A recent tree removal in my garden freed considerable space for new plants. This column traces the process of deciding how to use that space.
Today’s photo gallery includes an avocado not in a store but still on its tree and selected flowers blooming in my garden.
The tree removal was an apple: Cox’s Orange Pippin, a highly rated 1825 English introduction that parented many desirable hybrids and produced numerous popular sports. I have always respected this antique variety, and for years enjoyed applesauce from its fruits, described as “sprightly subacid.” Still, it made rather small apples that supported many insect larvae. I never had much success in fostering vigorous fruit production or combatting pests.
My garden also has three dwarf apple trees (Fuji, Gala, and six-variety grafted espalier) that produce well, so I already have plenty of apples. In retrospect, those three other trees are better suited to my garden’s environment than the Cox’s Orange Pippin.
The newly available space, about 20 feet by 20 feet, is close to the garden’s back border, next to the greenhouse, and with good exposure. It could accommodate another fruit tree.
The first consideration was to add an avocado tree. I recently bought avocado fruits at $13.99 per pound, so growing avocados would reduce the grocery bill and also provide an interesting experience.
Avocados are native to a range from Mexico to Costa Rica. They are members of the Laurel plant family (Lauraceae), which includes 52 genera and 3,500 species. This family is noted for its essential oils, some of which are fragrant. Certain genera are the sources of cinnamon, camphor and bay leaf. Most plants in this family are highly poisonous.
The avocado (Persea americana) was first domesticated 5,000 years ago and is now cultivated widely in many tropical and Mediterranean climates. It grows often to 35 feet tall, with some species rising to 70 feet. The plant is prized for its large and unusually oily fruit, which has a single large seed.
The plant’s name was originally used by early Mexicans, adapted by Spanish settlers as aguacate, and modified by the English in the late 1600s as avogato. The fruit, which resembled a pear, was called avogato pear, then became avocado pear. The uncommon term, alligator pear, is a corruption of the evolved name for the fruit.
The recommended period to plant an avocado tree is March-June before the summer’s heat damages a young tree. So, now is a good time to add an avocado to the garden.
The mail-order sources have limited availability presumably due to commercial growers’ buys. I found 12 varieties at a local garden center, leading to online information about differences among the varieties for ripening periods, productivity and flavor. The local chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers provides helpful notes. Browse to mbcrfg.org/avocado/.
This site provides a good beginning to one’s research into avocados, but choosing among the many cultivars includes considering the flavors and textures of the fruits, which have subtle variations that could appeal to different tastes.
The avocado is self-pollinating. The genus has two cultivar types with different flowering phases identified as A and B. Wikipedia provides the following helpful description:
“A-cultivar flowers open as female on the morning of the first day and close in late morning or early afternoon. Then they open as male in the afternoon of the second day. B varieties open as female on the afternoon of the first day, close in late afternoon and reopen as male the following morning.”
This flowering function is called dichogamous. The female-first flowers are protrogynous and the male-first flowers are protandrous. These are our botanical terms for the day.
Some internet sources recommend having an A-type avocado near a B-type avocado to support cross-pollination and maximize fruit production. Apparently, that works well with the flowering phases, but two large avocado trees would require too much of my garden’s space.
The decision process then yielded two important findings.
First, Four Winds Growers (www.fourwindsgrowers.com) has an Avocado Tree Growing Guide that states, “All avocado flowers are both male and female at various points in their daily flowering, making it possible for avocado trees grown in areas with mild climates to be fruitful without the help of another tree acting as a pollinator.”
Second, the Master Gardeners of Orange County (mgorange.ucanr.edu) describes the “The Wurtz avocado tree, sometimes referred to as Little Cado, is the only true dwarf variety of avocado and will consistently produce good fruit from May to September. Compared to other avocado trees, which can grow up to 80 feet, a Wurtz avocado tree grows to about 10 feet.”
Given these findings, I promptly purchased a Little Cado tree for my garden.
The tree could fit nicely in my recently available space. However, I will grow it in a container near the house, and move it into larger containers as it grows. The approach will make irrigation convenient.
I might use the new garden space for a matrix planting!
Book Review: I have just received, “Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates: Plants for a Lush, Water-Conscious Landscape,” by Nora Harlow (Author) and Saxon Holt (Photographer). This 1921 book is “a guide to native and climate-adapted plants for summer-dry, winter-wet climates of North America’s Pacific coast.”
The book’s scope is a significant factor for readers of this column because many garden books are written for a national readership, with little focus on the regional nature of gardening. The Pacific Coast includes many climates, but it is more relevant for Monterey Bay area gardeners than a book for all U.S. climates. In addition, the book presents Saxon Holt’s plant and landscape photographs, which are consistently pleasing. I will have more comments about this book in a future column.
Enjoy your garden!
Tom Karwin is a past president of Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and the Monterey Bay Iris Society, a past president and Lifetime Member of the Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, and a Lifetime UC Master Gardener (Certified 1999-2009). He is now a board member of the Santa Cruz Hostel Society, and active with the Pacific Horticultural Society. To view photos from his garden, https://www.facebook.com/ongardeningcom-566511763375123/ . For garden coaching info and an archive of On Gardening columns, visit ongardening.com for earlier columns or visit www.santacruzsentinel.com/ and search for “Karwin” for more recent columns. Email comments or questions to gardening@karwin.com.