Cold Hardy Avocado Tree

Grow Your Own Avocados... No Matter Where You Live

• Grows anywhere in the country as a patio plant
• Get a lifetime of avocados- up to 50 lbs per year!
• Makes a great gift!

Grow avocados anywhere in the US! Even if you don't live in a tropical climate, you can grow your own avocados -- we teach you how easy it is to grow your Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree in a container. So if you like homemade guacamole, you'll absolutely love growing your own avocados!

These trees can be grown outside year-round in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 8 through 11. But if you don't live in these tropical regions, we teach you how to grow your tree as a houseplant and patio tree- so you get a lifetime of avocados! So if you like homemade guacamole, you'll absolutely love growing your own avocados!

Buttery, Healthy Fruit

Taste alone is reason enough to enjoy eating avocados, but the health benefit will double your enjoyment of this delicious fruit. According to Harvard Medical School, "an avocado a day may keep cholesterol at bay." Based on a study by the American Heart Association, the secret is in the rich, buttery flesh of avocados, which is high in monounsaturated fats that can help lower LDL cholesterol levels. avocados are also rich in fiber and other nutrients that help keep you healthy. If you need a potassium pick-me-up, reach for an avocado instead of a banana -- avocados have up to 60 percent more potassium than bananas!

What's so Special about our Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree?

Other than the superior taste of its fruit, it can handle colder weather than most avocado trees. Typically, avocados can be grown only in the warmest extremes of the U.S., where freezing temperatures don't injure trees, flowers and fruit buds. The Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree, however, can withstand temperatures to 20 degrees F, which covers more territory for happy gardeners who live in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 8 through 11. However, this is the ideal avocado tree to be grown as a patio plant... no matter where you live, just keep it in a pot in your patio during the spring, summer and fall. Bring it indoors during the winter.

Winter Protection Tips

You may live in a climate that straddles the fence of Cold-Hardy Avocado's winter survivability -- for example, you may be in a marginal band between Zone 8b and 9a or in a colder microclimate in Zone 9. Using the following tips, you can push the cold-hardiness envelope to increase the winter resilience of your Cold-Hardy Avocado even more.

• Plant your Cold-Hardy Avocado in a sunny spot on the south side of your house.

• Wrap strings of incandescent (non-LED) holiday lights around your trees to help keep them warm. Make sure the lights are designed for outdoor use, and weave them thickly through the branches. Turn on the lights when temperatures approach 40 degrees F. For a double measure of protection, cover your lighted trees with frost/freeze cloth or sheets, which will warm plants an additional 4 to 8 degrees F.

• Young trees are more susceptible to cold damage than mature, established plants; so during the first few years after transplanting, use holiday lights and/or frost/freeze cloth to cover them when temperatures approach the mid 40s.

• If you cover your Cold-Hardy Avocado plants, remove the covering when temperatures heat up during the day, and re-cover plants before nighttime.

• Place coverings so they extend to the ground, and weight them down with bricks or anchor them with u-shaped landscape pins.

• Keep your Cold-Hardy Avocado Trees well-watered and fertilized during their growing season -- healthy plants can better withstand cold stress.

Easy-Care Container Plant

If you live outside Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree's perennial range, you can still grow this tree and harvest your own avocados by planting the tree in a container and moving it to a protected location during winter. Use a 24-inch pot to give your Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree plenty of growing room, and fill the container with soilless potting mix that's specially formulated for citrus and avocado trees. Even if your garden soil is rich, over time it will become compacted in a container, which hinders drainage and harms your Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree. In autumn, when temperatures begin dipping into the low 50s, move your container-grown tree indoors for the winter. Prime indoor locations include a solarium, sunroom or heated greenhouse. But you can also place your tree in front of a sunny window.

Hint: Don't be alarmed if your Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree drops some of its leaves when you move it indoors for the winter. It's simply reacting to lower light levels or the dry air inside your home.

When Will my Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree Bear Fruit?

Grafted trees typically bear fruit the third or fourth year after they're transplanted. The fruit is ready to harvest in late summer through autumn '– from August to October '– and mature trees (in-ground) may produce up to 300 avocados per tree! Avocado trees are alternate-bearers -- you'll get a large crop one year that's followed by a smaller crop the next year.

