Keen to grow your own Avocados? 

Firstly, make sure your site is suitable to grow avocados; trees need good, deep, free draining topsoil, full sun, shelter from wind and protection from frost, when young.

The next step is to choose which types to grow…

We have four different varieties available, Hass, Reed, Bacon & Fuerte.

Hass is New Zealand’s most common variety. The fruit is a crocodile skinned, large, weighing 200-300 grams. It is high yielding, and ripe from September through until March. It turns purplish/black when ripe. An ‘A’ type flowerer.

Reed is a large fruit, the size of a softball and often weighing over 400 grams. It is high yielding and is ripe from December through until April. It remains green when ripe. An ‘A’ type flowerer.

Bacon is a medium sized fruit weighing 150-250 grams. It is high yielding and is ripe from July through until September. It remains green when ripe. ‘B’ type flowerer. This variety has good cold tolerance.

Fuerte is the original, high quality Californian avocado. It is a medium sized fruit weighing 150-250 grams. It is medium yielding and ripe from October through until March. It remains green when ripe. ‘B’ type flowerer. This variety has good cold tolerance.

The ‘A’ & ‘B’ type refers to the flowers, which impacts the pollination and fruiting

The flower has a period when it opens as a female, and a period when the same flower opens as a male.

The ‘A’ type flowerer opens as a female on the first morning, closes and opens as a male the next afternoon and the ‘B’ type has the opposite pattern.

The cooler the spring the more this pattern is followed, in a warm spring there will be female and male flowers open at the same time on the same tree. Hence, we say that Avocados are predominantly self-fertile, but in cooler environments having cross pollinating cultivars is an advantage.

When its time to plant, do so carefully to minimise any disturbance to the roots.

The trees should start producing fruit after three years.

Guacamole here we come!