This question is unanswerable in an objective sense. But I’m game to attack it with a fun and practical twist: I’m imagining that I just moved into a new house with a blank yard . . .
Hass is the most widely planted variety in the world for good reason.
One tree: Hass
If I had the space for only one avocado tree, I would plant a Hass. You might find this answer boring, in which case I’d be willing to bet that you don’t already have a Hass tree in your yard.
If the only Hass avocados you’ve had are from the grocery store, then you have no idea. A homegrown Hass, picked at prime time — around May or June in southern Southern California, but some months later up near Point Conception — and ripened at room temperature on a kitchen counter (not refrigerated and gassed with ethylene during its mishandling on the way to a retail outlet) is a knockout. But that’s actually not why I’d choose it to grow as my only tree. There are other varieties that taste as good or better than Hass.
Hass beats almost everyone at the length of its harvest season. With a single Hass tree you can have good avocados at hand for at least seven months out of every year.
Avocados don’t ripen while hanging on the tree. They grow and mature on the tree, but they only ripen (soften) after being picked, after their stem is severed. Hass has the wonderful ability to mature its fruit and then hold them on the tree for many months, waiting for you to pick them. (Compare that to many peaches, which can’t hold their mature fruit for more than a couple weeks!)
Reed with Hass
Two trees: Reed with Hass
If I had the space for two avocado trees, I would plant a Hass and a Reed. The main reason I’d choose Reed is that its harvest season complements the Hass. Reed is basically a summer-into-fall variety. In my yard, Reeds start to taste good as early as May, and can go through September. As you get closer to the ocean and farther north, the Reed season gets later and longer because of the cooler temps. But the important thing is that Reeds taste great a couple months after Hass are at their best. So with just these two trees, I’d have the highest quality avocados in the world for most months of the year.
(Alternatively, if I had a neighbor with a Hass or a vendor at a farmers market who sold good Hass, then I could plant a Reed as my only tree.)
What’s Reed like? It’s significantly bigger than Hass, as seen in the photo above, and Reed also stays green when it’s ripe. Big and green are the two fatal qualities that prevent Reed’s acceptance as a commercial variety in today’s small and black Hass world.
Funny thing is that Hass was once an outsider. “Its single disadvantage is its black color, which has been associated in the minds of the public with poor quality fruits,” wrote H.B. Griswold in a 1945 article titled, “The Hass Avocado.” This was written when the green Fuerte was king of a young California avocado industry.
Fuerte: the finest fruit?
Three trees: Fuerte with Reed and Hass
If I had the space for three avocado trees, I would add a Fuerte to the mix. Although I enjoy the diversity of tastes in most all avocado varieties, there’s something about Fuerte fruits that hit the target for me. It could be something I acquired from eating Fuertes as a kid, I don’t know. But the distinctive smooth texture and nutty yellow flesh of a perfect Fuerte is so appealing to me that I don’t even want to adulterate it as guacamole.
Then why isn’t Fuerte my top choice? Compared to Hass, its harvest season isn’t as long. And compared to Reed, Fuerte’s production isn’t as consistently high. In fact, Hass also produces more reliably than Fuerte in most places. This is one of the reasons that Hass went from obscurity in 1945 to over 95 percent of the commercial avocado production in California today. (See page 28 in Gary Bender’s book, Avocado Production in California.)
But Fuerte can produce (see the photo above). And along with Reed and Hass, I’d have a great threesome in a backyard because Fuerte’s season starts a couple months before Hass. So I could eat Fuerte starting in the late fall, then switch to Hass in the spring, and pick Reeds from the summer until almost when the next crop of Fuerte is ready. That’s nearly year-round, top-notch avocados from three trees.
Why not the others?
There are lots of other very good avocado varieties. But I would add them only after planting this trio. Some of them are relegated to a lower tier because of flavor (Zutano); some aren’t productive enough (Holiday).
But a couple are right on the cusp of that top tier. If I couldn’t find a Reed, I’d substitute with a Lamb. Lambs are also highly productive, taste very good, and mature in summer into fall. And if I couldn’t find a Fuerte, I’d substitute a Pinkerton. Pinkertons are very productive, especially considering that they are a smaller tree, and like Fuerte, Pinkertons also mature a bit earlier than Hass. The main negative is that, to me, Pinkertons don’t taste quite as good as Fuertes.
