Florida Avocado Varieties

[igrowmangos]

Hello, I ran into this list of avocado descriptions while looking for information on Brookslate Avocado. Hope you like. Is anyone here growing Brookslate? It appears to be a great tree for backyards in Zone 9B. Thanks!...

https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/FloridaAvocadoVarieties.pdf

[Squam256]

We grow Brooks Late. It is a heavy producer, the fruit are round, green. Have had them ripen as late as February and some say it’s holds to March for them.

[Tropheus76]

I have been told by nursery owners that Brogden grows really well for us here in east Orange county. It certainly is survivable as mine was devastated by deer mid summer and has grown back to slightly larger than original height and twice the width.

[igrowmangos]

We grow Brooks Late. It is a heavy producer, the fruit are round, green. Have had them ripen as late as February and some say it’s holds to March for them.

How would you rate the taste of it compared to a Reed. Mark has me really thinking about adding one. I would pick one of these two. Zone9B.

[igrowmangos]

We grow Brooks Late. It is a heavy producer, the fruit are round, green. Have had them ripen as late as February and some say it’s holds to March for them.

How would you rate the taste of it compared to a Reed. Mark has me really thinking about adding one. I would pick one of these two. Zone9B.

Funny you mention that! My Brodgon bottom half is a stick because of deers. They must love the leaves of it. It is also attempting to grow back at the bottom where deers pruned it. I was told Brodgon was a great variety for its flavor.

[Mark in Texas]

How would you rate the taste of it compared to a Reed. Mark has me really thinking about adding one. I would pick one of these two. Zone9B.

I got my Brogdon from PIN. It now hosts a GEM after tasting it. I chopped it down and top worked the shoots that pushed.  Also tasted a Brogdon from a Tex/Mex border grower.  Same "meh" so it just wasn't my tree I was disappointed with.  Can't hold a candle to Reed.

[Squam256]

We grow Brooks Late. It is a heavy producer, the fruit are round, green. Have had them ripen as late as February and some say it’s holds to March for them.

How would you rate the taste of it compared to a Reed. Mark has me really thinking about adding one. I would pick one of these two. Zone9B.

Haven’t tasted Reed, but Reed is almost certainly better.

[igrowmangos]

We grow Brooks Late. It is a heavy producer, the fruit are round, green. Have had them ripen as late as February and some say it’s holds to March for them.

How would you rate the taste of it compared to a Reed. Mark has me really thinking about adding one. I would pick one of these two. Zone9B.

Haven’t tasted Reed, but Reed is almost certainly better.

My LULA is already flower type "A". Mark does yours have issues pollinating? I have tons of natural pollinators in the back from honey bees to flies and love bugs lady bugs etc....I am wondering if removing my Brodgon "B" Flower type will result in less avos....

[Mark in Texas]

My LULA is already flower type "A". Mark does yours have issues pollinating? I have tons of natural pollinators in the back from honey bees to flies and love bugs lady bugs etc....I am wondering if removing my Brodgon "B" Flower type will result in less avos....

Sounds like my place, tons of pollinators. You don't need an A AND a B. 

[GangstaRIB]

I haven't had any fruit from my Oro negro yet but it went through it's first 'practice run' this spring. I am not aware of any other avocados in the near area and it did seem to set plenty of baby fruit (eventually dropping them all it was only about 4 ft tall) It does not have the mexican anise smell like the mexicola I just planted but the bees still seemed to go crazy after the flowers. I am also in central FL. It seems like in FL the phases of the flowers get out of whack so there seems to be quite a bit of overlap with the male/female phase.

Also, I would give most of the credit to the bees. I rarely see any bees in my yard on any given day but they sure loved those avocados. Normally I see one or two at a time on some of the other flowers but you could hear the bees working away on the flowers.

A&B types together I'm sure will set more fruit. I put a mexicola (type a) next to my oro negro (type b) for this reason, but I don;t think its needed in FL.

The way I see it if you are worried about fruit set plant some more flowers in your yard. Pentas and Latana from the big box store flower mostly year round and the bees love them. Freezes may take them out but they are cheap

We grow Brooks Late. It is a heavy producer, the fruit are round, green. Have had them ripen as late as February and some say it’s holds to March for them.

How would you rate the taste of it compared to a Reed. Mark has me really thinking about adding one. I would pick one of these two. Zone9B.

Haven’t tasted Reed, but Reed is almost certainly better.

My LULA is already flower type "A". Mark does yours have issues pollinating? I have tons of natural pollinators in the back from honey bees to flies and love bugs lady bugs etc....I am wondering if removing my Brodgon "B" Flower type will result in less avos....

[igrowmangos]

We grow Brooks Late. It is a heavy producer, the fruit are round, green. Have had them ripen as late as February and some say it’s holds to March for them.

How would you rate the taste of it compared to a Reed. Mark has me really thinking about adding one. I would pick one of these two. Zone9B.

