Bacon avocado is the most popular cold hardy avocado readily available for sale in Australia. Grown in home gardens in Victoria the Bacon Avocado tree produces a medium quality fruit. Readily available although you might need to get you local nursery to order them in for you.
And for best fruit production, plant a Lamb Hass as well, this will assist with pollination.
When looking for cold hardy, or cold ‘tolerant’ avocado trees the group of trees from Mexico are by far the hardiest, these include Bacon, Shepard and the little known in Australia ‘Zutano’. However it is not only the tree itself that is cold tolerant, it is also the rootstock, Duke is perhaps the most cold tolerant rootstock of all.
Reed, Hass, Rincon, Fuerte, Ryan and Sharwill are all reported tohave some degree of cold tolerance. Remember that avocados come in type A and type B, they fruit more prolificly if one of both is planted.
Planting your Avocado in a cold climate.
The first thing to remember is that cold however does not mean frost, in general avocado trees do not like frost at all. Also in cooler climates drainage in winter is especially important. So for the cooler areas of New South Wales,Melbourne, Tasmania and even Adelaide try this method.
- Choose a sunny position protected from cold winds. A little shade is OK as long as they can reach into the sun.
- A gentle slope will help ensure that drainage is good.
- Prepare the soil to a good depth with manure and compost.
- Choose a grafted variety, it will fruit more reliably, and sooner than a seedling type.
- Choose a suitable variety such as Bacon, and then plant a Lamb Hass to assist with cross pollination, as well as prolong the harvesting period.
- When you first plant your avocado consider building a shade cloth cover and keep this is place until the tree becomes established.
- Once the tree starts to set fruit, you do need to water well through summer to retain the fruit.
- Some additional fertiliser each spring and some mulch will also be of benefit.
Other cold tolerant avocado trees include
Brogdon: a purple to black skinned variety which is very cold tolerant, but not readily available
Lula: A cold tolerant avocado with long harvest period, again not readily available in Australia
Monroe: A nice large fruit, tasty and a cold hardy tree, again not readily available.
You may be interested in :
In Melbourne Try
WISHING WELL NURSERY (great range of fruit trees for Melbourne) – PH 03 97566107
407 – 409 Monbulk Rd Monbulk VIC. 3793
Includes Avocados for cold climates, persimmon and Olives.