I hope you get a chance to plant a real avocado tree — or three — this spring. And I hope this post helps you choose your own best kind.
(If you’re wondering where to buy one of these avocado varieties — or any other variety of avocado tree — see my post, “Where to buy an avocado tree.”)
You might also like to read my posts:
Should you buy a big or small avocado tree?
Growing avocados in Southern California
I'm Greg. My goal is to help others grow some food at home, with a focus on vegetables and fruits -- especially avocados -- in Southern California. I write a new "Yard Post" every Friday. 
Those three trees would be my choice too, another benefit of the fuerte in the mix is that it’s a b type and you will get good pollination and more fruit set. Thanks really enjoy your posts!
Should I plant a Reed to complement my other trees? I have a place near my citrus trees. Is that too far away?
I love your articles!!
Hi Syndea,
Yes, plant that Reed! And don’t worry about the distance.
As Adrian alluded to above, Hass and Reed are A types while Fuerte is a B type, which makes cross-pollination all the more likely, enhancing fruit set. But keep this in mind: each of these three varieties is capable of producing a hundred avocados on a tree that’s less than 15-feet tall — even if it’s not close to an opposite-type tree. I’ve seen numerous examples of this throughout Southern California.
Also, avocado flowers are primarily pollinated by bees, and bees readily fly between trees that are 50 feet apart. I’m watching them do so in my yard right now.
Great article Greg! Wish I’d read something like this a few years ago. Better now than never. I love my Hass. I picked up the last Reed from Walter Andersen’s last week and a little Fuerte. Now I have all three. This makes me very happy😊
Such great information for gardening in San Diego! Thank you!
Great article, and I agree with your choices of Hass, Reed, and Fuerte, but only if you live in a true mild avocado climate. If you live in a cooler area I think it calls for some adjusting.
I live on the edge here in the San Fernando Valley when it comes to frost (and heat) so in addition to my Reed I have planted Sir Prize, Stewart, and Mexicola as cooler weather backups.
I also have a Bacon way in the back yard mostly for pollinating. I would have preferred a Jim Bacon but couldn’t find one. I just planted a Sharwill which I found at Atkins, hoping that our “Global Warming” trend leans my way.
Also I love Fuertes, but only if you have a big yard. Most people are a bit lazy when it comes to tree pruning. Asking them to prune 3X a year I think is questionable.
One last thing. When I walk around my neighborhood here in Sylmar, Its amazing how most people abuse their avocado trees by having their gardeners rake up those leaves as soon as they hit the ground. When you talk to them they are totally clueless.
Hi Dal,
Thanks for the good ideas. Just so you and other readers know, my yard is in inland San Diego County near the town of Ramona. I know Sylmar, and I would guess that my neighborhood is slightly milder than yours even though my area is also on the hot side in summer and chilly side in winter, as far as most of Southern California goes.
Incidentally, I have found Reed to be excellent in the heat. How does your Reed do through Sylmar summers?
You’re absolutely right that most people won’t prune their avocado trees. It’s a sad fact. I say sad because avocados must be the easiest trees on the planet to prune. The wood is soft, the leaves are soft. The only tough part is that you must whitewash exposed bark.
About the leaves, I think most people just think it looks messy. Of course, they don’t understand the function of that leaf litter. They must look at my yard and think it’s disgusting!
Greg – The Reed is only two years old and have not harvested any fruit yet. If you want to know how to kill an avocado tree, ask me I’ve done it all. I didn’t protect my Reed with shade cloth when I first planted it, and my paint protection was not enough to prevent the top being seriously burned so I lost about 18-24 inches on the top. We might be on to something. With this global warming trend I think it might be time for U.C. Riverside to
come up with some heat resistant varieties.
Yes, heat tolerance would be a desirable quality indeed. On that note, I should mention a post that I wrote a couple summers ago after my yard reached 109.8 degrees one day. That day gave me a chance to compare the heat tolerance of multiple varieties: http://gregalder.com/yardposts/heat-tolerance-of-avocado-varieties/
I was curious where you get all the wood chips for mulch?
Hi Matt,
I listen for the sound of a chainsaw. And when I hear one in my neighborhood, I find the tree trimmers and ask if they’d be willing to dump their chips by my driveway. I have a space there where it’s convenient for them to dump.
