mark,

"...If you like citrus..."  citrus is o.k. i guess, but i grew up in the middle of 60 acres of citrus in central florida in the days just after WWII.  those were not prosperous days in our neighborhood.   citrus was often on the menu.  sometimes, it seems in memory, there was little but citrus.  i'm afraid i got overdosed on citrus at an early age. 

actually, i have more avo varieties than i mentioned.the total list (so far) is cairo, winter mexican, mexicola, wurtz dwarf, brazos belle (aka wilma). joey, fantastic (aka pryor), poncho and gainesville. this is waaaay too many for my limited space in the greenhouse.   even with a serious pruning program, it will be squeaky tight!
some of them will be only temporary greenhouse residents, until they are mature enough to be planted outside.  the cairo already is outside - on the south side of the main house porch.  it seems the most extremely cold hardy one i have.  it is also the one about which i know the least.  i have only anecdotal information on it, but the scion wood for it is said to come from a tree growing unprotected in georgia.  i have no idea what kind of fruit it will bear, but presumably it will have a seed in it.  i have hopes that its seedlings may prove to be very cold hardy rootstock.   ...and a few just to let grow into trees hoping some of them might inherit their parents' cold hardiness.   ...and one or two of them might have interesting fruit.  i have plenty of room and good soil.  there will be an interesting spectrum of other varieties' pollen in the air.  no telling what might happen in a few years time.

some dogs like to dig.  some dogs are stubborn.  good luck with the stones.   a little wire cage is better, but some dogs are natural diggers, and a little wire will just slow them down.    unless it's an electric fence wire.  dogs learn fast.  they won't have to get zapped more than twice to learn not to go near dadddy's tree.  maybe just once.

i went by my friend john's place and picked up three more avocado trees.  first, a "poncho" as a housewarming present for a lady friend of mine.  i'm going to keep it in its pot in my greenhouse until mid april and then go plant it at her house.  poncho is pretty frost - hardy after the first couple years.  we have a spot picked out in a sheltered location on the south side of her new house.  a couple or three years of babying (cover with sheets, with a light bulb underneath on cold nights) and maybe she'll have an avo tree.

also picked up a "gainesville"  which i understand is similar to "mexicola."  this one is tiny, about fifteen inches tall in a 4" "tree pot."  this also will be nurtured inside the greenhouse, until it's a lot bigger.  then, it goes outside. 

third, i got a "fantastic"  which is the same as a "pryor" except for the copyrighted name and possibly the rootstock.  this is also going to be grown on for another year or two in a larger pot in the greenhouse, then planted out when it has a trunk maybe the size of a baseball bat.  this is one of the "fantastics" that are produced by hopkins in immokalee. 

pryor and fantastic have a reputation of good cold-hardiness.  i already have a "cairo" growing outside the greenhouse in a sheltered location.  it came through the winter with very little damage.  the terminal bud got zapped, but i was going to prune that to encourage branching anyway.  my mexicola made it through two winters before i built the greenhouse around it, and there are a few mature avos in the neighborhood. 

i'm not sure where all this is leading, but the basic idea is to push the envelope for tropical fruit here in north florida.  if all goes well, i hope to have hardy avos growing in the yard, and more tender ones in the greenhouse with the mangos.  i have pryor/fantastic, mexicola, gainesville, and cairo, i hope to have a supply of seeds for cold-hardy rootstock.  i may be able to get something going.

i know most of these cold-hardy varieties have only mediocre quality fruit.  if i have enough seed stock, i will be able to throw a lot of seeds in the ground,  i have four acres to play with.  who knows, if i throw the genetic dice often enough, i may get lucky.  an avocado cold hardy enough to stand north florida/south georgia winters that produces good fruit?   who knows?

many failures can be traced to a lack of making the attempt.

meanwhile, i'll get to eat a lot of avocados to get the seeds.   what's not to like?

30 here this morning.  forecast said 34.  i knew better than to trust them, and closed the greenhouse yesterday evening.  no noticeable damage. 
it's a forecast, remember, not a prediction or a promise.

Leo look at this chart. I think I will give a try to Winter Mexican. I think this is the fruit sold at Nornan Brothers in 87 Avenue south of Sunset in Miami in March and April. I think it would grow well here. Well someone is growing them. I wonder if any of the Forum member is growing it he in Dade?

carlos,
winter mexican is started in my greenhouse in north fla.  3 gal grafted from jene's tropicals in st pete. planted june 2013 only vegetative growth so far.  seems to have a "weeping" growth habit.  other than that, nothing to report (yet)

treefrog

hard to go wrong with a Neelam  (various spellings)

that flower opened this afternoon (the fourth day, not the second) as a male.  conclusion:  i think my joey is "A" type, but with the cold induced delay, i cannot be certain.  i'll check again later after this cold spell is over.

nothing opened the second afternoon.  we are having a cold spell.  i am told cold temps destabilise avocado blossom timing.        so far, observable data are inconclusive.  at this point, joey's a-b status is  still a question.

my joey avocado opened its first flower this morning.  appears to be pistillate (prominent pale structures arising in the center).  this would indicate type "A" flower?  no?

i've always had good results with 5-10-15.  this is a common fertilizer available at feed stores wherever soybeans are raised.  lighter doses more often works well for me.  also trace elements, compost and mulch. 

carlos,

no poncho flowers open yet, but it looks like soon.  i will let you know when it happens.  the weather here is on the cool side.  that has been known to make the a-b flowering pattern irregular.  we'll just have to see what happens.

kool!  i gotta try it.  here's hoping it works.