Hi Greg,
We do get gophers in our garden, so we’ve planted susceptible shrubs in homemade
baskets made from gopher proof wire.
Can the same be done for planting an avocado tree if I make a wire basket large enough to
allow for growth?
Hi Alexis,
This appears possible. I’ve seen avocado trees that were planted in wire baskets still growing well after a couple years.
Hi Greg, could you please recommend a good knife for grafting purpose? Thanks Alice from northern ca.