But sometimes I don’t get lucky with that method, in which case I go to the Miramar Landfill in San Diego where they process such wood chips along with other yardwaste by composting it for a couple weeks and screening it. They call it Standard or 4″ mulch. (I prefer this to their compost, which is a bit overcooked and too fine for my liking. It becomes hydrophobic whereas the mulch never does.) Here’s a link to Miramar’s offerings: https://www.sandiego.gov/environmental-services/miramar/greenery/cmw#products
I’ve been told that landfills in other counties offer similar products.
Thanks, great ideas!
When you put a thick layer of tree trimmings down, do you turn them to allow air to circulate? One concern I have about fresh trimmings is the build up of spores and what not from it just being piled up (6 inches or so thick).
I just put down the mulch and leave it be. If it’s fresh and thick, you’ll soon notice a lot of fungal growth (hyphae — white webby stuff) if you poke inside, but that’s never had bad consequences as far as I’ve observed.
In fact, it is precisely the microbes in there doing their work that produce the enzyme called cellulase which is said to fight the pathogenic fungus that causes root rot disease in avocados (Phytophthora cinnamomi). So, in a sense, you don’t want to disturb them.
See this article about mulches and controlling root rot in avocados: http://www.avocadosource.com/WAC5/Papers/WAC5_p561.pdf
I see, thanks for the link.
so you’re saying when i’m trimming my own trees each year that i can just ask them to just dump them in my driveway so i can use it as mulch too? how come i never thought about this!
Hi Greg,
We’ve been in our San Diego (San Carlos) home a year and are finalizing landscaping. We planted 4 avocados in the front: Hass, Sharwil/Kona, Fuerte, and Reed. We’re trying to get avocados all year round with varieties we’ve tried and like. I plan on keeping the trees no taller than about 12’, so I don’t have to get on a ladder. To mitigate the clay soil, the planting area is raised, and the adjacent rock wall is free standing to allow drainage.
Stay sharp! Robert
Hi Robert,
That sounds like an excellent setup and arrangement of varieties. I know you know the pruning game so I’m sure you’ll have no problem keeping the trees at 12 feet. Nice work!
Greg, thanks for the article and all the comments.
Where do you guys find Reeds in San Diego? I have tried a bunch of places with no luck, its even hard finding a Fuerte.
Found some 5gals at Atkins in Fallbrook. I like that place, he even recommended going down to Maddocks a bit further if he didnt have what I wanted. Screw the big/medium locals, I am going to Fallbrook from now own to get my avo trees straight from the growers. Atkins has a bunch of other varieties that you never see around.
Hi Colin,
Yes, Atkins is a great source of uncommon avocado varieties. Oliver Atkins, the founder of the nursery, was the longtime chair of the Variety Committee of the California Avocado Society. I have bought a number of trees there. I’m glad you found your Reed there!
I also like Maddock. I’ve never bought from Clausen but have heard good results from a friend who has bought avocado trees there.
Most of the other retail nurseries buy from the same wholesale growers (La Verne and Durling). So from Armstrong and Evergreen and Walter Andersen, etc. (and even Home Depot) you can get a Reed avocado tree grown by La Verne or Durling. However, they often don’t have any in stock, which means your only choice is to put in a request and wait for delivery — as you noted.
It’s crazy that these bigger nurseries carry many more inferior varieties, such as Zutano, while less frequently have Reed. I just don’t understand it.
Hope your Reed takes off this summer.
Thanks Greg. Wish Maddocks was open on the weekend so i could check it out. Going back to Atkins to get a Sharwil to pair with my Reed.
Now I am wondering if I will regret having a Bacon paired with my Hass instead of getting a Fuerte. Maybe I should dig a 5th hole. Thanks again.
The two main differences between Bacon and Fuerte are that Fuerte tastes better but Bacon is more productive.
I don’t think you’ll regret a Hass/Bacon pair unless you don’t like the milder taste of Bacon. It doesn’t make great guacamole, but it’s excellent on sandwiches and in smoothies.
So I tried a Reed for the first time today from the farmer’s market. At least I think it is a Reed, they said it was and it definitely looks like one from all the pictures.
It’s good no doubt, but being the guy at Clausen told me it is the _best_ avocado, I was a bit surprised that it didn’t have the high oil content like a Hass, it reminded me much more of a Fuerte, milder and more water based than oil based.
