Just read an interesting article about Luna, the new "great-granddaughter of the Hass avocado" being tested by TAMU for possibly growing in South Texas. It's 50% shorter than a regular avocado tree and the canopy structure can help protect the fruit from sunburn.

I had no idea that on average it can take 15-20 years for an avocado tree to start bearing. That was a shocker. They didn't mention if that holds for this new one.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/hass- ... wtab-en-us

Regretfully it gets way too cold here sometimes and sometimes is all it takes to kill an avocado or olive tree.

Encouraging! I can’t see why this variety wouldn’t do well in the zone 8B to 9 range, which covers a lot of Texas and Florida.

I planted Haas, Fuerte and Pinkerton (edit: and Reed) avocado trees about fifteen years ago. All of them produced after about five years. All of them have developed good canopies and most of the fruit is well shaded. I have never noticed any sun scald. What they need to develop is an avocado tree that needs less water.

zeuspaul wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 12:35 pm I planted Haas, Fuerte and Pinkerton avocado trees about fifteen years ago. All of them produced after about five years. All of them have developed good canopies and most of the fruit is well shaded. I have never noticed any sun scald. What they need to develop is an avocado tree that needs less water.

The cactavocado.
A GMO cross between a cactus and an avocado coming in 50 years or less.

worth1 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 1:44 pm

zeuspaul wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 12:35 pm I planted Haas, Fuerte and Pinkerton avocado trees about fifteen years ago. All of them produced after about five years. All of them have developed good canopies and most of the fruit is well shaded. I have never noticed any sun scald. What they need to develop is an avocado tree that needs less water.

The cactavocado.
A GMO cross between a cactus and an avocado coming in 50 years or less.

Marketing experts will change that name to "cactocado" in a heartbeat. You should trademark it now.

Hopefully they will come up with something more drought tolerant than cacti. Cacti are dying in Arizona from lack of water and the high heat.

zeuspaul wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 4:01 pm Hopefully they will come up with something more drought tolerant than cacti. Cacti are dying in Arizona from lack of water and the high heat.

I wouldn't doubt it.
Somewhere along the way maybe natural selection will win out.
Maybe it won't.
One year it rained so much here it killed off native plants on my place.
So it's too much or not enough.
The avocado as it is now is an environmental nightmare when it comes to water consumption.

These tropical fruits like avocados are heartbreakers here. They roll along doing great for a stretch of years, then some massive freeze takes them out. I saw an avocado tree here in town once loaded with fruit and thought how great it would be to have homegrown avocados, but then the next time I saw that tree it was dead from a freeze event.

My dad partially replanted his citrus orchard after our last polar air incursion. I thought about adding a few tropical types like citrus and avocado myself, but the thought of losing them all to a freeze puts the idea on ice.

karstopography wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 4:47 pm These tropical fruits like avocados are heartbreakers here. They roll along doing great for a stretch of years, then some massive freeze takes them out. I saw an avocado tree here in town once loaded with fruit and thought how great it would be to have homegrown avocados, but then the next time I saw that tree it was dead from a freeze event.

My dad partially replanted his citrus orchard after our last polar air incursion. I thought about adding a few tropical types like citrus and avocado myself, but the thought of losing them all to a freeze puts the idea on ice.

Tell me about it.
I lost trees I've had for years.
Others froze to the ground to grow back again but that's not good either.
Others are trucking along like nothing ever happened hot weather no water or cold weather.
One is an arroyo sweetwood that's not found everywhere and I planted years ago.
Not utilized enough.

Arroyo Sweetwood - AustinTexas.gov https://www.austintexas.gov/department/ ... -sweetwood

The nurseries here sell lots of Lila, Bazos Bell, and Wilma avocado trees. I've never heard of anyone ever harvesting a single avocado here though.

The pomegranates I have planted are all hardy to 5-10 degrees or so. That's what vendors and nursery people have told me. What they didn't say is that the tree will die to the ground any time temps drop below 22 degrees, then it grow back only to freeze to the ground again a couple years later. So technically, they are hardy to to 5-10 degrees. I'm ready to cut them all down.

Honestly, I don't think I've seen any fruit trees produce here. Figs are my only hope.

Some varieties of apples, plums ( those little yellow native plums we used to pick from the road side near around Post to Lubbock areas were great as a jam), cherries have been developed for lower chill hours and withstand cold well too. The trade off is they cost in water. Many grapes do well here, including wine grapes.