tel: 512 280-1192 Friday, Jan 17 2014
Nursery Notes: A new crop of 1015y Texas Super Sweet onions
has arrived for the weekend. Best to get those onion seedlings in
the ground soon! We have a good supply of cool season veggies in
stock and this years "Rodeo" tomato: Valley Cat - the spring 2014
tomato from A&M's AgriLife Extension Service. | Pottery 20%
off. Coming soon, fruit trees, lots of new nursery stock, natives.
From the creative folks at the infinitelila blogspot... avocado-lime
popsicles. All it takes is a couple of over-ripe bananas, avocados,
lime zest and salt. Maybe something for the summer months? Full
details here: infinitelila [see below for more avocado info]
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MLK Day of Service: for Monday, opportunities abound to honor
Dr. King. One idea: cleaning up the nature reserve around Monto-
polis Bridge, or cleaning up Williamson Creek with the amazing
folks at Austin Youth River Works and Texas Conservation Corps.
Full details at: Keep Austin Beautiful
______________________________________________________Gardeners live forever: The Zilker Botanical Garden newsletter
reports that Celia Pearson, president of the East Austin Garden Club
recently celebrated her 100th birthday, and Rosa Godfrey, active
member of the Austin area Begonia Society, turned 101!
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talks about her iBook, A Guide to Landscape Maintenance for Central
Texas Gardens. On tour Donna and Mike Fowler spark a family
creative co-op of art, food, wildlife and fun. Sat. noon, 4 p.m. or
Sun., 9 a.m. www.klru
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Mexican avocados such as Poncho perform well in our climate. The nursery
currently has 3 gal. Ponchos for $44.99.
Notes from the Guacamole Kid!
by Amanda Moon
Growing an avocado tree from a seed has always been a favorite
project for elementary age kids. I remember planting one when I
was young and watching it in wonder as it sprouted roots and tops
out of its toothpick-stabilized seed.
Although this is a great way to teach kids about how a seed be-
comes a tree, sadly the actual avocado tree created this way will
not usually be strong enough to last through a winter, and will rarely
produce any fruit.
Like citrus, avocados that produce at a young age are grafted, not
seed grown. There are also specific varieties better suited to our
climate than the Haas and other grocery store fruits used in the
elementary school experiments.
Avocados are a staple in many Texans’ diet – certainly in mine –
and with just a little TLC, growing your own fruit is definitely an
option here.
The avocado tree (Persea americana) is native to Mexico and
Central America, and is grown commercially on a limited basis
in the Rio Grande Valley.
The best types of avocado to experiment with here in central Texas
are the Mexican varieties. They have thinner skinned fruit, but a
greater tolerance to frost than the others (including the Guate-
malan Haas). An established, older Mexican avocado has a frost
tolerance to 15 degrees when planted in a protected location.
The best Mexican varieties to grow in the Austin area are Lila, Joey,
Poncho, Fantastic, Opal, Wilma and Pryor.
For strong fruit production it is best to have two different varieties,
although here in Texas the Mexican varieties appear to be somewhat
self-fertile as well. My Lila has fruit on it without a pollinator friend;
hopefully I will actually get a small crop of avocados this year.
Cold is definitely our limiting factor for growing avocados commer-
cially in the central part of the state, but just like citrus a backyard
gardener can have success with the trees if they are well protected
from extreme cold and even better protected when they are still
young.
I have kept my Lila in a pot so that while still young I can bring the
tree in and out of the garage on the coldest nights. Of course my soil
isn’t very deep either, so she may be in a container as long as I live in
this house.
Avocados will reach heights of 50’ plus if given the opportunity,
so topping the tree (cutting out the center growth leader) may be
necessary to keep the tree at manageable levels for winter protec-
tion. I don’t know about you, but I am not interested in climbing
an extension ladder in below freezing wind chill to protect a tree!
Trees planted in a protected area of your backyard, or facing south-
southeast in the front will have the best chance of surviving winter.
Make sure the soil is well-drained, but otherwise the avocado is
not particular about acidity/alkalinity.
The tree fruits best in full sun, but young trees may burn in the
summer during the first few years if not shaded in the afternoon.
This is another reason for keeping mine in a pot for a while- so I
have more control over the conditions until it is bigger and stronger.
Fertilize regularly with an organic fertilizer throughout the growing
season and water regularly, but don’t let the tree sit in water. Drain-
age is essential.
Avocados typically flower in the late winter to early spring and fruit
will develop roughly 6 months later on the Mexican types. Because
of the warm weather this last winter mine was actually in flower by
early December.
Determining when to pick the fruit is a little bit of a guessing
game as the fruit will not ripen on the tree. The best way to tell is
to pick one or two of the largest fruits and let them sit on the counter
for a week or two. If they ripen, then the rest of the larger ones
should be ready too.
When I was a kid the servers at a Mexican restaurant my parents
would frequent referred to me as ‘the guacamole kid’ because
that was all I was interested in eating. Although my taste is more
varied now, if I was given a choice of one food to live off for the
rest of my life… it would probably still be the avocado.
Visit the website: www.itsaboutthyme.com Visit the nursery:11726 Manchaca Road, Austin, 78748 Like us
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