What is the next most “oil-based” Avo after the Hass? The Mexicola and Lamb both look like they might be based on the pictures I have seen.
Thanks all
See if you can find a Reed to try again in September and you’ll probably get a richer flavor from it.
Still, taste is subjective and there’s no accuracy in saying any one variety is the best tasting to anyone but yourself.
Lambs do get rich, for sure. But not until the end of summer. Mexicola is the oiliest variety that I have tasted but it’s a bit too intense for me, and I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favorites. Might turn out to be yours though!
Hi! I’d like to plant an avacado tree in my front court yard. Besides it being a source of great tasting fruit i’d like it to be a nice (picturesque) shade tree. From your experience what avocado tree should I plant? I was considering planting coastal live oak at first but now leaning towards fruit (avocado) tree instead. I live in San Diego, about 7 miles away from the coast. Thanks. Yulia
Hi Yulia,
If you want the tree to grow more vertically, I’d plant a Reed. If you want it to spread very horizontally, I’d plant a Fuerte. If you want it to grow both up and wide, I’d plant a Hass.
Truly, you can prune almost any variety to almost any shape, but it’s easier if you go with the natural tendency of the variety.
The only varieties that I would avoid for the use of shade are Holiday, Wertz, Stewart, Gwen, and Lamb. These are varieties that take a long time to get big enough to be useful as shade trees compared to other varieties.
Thank you. You answered my question.
Hey Greg,
Thank you for your great thoughts on Avo’s! I’m really benefiting from your observations.
Do you have any experience or exposure to Nabal Avo’s?
Hi Cam,
Yes, I like Nabal. They’re rich in flavor and creamy in texture without any strings. They’re similar to Reed in both taste and appearance (round and green skin), except that the Nabals I know have a thicker, shell-like skin. The skin also gets some brown russetting. Come to think of it, I’d say Nabal fruits taste a tad richer than Reed, actually.
The variety has been grown in Southern California for about a hundred years, having been brought up from Guatemala by Wilson Popenoe.
What are your thoughts on a Sharwil Tree? I’ve never tasted one but wondering how it compares to Reed and Hass in your opinion.
How is the sharwil compared to fuerte?
Hi Nancy,
The taste of a Sharwil avocado is excellent, on par with any avocado that I’ve tasted. In terms of comparing it to the taste of other avocados, that’s tricky for me. I never feel like I have a palate that is refined enough to give a sufficiently florid description.
What comes to mind is that Fuerte has a more distinctive flavor. If I eat some Fuerte fruit blindfolded, it’s so easy to identify it as Fuerte. But for others like Hass and Reed and Sharwil, to take the ones you mentioned, they just taste like awesome avocados. They aren’t peculiar in flavor to me, they just taste like everything I hope for when I think “avocado.”
As for growing a Sharwil tree in your yard, you’ll probably find that it won’t be quite as productive as a Hass or Reed, but possibly more productive than a Fuerte. Note that I’m really tentative about saying this. I can’t speak from personal experience about my own Sharwil trees because they’re too young, so this guess is based on what I’ve seen in others’ Sharwil trees in Southern California. Also, strangely, there aren’t too many Sharwils around considering that it’s not a new variety and everyone who tastes one says they approve.
But I think it’s going to be a more common variety for Southern California in the future. Just a couple days ago, I visited the largest organic avocado orchard in California, and they recently planted a lot of Sharwil trees.
have a question about sizing when purchasing. reading on other forums, i’ve seen comments that it’s better in the long run to plant a smaller size tree (3 gallon +) compared to a larger 15+ gallon size tree….that the smaller size tree will out perform and out grow the larger gallon size in the future. have you seen any truths to that? (it is tempting to just buy a larger tree but i’m in it for the long run).
Hi Johnny,
I’ve heard people say that too, but I’ve never found evidence for it. The fifteen-gallon avocado trees I’ve planted have all continued to be far bigger and productive earlier than five-gallon trees planted at the same time.
There are a lot of factors that go into the long term performance of a tree, but all other things being equal (health of tree, scion variety, rootstock, care), I also see no theoretical reason that a younger tree would somehow jump ahead of an older tree. And that’s what a five- compared to fifteen-gallon tree is: younger.
The main reason that I usually buy small avocado trees is because they’re so much cheaper.
