HOW TO GROW A COLD-HARDY AVOCADO TREE IN VANCOUVER CANADA
By: George Stancliffe
Tags: Canadian, Home, Cold Hardy, Avocado, Gardening

STEP 2: Start your seed in the usual glass of water (and then transfer it into a pot), or just plant it directly into a pot with soil in it. Either way works. But be patient. Avocado seeds take 1 to 2 months just to sprout.

There are various methods for growing Avocado seeds. I recommend viewing a few of these videos. They could save you a month or more of waiting for your seedling to sprout and grow (I had one seed that took 4 months to sprout!). If you do it right, you can often get the sprouting started in 1 to 3 weeks. See these videos for more information (and there are other good videos online):

An interesting video showing the “best” method for growing Avocado seeds.

Another experiment showing another “best” method for growing Avocado seeds.

Here is another creative “best” method that works!

STEP 3: Grow them indoors for several months, until they are ready to be transplanted outdoors. As soon as it reaches the March 21 to July 15th period of time, I transplant as many Baby Avocado trees outside as I can. After that, they’re on their own!

STEP 4: Plant several seedlings, if you can. Remember: for every 20 Avocado seedlings that you plant, you’ll end up with only 1 or 2 cold-hardy Avocado trees next spring. Mother Nature may be harsh, but how else can you identify the cold-hardy ones?

If we have an unusually cold winter, maybe they’ll all die. But if that happens, just start over the next year. Once you get one or more trees established, they will grow up again from the roots in the Spring if the top (the part above the ground) dies off during a hard freeze.

STEP 5: When you transplant the baby Avocado trees, plant them about 1/3 meter (1 foot) apart. Don’t worry that they’ll be crowded. Mother Nature will solve that issue come winter. 90% of your baby trees will freeze to death.

Think big. Avocado trees can get pretty large, so don’t plant one right next to the foundation of your house. Put it at least 6 feet away from your foundation.

Also, never plant an Avocado tree where water likes to pool. Overwatering or flooding are the death knell to Avocado trees. Good drainage is essential.

STEP 6: Plant the seedlings into regular soil, without any enhancements (ie. don’t put lots of organic matter into the soil when you bury the roots). You are more likely to get root rot in your Avocado tree if you have lots of organic material underground, according to one expert.

STEP 7: However, on top of the soil (around the base of the tree), I have placed a layer of wood chips (about 6–8 inches thick), as insulation, in order to protect the roots from the winter cold. That way, the roots won’t be killed off by the winter cold if we should have an extreme cold spell that kills off the top (above-ground) part of the tree.

6 to 8 inches of wood chips at the base of the Avocado tree to insulate the roots, in case of a very cold Winter.

STEP 8: Wait 3 to 5 years before any of your trees begin bearing fruit. Some Avocado trees will produce fruit after only 3-4 years. Others may not fruit for up to 10–12 years. You will likely improve your chances of getting early fruit by planting multiple trees.

Don’t want to wait 10 years for fruit? Then plant multiple trees. You may shorten that wait to 3–5 years.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS:

Q. What happens when we have a colder-than-normal Winter?

A. More of your trees will die. That is one reason why it’s important to grow multiple Avocado trees. Even though a frost-killed tree will often grow back from the roots the following Spring, it is even better if we can obtain varieties that will withstand even colder temperatures during an exceptionally cold winter.

Over time, our varieties will be even more cold-resistant than our initial varieties, because we will be specifically breeding and growing with that particular trait in mind.

Q. Why are Mexican Avocado varieties more cold-resistant?

A. This is because Avocados originally started in Mexico. And there are some areas in Mexico, way up in the mountains, where Avocado trees grow and proliferate, where it regularly freezes during the winter. Avocado trees from these areas already contain the DNA that allows these trees to survive sub-freezing weather. Some of this cold-hardy DNA is present in many of the popular commercial varieties.

One Mexican friend that I spoke with (who is from the area where the cold-hardy varieties grow in the mountains) told me that the Avocados that come from that area, all have VERY LARGE seeds. This may be a significant observation. What this implies, is that if we are able to obtain some Avocados from this mountainous area, we could then plant these larger seeds and possibly get even more of that cold-hardiness trait that we need for our Vancouver, B.C. Avocado Project.

Of course, if the super cold-hardy Avocado varieties of the future contain larger-than-average seeds, I won’t complain any. It’s better than not being able to grow any Avocados at all in Vancouver.

If any of you has a way to legally import some of these large-seed Avocados from the cooler mountainous region of Mexico, please do so. And then plant the seeds, so that we can improve our future cold-hardy Avocado varieties.

This is what a Large-Seed Avocado looks like. The taste is still wonderful.

