Avocado, Texas Style

This is a G.E.M. avocado. It’s supposed to be hardy to zone 9. Thanks to the warming temperatures over the last ten years we have been moved from 8b to 9a. As most people know: we are still in the tail end of an ice age and when you are coming out of an ice age, things tend to warm.

Avocados are marginal here in the San Antonio area. We usually get major freezes coming through here every 5-10 years. It wipes out the citrus (avocados like about the same conditions as citrus.)

However, I’m a crazy gardener and I am planning on running heat tape and plastic cover over some fiberglass batting. We’ll see how it goes. I’d rather be over confident with my freeze protection than get caught up in a bad year and lose the tree.

Until it’s grown some roots this is going to be potted. I’m planning on moving it out to replace the pear once I get that cut down. This was clearly grafted from an avocado pit, I’m hoping not something even less cold tolerant, because that is going to make it more susceptible to our sometimes cold winters. Guess we’ll see!

This is a smaller, slow growing tree that has a heavy bearing, precocious habit. It does not fall into alternate bearing years as most avocados do. It holds the fruit inside the foliage which will help with sunburn in our hot Texas summers. It has slightly better heat and cold tolerance than Hass. However, this is not the most cold hardy avocado you can grow.

Here in San Antonio (and since this will eventually be in ground): I am looking for all of these characteristics, knowing that I will need to protect any avocado I grow. The eating quality and the compact and precocious habit are all plusses for me. It will come inside of the house this winter. Next year I will try it in ground (in a raised bed) with heat tape and fiber glass batting under a clear tarp. I’ll definitely keep this article up to date.

If you are interested in knowing more about this tree from an expert (if you want a food forest you will need expert advice. The reason being: you will have so many different needs that go along with a large variety of fruiting plants) go ahead and read the below article and watch the videos. See if you want to try something that will fall into the category of a South Texas “defiance garden” (fighting nature with your little, human understanding, some great determination and a whole lot of effort.) https://gregalder.com/yardposts/the-gem-avocado-tree-a-profile/

The grower from this link is in California. I don’t think these will perform well in pots, in our South Texas heat and the root system size of these trees will create a rootbound mess if I keep it in the pot. But: you can certainly try pots as an experiment.

Meet you out in the garden for some Texas avocados!

Crazy Green Thumbs