{"id":26456,"date":"2026-06-19T11:52:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/?p=26456"},"modified":"2026-06-19T11:52:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T18:52:59","slug":"the-wurtz-avocado-tree-a-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/the-wurtz-avocado-tree-a-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wurtz avocado tree: a profile"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is Wurtz that bad of a name? Why can’t nurseries leave it alone? They’ll call the variety anything: Dwarf Avocado, Hybrid Dwarf Avocado, Little Cado. Anything except the original, real name: Wurtz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Dwarf Avocado”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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“Hybrid Dwarf”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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“Dwarf Little Cado”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wurtz variety history<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roy Eugene Wurtz, a clerk in the Encinitas post office, grew the original tree on his property there in San Diego County, California. The seed was planted about 1935 and by 1943<\/a> the variety was already mentioned in the Yearbook of the California Avocado Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1948<\/a>, the Wurtz variety was being included in the Society’s Experimental Plots. (That year, another variety introduced by a post office worker up in La Habra Heights had recently achieved recommendation for commercial planting: Hass.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the 1950’s, Wurtz was found to produce well near the coast but not inland at Riverside<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The variety made its way around the world, being grown from Turkey to Australia<\/a>, but never took hold with solid commercial success. In some places, the tree’s fruitfulness was excellent but in others it wasn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wurtz avocado fruit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the beginning, however, the main complaint about Wurtz was not related to productivity but rather to seed size: “The Wurtz, a green Fuerte-like fruit originating at Encinitas, matures during the summer period. It is precocious, prolific, and consistent in bearing. Its worst characteristic, as grown at Encinitas, is its large seed.” (1943, Marvin Rounds<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the outside, Wurtz avocados look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cut open, they look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aside from the large seed, Wurtz avocados have green skin, both while on the tree and when ripe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have been referred to in the past as “Summer Fuerte” because they appear similar to Fuerte on the outside yet have a summer harvest season (whereas Fuerte has a winter harvest season).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wurtz avocado on the tree, appearing much like a Fuerte fruit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wurtz tree growth and architecture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wurtz tree has a droopy, weepy growth habit. Some effort can be required to make Wurtz stand up like a tree rather than spread like a bush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Count them: five stakes needed to hold up this drooping young Wurtz tree.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This grower built a scaffold to keep his Wurtz off the ground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another comparison to Fuerte comes to mind, as Fuerte also likes to spread horizontally, except that Fuerte is stronger. It’s more of a wanderer than a weeper. All the same, I sometimes think of Wurtz as growing like a miniature Fuerte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wurtz tree flowering and fruitfulness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Fuerte, Wurtz has an A type flower and fruits more at an earlier age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Count them: six large avocados on this baby Wurtz tree (same tree held up with five stakes above).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wurtz also has a denser canopy than Fuerte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it was observed that Wurtz did not fruit well in Riverside during the 1950’s, I don’t think that we should consider Wurtz a variety that’s only suited to the coast today. I haven’t personally seen a Wurtz tree growing inland that fruits poorly. (For example, the young tree above is growing in La Mesa, and the fruitful tree with the scaffold is growing in Rainbow.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One last note on the character of the Wurtz tree relates to cold tolerance. While I have not had the chance to observe Wurtz in a freeze myself, there was a cold event in late December of 1968 that was said to be “among the most severe of all time to hit the California avocado industry.” And Oliver Atkins observed in the 1969 California Avocado Society Yearbook<\/a>: “The Wurtz variety in the Fallbrook area showed a remarkable resistance to the freeze.” Hass, Reed, and even Zutano were severely damaged, Atkins wrote, but Bacon, Fuerte, and Wurtz showed better resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Wurtz a good fit for your yard?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main attraction of Wurtz is its compact stature. Wurtz along with Holiday<\/a> are the dwarfiest avocado varieties that are widely available today. If you are interested in such a bushy type of avocado tree, then I would recommend Wurtz over Holiday unless you highly prefer large avocado fruit. (Holiday makes a big avocado.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if your situation allows for a slightly more vigorous tree, then Wurtz would be competing against others for a space in your yard. I would choose the following varieties that make moderately sized trees over Wurtz: GEM<\/a>, Pinkerton<\/a>, Lamb<\/a>, Reed<\/a>, and Gwen<\/a>, all of which are fruitful and bear superior avocados. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Possibly, Wurtz would have an advantage to these varieties in terms of cold tolerance, but I can’t say so firsthand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Enjoy my video profiles of the Wurtz avocado and tree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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