Q. Do you have any back up system, in case no acceptable Avocado varieties come from this project, anytime soon?

A. Yes. I have 3 different Avocado trees that I grow indoors during the Winter. Each is planted in a large plastic garbage can filled with soil, or in a large laundry basket. I wheel them outside during the Spring, and wheel them back indoors during the next Winter. That way, I’ll enjoy at least a few home-grown Avocados until we can come up with a true cold-hardy variety that is adequate for the Vancouver climate. These 3 trees were also grown from seed just like the others that I have planted outdoors. But you can certainly grow a “name brand” variety indoors, if it won’t be going outside anyway (ie. Hass, Fuerte, Reed, Bacon, etc.).

Q. When Avocado trees get blossoms, what can I do to enhance pollination?

A. There are two things that you can do: 1. You can hand-pollinate with a small paint brush, and/or 2. You can mix a little bit of honey with some water, and spray it lightly on the Avocado blossoms to attract the bees (this really works). There are separate web articles and YouTube videos on each of these methods.

Q. I’ve planted Avocado seeds several times and they always do well for a few weeks, then they die.

A. The commonest complaint that I hear is this one. The commonest reason why people kill their Avocado tree is that they OVER-WATER it. Avocado trees get root rot pretty easily. Once you take the seed out of the glass-filled-with-water, then you don’t want to overwater your tree any more. Just water it once or twice per week if it’s in a pot. Not more than twice per week.

After you plant an Avocado tree outside in Vancouver, you don’t need to water it much. This is a rainy city. But if we go a long while with no rain, it’s OK to water your Avocado tree.

Q. About 90% of all Avocados sold in the USA and Canada are Hass Avocados. I’ve read that Hass Avocados are a Guatemalan variety, so I’m wasting my time if I think I’ll get a cold-hardy tree from a Hass Avocado seed, right?

A. I have good news for you: Recently, scientists have sequenced the genome for the Hass Avocado. It turns out that the Hass is about 61% MEXICAN, and about 39% Guatemalan. So, if you have no other options for planting than Hass Avocado seeds, you still have a good chance of producing a few resulting seedlings that are cold-hardy. Just keep planting and growing. Sooner or later you’ll get something that will be hardy down to at least -7°C, and maybe -10°C and still produce a crop the following summer.

Q. What if I obtain a cold-hardy Avocado variety from a nursery? Wouldn’t that be just as good?

A. It could be just as good. But here in Canada I haven’t heard of any of the commercial, very-cold-hardy varieties making it here yet. The Duke and the Aravaipa Avocado varieties (mentioned in my article “The B.C. Avocado Project”) still are not available in Canada, as far as I know. Other interesting possible cold-hardy varieties are mentioned on https://floridafruitgeek.com/cold-hardy-avocados/, such as Del Rio, Wilma, May, Gloria, and several others. The three of these that I find most interesting are Del Rio (which has been known to survive -15°C (7°F) without killing the entire plant down to the ground[the last time it was colder than -15°C in Vancouver was over 50 years ago! — George]), May (which is an early-ripening variety, which would be a godsend for Vancouver, considering our short growing season), and Gloria (which is extremely short-seasoned — ripening in Mid-June [in Florida]).

All of these existing varieties should be imported, tried and tested in the Vancouver area. But until we have some of these — in hand — our best option is to keep developing our own “Canadian variety.”

The most cold-hardy Avocado tree that I’ve heard of in a Canadian nursery is good down to about -7°C (about 20°F). But in almost every Vancouver winter in the past 10 years, it has reached at least -8°C (18°F).

That simply isn’t good enough for my purposes.

The exciting thing about all these above-mentioned cold-hardy Avocado varieties is that they PROVE, BEYOND DOUBT that the existence of a cold-hardy, short-seasoned variety of Avocado that is capable of growing well in Western Canada is truly possible. (And it may even already exist, if we can import the right trees).

One word of caution: Western British Columbia has many environmental factors, like climate, flora, pests, fungi, etc. that are different from other areas where Avocado trees are grown. We can’t say for sure whether any of the above cold-hardy varieties would be ideal for the Vancouver area, without a few years of growing and testing, outdoors, just to be sure that they really will grow well here. This is just one more reason why we still need to work on developing our own Canadian variety while we also search for other suitable cold-hardy Avocado varieties.

— George Stancliffe

P.S. — George Stancliffe is interested in creating a home variety of Avocado that will product fruit in the Vancouver, Canada climate.

George Stancliffe has also written extensively on how you can teach your child to Speed Read, regardless of his/her age (Even if your child is ADHD or Dyslexic). You can find many of his articles here on Medium.com. You can also find more information on his website: www.SpeedReading4Kids.com .