Can anyone recommend a good nursery for buying Avocado Trees and Kiwi vines from? Also a stupid question on Kiwis. Do I need a male vine to help the female vines produce fruit?
Kiwi's usually have 1 male to 3 females. I got mine at Walmart. Contact you're local nursery about the avocado, they can probably order one. I Got a cold hardy avocado at my local market, go figure. It hasn't produced yet, but is still hanging in there. It was in a 5 gallon bucket, for about $20.00, its about 4 feet now. Avocados have some pretty weird growing habits. Male and female flowers bloom on the same tree, but at different times of the day, I think. lacyj
Lacy, do you remember the variety of avocado? When we lived in L.A. we had 2 kinds; hass and fuerte. They were 50 year old trees about 50 feet tall each and more fruit than we could use. We sold them to restaurants in the area. Now we are in AZ about 4,500 feet and get cold winters so we need a hardy variety.
No, I don't, the avocado is ok to 28 degrees, I do get freezes here tho. I'm @ 1000' in the foothills of CA.I keep xmas lights on the avocado and the citrus, from november to about march, to keep them warmer at night. There's an exotic tree and plant nursery that has about everything in southern CA, I'll try to find the link... lacyj most of these say, they're good, to mid to low 20's degrees http://www.buyplantsonline.com/shop/SearchResults.asp?ProdStock=AV002 They sound like they're pretty good size also.
There are several varieties of Kiwi, and at least one of them is self fertile, That particular variety is also able to pollinate female plants of the other varieties. A couple of summers ago I bought two females and a male of one variety, and for good measure one of the self-fertile types. As it happened all four plants thrived and I am looking forward to blooms this summer. We get hard freezes, here, so the varieties I have are those that make small, fuzzless kiwis. You supposedly eat them much like grapes though they are a bit larger. Fellow I bought mine from had them growing on arbors like grapes. Made a great retreat on a hot summer day. They absolutely cannot stand drought. I was told to buy an automatic waterer and see that they never dried out. So far I have done the watering without an auto timer, but any time I get behind the plants show it. Ox
Aaah! Chinese Gooseberry! I love those suckers. Srrawberry, nectarine, melon and banana taste. Can you imagine them run through a Juiceman(tm) Juicer along with some carrots. WOW! Somebody STOP me! Good source of potassium and vitamin C. Ox, where do you live. I am just about in zone 6b. I'd like to grow some of those, too. If they're hardy for you (you say you get hard freezes), they ought to grow for me, since China, where they originated, isn't the warmest place in the world, either. What varieties do you have and where did you purchase them? We bought a new house last month and I WILL get some for planting, even if I have to use washtubs to make them portable to the garage. Sam
Southern Alabama is really pushing it for even the most cold hardy avocado, I think. But if you want to try them then Just Fruits & Exotics in Crawfordville, FL has two varieties are supposed to be cold hardy (for an avocado). The have a brand new website now at http://www.justfruitsandexotics.com I haven't tried their avocados - yet - but I've bought a lot of other stuff from them and have been well pleased with what I bought. .....Alan.