Can't I Just Start my Own Avocado Tree from a Seed (Pit)?

This is a fun and easy gardening project for children, but if you're growing an avocado tree for the fruit, you may be in for a big disappointment -- seed-grown trees take up to 12 years to produce fruit! Also, the fruit quality and the yield are highly variable, which means you may only get a few fruits each year, and they may not be flavorful. When you order our Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree, you're getting a superior grafted tree that will produce quality fruit?…plus you'll be harvesting avocados in only a few years!

Maximize the Fruiting Potential

An avocado tree can produce fruit on its own, but it typically sets more fruit if you plant another tree nearby '– a different variety or cultivar '– because of the cross-pollination benefit. Keep your tree fertilized according to soil-test recommendations, but don't apply excessive fertilizer in the hope of a bigger crop because your tree may produce more leaves instead of more fruit.

How Will I Know When to Pick the avocados?

First of all, don't wait for the fruit to ripen on the tree because avocados finish ripening and softening after they've been harvested. If you're new to growing avocados, don't worry -- with a little trial and error, you'll become a master avocado-picker very quickly! When temperatures begin cooling in late summer to autumn, notice the skins on the fruits. They'll make a color change to a slightly darker shade of green, and you may even see very small brown flecks of color. The fruit will pull fairly easily from the stem to make picking effortless. Pick one of the fruits and place it at room temperature (your kitchen counter is a good spot). In several days, the fruit should have softened a bit, and it will be time for you to do a taste-test. If this first fruit doesn't quite pass the taste test, let the other fruits mature a little more on the tree before picking the next one. You'll quickly learn what's "just right!"

Hints and Helps for Planting and Growing

Getting your Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree off to a good start will make all the difference to its health, longevity and productivity.

• Sun- Find a location in your yard that gets full sun -- at least 8 hours each day.

• Orientation- A Southern exposure is optimal.

• Soil type- Avocado trees must have good drainage so their roots don't rot. If your garden soil is compacted, loosen it by tilling or spading and work in organic amendments, such as compost, to a depth of 12 inches. Don't just loosen and amend the planting hole; treat the entire planting area.

• Soil pH- Avocado tree roots perform best in soils with a pH of 6.2 to 6.5, and they experience sensitivity as the soil pH approaches 7. As the soil becomes alkaline (greater than 7.0), plants can suffer. Take a soil sample to your local Cooperative Extension Service to determine the pH and receive recommendations about adjusting the pH, if necessary.

• Water- Cold-Hardy Avocado Trees flourish in moist (but not waterlogged) soil. Their root systems are fairly shallow, with most of the roots contained in the upper 8 inches of soil. Watering should include frequent, small amounts instead of infrequent, deep soakings as other landscape plants require. Young trees must be watered often after transplanting so their roots stay hydrated.

• Fertilizer- You can burn newly transplanted roots if you apply fertilizer at planting time, so wait until the next season to begin a fertilizer regimen. A rule of thumb is that an avocado tree needs one-half to 1 pound of nitrogen each year. Other nutrients, such as phosphorus, potassium and zinc, should be applied according to soil-test recommendations. You can use synthetic fertilizer or an organic equivalent in formulations that include liquid, granular or slow-release products.

• Mulch- Mulching is an important consideration for the health of your Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree. Because the root system is shallow, a 2- to 3-inch layer of organic mulch from the trunk (but not piled against the trunk) to the drip line (the outer reach of the leaves) helps protect the roots and conserve moisture. In addition, as the mulch decomposes, it creates an environment for beneficial microorganisms that may help combat disease pathogens. Shredded leaves or bark mulch work nicely.

• Pruning- Avocado trees don't require intensive pruning to keep them producing fruit, but you may want to shape your trees to keep them shorter, especially if you're growing them in containers. When you set your container-grown trees outside in spring, cut back a few of the top branches to the trunk while leaving the lower branches intact.

Homemade Guacamole

You may have a favorite guacamole recipe; if not, you'll have plenty of avocados to experiment with when you order a Cold-Hardy Avocado Tree and grow it in your own backyard! Try different proportions of finely diced sweet onion, fresh lime juice, chopped tomato, cilantro, salt and even some diced hot pepper if you like it spicy!