The Tropical Fruit Forum

Its a known fact that avocados are very thirsty fruit trees.
But has there been an exception anywhere in the world when the tree just grows and fruits a lot year after year and it requires zero watering AND the area is not abundantly rainy?

Seems great, thank you, I wrote to the guy already

Im in ,where to get it? 

Thanks

Yes, I phrased inadequately. Meant as in avocadoes grown in the coldest zones

Ive looked up Brissago in Switzerland, Do you think it would be possible to plant one next to Lake Balaton in Hungary?
Its not exactly the same, but almost the same latitude wise, and the thermal mass from the lake would protect it I believe, obiously Id still need the most cold hardy ones but they might have a change, what do you think?

Can you hybridize them to create a cold tolerant black sapote tasting fruit tree?

Did you find it?

@CarolinaZone

They are from Austria? :O Wow so close to me

Like russians developed many pomegranate varieties that can handle much colder temps than temps they are originally exposed to

Can you do the same thing with loquat?
The only issue that comes into mind is that they start flowering in december so unless it mutates to flower in spring instead its not gonna happen

But it makes you wonder about the possibilities of zone pushing

...than temperate climate trees?

Its as if tropical fruit trees are unable to "do the work" of bringing flowers, leaves at lower temps whereas temperate trees (apples, plums, apricot, pears etc.. ) do that with ease..
What is the science behind this?

Interestingly enough it not only affects tropical fruit trees but non-tropicals as well that came from the tropics, subtropics (but somehow evolved to handle colder temps eg: Asimina Triloba). They are really starting to wake up once night time temps go above 10C/50F

Can it be that as science advances we'll be able to manipulate whatever that is causing it to wake up early (and thrive), or push it with selective breeding?

@drymifolia

Have you read this?
https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=24627.0

This guy has some success with finding the hardy ones from allegedly supermarket seeds in Zone 8b. Not Zone 7b-8a, but still something to get inspired by

Yes! You're probably referring to Mike, who found a seedling in his compost in southern England. I'm in regular contact with Mike, who posts photo updates on his trees here:
https://imgur.com/a/5gflnlU

His location may technically be zone 8, but really closer to zone 9. Most winters since that tree sprouted he has not seen temperatures below -4°C (25°F), and he hasn't updated that page after this current winter, where the tree suffered significant dieback based on an email he sent a month ago. Here's a relevant excerpt from the email:

Yes, Its him, saw his post somewhere before.

But there are quite a few in London, I wonder what their parents are. Allegedly there was -10 in 2012 there, they and apparently they are still alive, so they did survive that.


What about your hardy seedlings? Any news, how many did survive this winter and can you tell what were your lows?

@drymifolia

He answered to me in chat that hes no longer able to do the experiment due to personal reasons but he knows some guy who is doing it seriously . not much to work with

@drymifolia
Thanks for sharing your experience. That's unfortunate because i was hoping for this to work as for me also it's much easier to find hass avocados seeds. I will give it a try anyway but guess i will have to think of other solutions as well

Actually this guy gave me the idea. According to him, Hass avocadoe seedlings do have the potential to be very cold hardy, lets say 1/100
https://georgestancliffe.medium.com/the-b-c-avocado-project-670ed22a74d7