Haven’t tasted Reed, but Reed is almost certainly better.

It even looks better. I may just get rid of a Valencia Pride that I have and put a Reed instead. I got plenty of mango trees and looking to extend my fruit season.

[nighthawk0911@yahoo.com]

We grow Brooks Late. It is a heavy producer, the fruit are round, green. Have had them ripen as late as February and some say it’s holds to March for them.

How would you rate the taste of it compared to a Reed. Mark has me really thinking about adding one. I would pick one of these two. Zone9B.

Haven’t tasted Reed, but Reed is almost certainly better.

It even looks better. I may just get rid of a Valencia Pride that I have and put a Reed instead. I got plenty of mango trees and looking to extend my fruit season.

By all means take out a good Mango tree & plant a good CALIFORNIA Avocado variety that performs poorly in Florida.   Sounds like a plan.  How about we take a look at the what the old Pine Island viewer has to say on the subject shall we?

https://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/variety-selected-name-reed-informacion-27



 

[igrowmangos]

We grow Brooks Late. It is a heavy producer, the fruit are round, green. Have had them ripen as late as February and some say it’s holds to March for them.

How would you rate the taste of it compared to a Reed. Mark has me really thinking about adding one. I would pick one of these two. Zone9B.

Haven’t tasted Reed, but Reed is almost certainly better.

It even looks better. I may just get rid of a Valencia Pride that I have and put a Reed instead. I got plenty of mango trees and looking to extend my fruit season.

By all means take out a good Mango tree & plant a good CALIFORNIA Avocado variety that performs poorly in Florida.   Sounds like a plan.  How about we take a look at the what the old Pine Island viewer has to say on the subject shall we?

https://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/variety-selected-name-reed-informacion-27



 

Well Brookslate was a second option as well. The VP is a pain in my ...Its the only one of my trees that has not fruited in 4 years.

[IndigoEmu]

I’ve chatted around a fair bit and the majority of avocado trees grown from grafts in my area are brogdens. Indeed they seem to produce well and I have seen several medium-large trees weather freezes down to 24 degrees without much damage. Definitely not the best tasting avo (and the seeds are huge) but more than tasty enough and cold hardy to keep around in 9b, particularly in the northern end of the zone. I’m also growing winter mexican and based on the first fruits from my small tree prefer them to brogden, as they’ve so far tasted quite similar to quality California hass, the latter of which I hold to my avocado taste standard.

I’d definitely be wary regarding the reputations of avocados grown in different zones/soils, let alone other states. There’s *a lot* of commercial cultivars grown and tested in FL 10b that I doubt would perform as well in 9b. Reed sounds really good in many ways, and I’m tempted to plant one for it’s cold hardiness alone, but cultivars can perform quite differently based on where they’re planted. Take the wurtz for example, which is a mediocre fruit in California but apparently tastes quite nice when grown in Florida. The opposite often occurs with a quality fruit from Cali grown in Florida. I would at least expect it to perform better in the slighter drier climate of 9b than in south Florida, but I’ve seen no reports of fruiting trees here.

[Seanny]

That Reed fruit doesn't look like a Reed here.

[Mark in Texas]

A&B types together I'm sure will set more fruit. I put a mexicola (type a) next to my oro negro (type b) for this reason, but I don;t think its needed in FL.

Here's a Reed flower cluster with 1 female and 4 horny males.



My Oro Negro was a very heavy producer.  Looks like I have one ON branch that pushed on the tree which I missed when grafting ON green shoots post freeze, meaning, I'll have fruit of Lamb Hass, Sharwil and ON on that tree.   ON and Sharwil are B types.  Has that big W. Indies seed which I don't like.  They're sharing some counter space with Moro Blood oranges.



The cocktail tree in Oct.   It is a gorgeous 8' X 8' tree. Several tall center branches were tipped a few months ago.

[Mark in Texas]

Reed sounds really good in many ways, and I’m tempted to plant one for it’s cold hardiness alone,...

Every source I've read about Reed's lack of cold hardiness is the same - it's not cold hardy below 30F.  Well, AGAIN, I'm glad my trees can't read.  My recording thermometer showed a low of 18F in the greenhouse with that heater failure which makes sense as the overnight outside low was 13F.  Froze back to a stump. Here it is pushing little green shoots March 6, 2018 after being pruned back from about 10' tall.



Recovery was amazing.  Here it is 7 months later, Oct. 28, 2018!



My secret?  Bottomless RootBuilder "pot", a handful or two of slow release 18-4-9 Polyon prills for food and mostly watered with rain water. Pre-flowering supplement of boron.

Pay your money, take your chances.

[Mark in Texas]

How about we take a look at the what the old Pine Island viewer has to say on the subject shall we?

https://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/variety-selected-name-reed-informacion-27

Yeah, lets. 