If I only have space for one avocado tree, could I graft several varieties to this one tree, or is this not recommended? I live in southern CA zone 10b near Los Angeles.
Hi Jack,
Yes, you can definitely graft several varieties onto one tree. However, the main challenge is that different varieties grow at different rates so you have to prune in order to make sure that one (or more) don’t take over and shade out the other(s).
I’ve got a Fuerte tree that I’ve grafted a couple Pinkerton and Lamb branches into, but this situation is easier because I want those Pinkerton and Lamb branches to stay small and just provide pollen for the Fuerte; I’m not trying to have each variety take up about a third of the canopy area.
Still, what most people prefer to do is plant multiple trees close together, even in one hole. It’s just easier to maintain over the long haul.
Hi Greg, I will be planting two avocado trees in the spring. I’m leaning towards Bacon and Lamb Hass. I live against the mountains in Pasadena so it can get pretty chilly in the winter will these verities do well in my climate? Also my grandfather said growing up in Los Angeles they had Mcarthur avocados, Have you ever heard of them? Thank you for all the great information!
Hi Griffith,
I think Bacon and Lamb are good choices. They should do well for you. I grew up against the same mountains, but out in Glendora, and Bacons do great there. Where I am now (Ramona) gets a little chillier even than there but Lamb does fine in my yard.
I do know MacArthur avocados. I’ve only eaten them once though, a handful of years ago up in Carpinteria. They’re hard to find these days. They are on the bigger side, green-skinned, pear-shaped, and tasty. I’ve read that the original MacArthur tree grew in Monrovia, right along our San Gabriel Mountains.
Hi, i was gifted a Nabal Avocado tree for xmas and before i plant it in the ground, i was wondering what its growing habits are? Vertically? Horizontally? This will help me determine where i will plant it. Thank you.
Hi Rose,
What a wonderful gift! Can I say in between vertical and horizontal? The Nabal trees I know are not so wide spreading like a Fuerte, and neither are they more upright like a Bacon can be. The Nabals I know are a bit of both, and not small trees if left unpruned.
But it’s good to remember that any tree’s shape can be affected somewhat by what’s growing around it and where it’s getting sun.
Greg,
Thanks for the articles; I’m finding them to be a wonderful resource.
I just bought a house in Covina, CA, and I’m looking to plant two varieties in the same area (about 10′ apart) once our cold spell is over.
Tree 1: I’m really leaning towards a GEM. At first, I had a Hass in mind, but found out about the GEM and it sounded more like what I was looking for, especially with the columnar growing pattern.
Tree 2: This one has been tough to pin down, and I have come up with a few options based on my research.
Option 1: Reed. Its season should complement the GEM well, and the growing pattern shouldn’t be too intrusive. Taste I’ve read is great. I’ve never had a tree-matured Reed.
Option 2: Sir Prize. Its season should complement the GEM even better, and the growing pattern seems like it’s columnar as well. Type “B” is a plus, but also read that it is not as great of a producer. Taste I’ve read is great. I’ve never had a tree-matured Sir Prize.
Option 3: Lamb Hass, others? Should complement the GEM season. I am really lost on here.
As an aside, I recently spent a long weekend in Ramona, beautiful area. Contemplated stopping by Fallbrook and talking to a grower, but returning on Sunday meant I was a bit eager to get home.
Your insight is appreciated.
Hi Carlos,
Congratulations on your house in Covina. I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. You must love seeing snow on Baldy right now.
This is a tough call. With GEM as tree 1, you would find that Sir Prize’s harvest season is earlier whereas Reed and Lamb are later. I’d probably have to give the edge to Sir Prize because I’d rather have the most complementary harvest seasons in order to have fruit to eat more of the year. You could eat Sir Prize fruits starting pretty early in winter, and then you could let the GEMs hang late and eat them even through summer — maybe into fall except that Covina gets hot, so maybe not. You’d likely still have a window with no fruit, or no great fruit, sometime in fall.
By the way, all of these varieties — Reed, Lamb, GEM, Sir Prize — taste really good so I wouldn’t choose one over the other because of taste.
Temecula gardener here. I really, really appreciate this article. My head was spinning, trying to develop the “perfect” avocado plan for my hillside. You saved my sanity! I will be planting your suggested trio this spring.
Awesome, Rachael! I wrote this post with someone just like you in mind. You are going to be in avocado heaven soon.