And how about we take that PIN subjective marketing crap with a grain of salt.    Their glowing critique for Mallika shows 5 stars. It tastes like a mealy carrot to me and now hosts Pineapple Pleasure, Juicy Peach and Orange Sherbet, 7' tall after top working it low last year.  It did come back from a 18F freeze, shoots I grafted to.

Oct. 6, 2019:



    https://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/variety-selected-name-mallika-informacion-94

Another farce is their recommendation regarding ON and Brogdon. OK, bought into those two recommendations too.  Both are "meh" and now host SoCal wood.  Their great claim to fame for Physical Graffiti pitaya sucks too.  After tasting that bland fruit (and conferring with a friend that gave me a cutting) I'm about to take it out, favoring Santa Barbara Red, Frankie's Red, and Sugar.  At least it's purty!   



Only reason why Reed falled out of favor in Florida is it tended to be small, at least that's what one of your retired Extension fruit specialists personally told me 18 years ago.  Believe his name was Dr. Balerdi?  Skin is as thick as leather so I assume there would be no anthracnose disease pressure in Fl.

[GangstaRIB]

Wow that is nuts. How old was the cado before it froze to the ground? I'm also thinking a cold hard root stock may be all it takes to save some of the 'warmer' varieties. The root stock is where all the sugar gets stored in the winter time. I realize avos are evergreens but I suspect they still store quite a bit when they start thinning out in the winter time. What is the rootstock lula? Seems like all of the FL nurseries here graft to lula seeds.

Also, because it is a greenhouse, the microclimate probably saved the trees. Not only is it a windbreak but often the coldest air during the coldest nights is closest to the ground. It's why we can get frost despite the temp being close to 40 degrees. I wonder if the black pots held the heat and kept the trunk out of the 'cold zone' just enough.

Once again quite happy for you. I remember reading this story last year and it was pretty depressing.

Reed sounds really good in many ways, and I’m tempted to plant one for it’s cold hardiness alone,...

Every source I've read about Reed's lack of cold hardiness is the same - it's not cold hardy below 30F.  Well, AGAIN, I'm glad my trees can't read.  My recording thermometer showed a low of 18F in the greenhouse with that heater failure which makes sense as the overnight outside low was 13F.  Froze back to a stump. Here it is pushing little green shoots March 6, 2018 after being pruned back from about 10' tall.



Recovery was amazing.  Here it is 7 months later, Oct. 28, 2018!



My secret?  Bottomless RootBuilder "pot", a handful or two of slow release 18-4-9 Polyon prills for food and mostly watered with rain water. Pre-flowering supplement of boron.

Pay your money, take your chances.

[Mark in Texas]

Wow that is nuts. How old was the cado before it froze to the ground?

Grafted it to a Florida pit in 2012, so, 6 years old.  I've pruned it back from about 13' about 3X now.

I'm also thinking a cold hard root stock may be all it takes to save some of the 'warmer' varieties. The root stock is where all the sugar gets stored in the winter time. I realize avos are evergreens but I suspect they still store quite a bit when they start thinning out in the winter time. What is the rootstock lula? Seems like all of the FL nurseries here graft to lula seeds.

Yep, Lula is used a lot in Texas. Not sure why as it's not cold hardy.  One seller in Devine (S.W. of San Antonio) grafts on Lula and then instructs his customers to bury the graft.

Also, because it is a greenhouse, the microclimate probably saved the trees. Not only is it a windbreak but often the coldest air during the coldest nights is closest to the ground. It's why we can get frost despite the temp being close to 40 degrees. I wonder if the black pots held the heat and kept the trunk out of the 'cold zone' just enough.

Thanks for the kind thoughts. As I've written a few times before, the primary reason why we Texans lose trees, mainly fruit, is because of the sudden temp drops which can be 50 degree swings in hours.  We just had such an event.  Before the heater failure my trees had been subjected to cold, mid 30's temps, cloudy skies for about a day or two.  The mulch and heavy canopy created a warm micro climate too, plus they were not stressed and were woody.   

I find it crazy when vendors sell trees based on some scripted cold hardiness factor that everyone from the internet and up parrots.  You can throw all that stuff out the window in the real world. 

[igrowmangos]

Here is my Lula. I got it early last year and planted it same time. It flowered but dropped all of the fruit. I actually think it was nabbed because I really didn’t see fruit on the floor and they where getting large. So I can bet a raccoon or something swiped the fruit but they were not ready and very hard. Anyhow, it has not flowered for me this year though so I guess I am not getting fruit this year either since it’s a November-March fruit. Flowering should be around May? How is the shape of the tree?

[igrowmangos]

[igrowmangos]

The Brogdon is the slim tree that got ate by deer. I know it was deer because I catch them in the act with a camera. I’m wondering if I should prune the brogdon at the top to promote side branching. Any ideas?

[Tropheus76]

Unless you protect it with a fence around it the deer will do the pruning for you.