Hi I am a new memeber . Has anyone had any success in planting an avocado plant in Middx. I have just been given a plant approx 12 inches high. Don't know if to keep it in a pot or put in garden. Or is it not worth the effort. Any advise would be great thanks

On 20/07/2015 08:50, Kenty224 wrote:

Hi I am a new memeber . Has anyone had any success in planting an
avocado plant in Middx. I have just been given a plant approx 12 inches
high. Don't know if to keep it in a pot or put in garden. Or is it not
worth the effort. Any advise would be great thanks

It is a tree I have grown one as far as about 8' and it isn't really
worth the effort apart from for novelty value. They grow easily but all
you get is a leggy stick with a tuft of leaves at the top.

It is far too tender to survive outdoors in the UK and would only reach
flowing size here in a very large heated greenhouse. In the tropics you
could grow it outdoors where falling fruit dent cars.

If you want a hardy exotic looking plant in the UK ginko biloba is
pretty good but will take a long while to reach fruiting size (and you
probably want a male anyway - the fruit pulp smells awful).

Coffee and peanuts are just about doable indoors or in a greenhouse in
the UK and the former is quite an appealing plant.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Avocado can make a good houseplant, but will soon get too big. Grow it
for a year or two but unless you have a conservatory it will soon
outgrow its space. If you want to get one to fruit move to somewhere
like Barbados!

In article ,
Pam Moore wrote:
Avocado can make a good houseplant, but will soon get too big. Grow it
for a year or two but unless you have a conservatory it will soon
outgrow its space. If you want to get one to fruit move to somewhere
like Barbados!

It will soon outgrow any conservatory short of the ones at Kew!
While it's hardier than many such things, and doesn't actually
need more than sub-tropical conditions, it will die outside the
first serious winter.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 20/07/2015 08:50, Kenty224 wrote:
Hi I am a new memeber . Has anyone had any success in planting an
avocado plant in Middx. I have just been given a plant approx 12 inches
high. Don't know if to keep it in a pot or put in garden. Or is it not
worth the effort. Any advise would be great thanks


Any fool can plant anything outside.
The question should be will it survive if planted outside, and the
answer is NO.

In article ,
says...

Avocado can make a good houseplant, but will soon get too big. Grow it
for a year or two but unless you have a conservatory it will soon
outgrow its space. If you want to get one to fruit move to somewhere
like Barbados!

Or New Zealand. Our house-swap garden there had a huge tree covered in
fruit not quite ripe yet.

Janet

In article ,
Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...

Avocado can make a good houseplant, but will soon get too big. Grow it
for a year or two but unless you have a conservatory it will soon
outgrow its space. If you want to get one to fruit move to somewhere
like Barbados!

Or New Zealand. Our house-swap garden there had a huge tree covered in
fruit not quite ripe yet.

Auckland? It will do well in only the warmer parts of New Zealand.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
says...

In article ,
Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...

Avocado can make a good houseplant, but will soon get too big. Grow it
for a year or two but unless you have a conservatory it will soon
outgrow its space. If you want to get one to fruit move to somewhere
like Barbados!

Or New Zealand. Our house-swap garden there had a huge tree covered in
fruit not quite ripe yet.

Auckland? It will do well in only the warmer parts of New Zealand.

A bit further south, Bay of Plenty.

Janet

On 20/07/2015 08:50, Kenty224 wrote:
Hi I am a new memeber . Has anyone had any success in planting an
avocado plant in Middx. I have just been given a plant approx 12 inches
high. Don't know if to keep it in a pot or put in garden. Or is it not
worth the effort. Any advise would be great thanks



How to grow avacado
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/642

"David Hill" wrote
Kenty224 wrote:
Hi I am a new memeber . Has anyone had any success in planting an
avocado plant in Middx. I have just been given a plant approx 12 inches
high. Don't know if to keep it in a pot or put in garden. Or is it not
worth the effort. Any advise would be great thanks



How to grow avacado
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/642


I've always thought they would be excellent trees for some of the warmer
places in the world where nutrition is poor.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 20/07/2015 5:50 PM, Kenty224 wrote:
Hi I am a new memeber . Has anyone had any success in planting an
avocado plant in Middx. I have just been given a plant approx 12 inches
high. Don't know if to keep it in a pot or put in garden. Or is it not
worth the effort. Any advise would be great thanks

I've read the responses to this thread with interest and I'd say to
plant one out and see what happens but there are a few techniques which
could help the tress survive. They do get very big once mature.

Anyhoo, the reason why I say this is because a very well known
Australian gardener by the name of Jackie French successfully grows
avocados outside in groves of trees in a cold valley where she gets
frost and snow.

Jackie appears on Canberra ACT radio regularly and Canberra is very cold
(down to -7C at some point in every winter). Jackie asked, on radio, if
anyone was successfully growing avos outside in Canberra and this is the
response she got:
http://blogs.abc.net.au/canberra/200...ocados-an.html

Both places mentioned (Macgregor and Queanbeyan)would have lower temps
during winter than the "official" temps given for Canberra as shown he
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averag...w_070282.shtml

I know where her place is located and I'm always astonished every time I
hear what she has growing there as supposedly it is impossible to grow
the plants she does in that cold place. This is how she has managed to
be so successful:
http://www.jackiefrench.com/groves.html

People unfamiliar with the conditions should look at the Climate FAQ
(www.u-r-g.co.uk/faqclimate.htm). Measuring the hardness of winters
by lowest temperature alone doesn't map well into plant hardiness,
and our short, cool summers are as much of a problem as the winters
to many plants (and especially fruit).

Janet might be able to grow Chinese gooseberry (Kiwi fruit), but
I suspect not, and doubt very much that it would fruit. It does
in the south of the UK, and in a warm position (e.g. on a suitable
wall). Similarly, avocado might grow on the south coast or even
in the smokes (er, Middlesex), but the same applies.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Nick Maclaren wrote:

Similarly, avocado might grow on the south coast or even
in the smokes (er, Middlesex), but the same applies.

Oops. Unclear. I meant "I suspect not, and doubt very much that
it would fruit."


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 22/07/2015 5:56 PM, Nick Maclaren wrote:
People unfamiliar with the conditions should look at the Climate FAQ
(www.u-r-g.co.uk/faqclimate.htm). Measuring the hardness of winters
by lowest temperature alone doesn't map well into plant hardiness,
and our short, cool summers are as much of a problem as the winters
to many plants (and especially fruit).

Janet might be able to grow Chinese gooseberry (Kiwi fruit), but
I suspect not, and doubt very much that it would fruit. It does
in the south of the UK, and in a warm position (e.g. on a suitable
wall). Similarly, avocado might grow on the south coast or even
in the smokes (er, Middlesex), but the same applies.

Unless the OP plants their 12 inch avo, they will never know if the
plant will grow and fruit or if it will not.

A lot of garden advice is "knowledge" that is simply recycled endlessly
without that "knowledge" ever being put to the test.

I've been told repeatedly (as do the books written by nearly all
supposed experts) that I cannot grow either lemons or mandarins in my
climate. I now have a fruiting lemon and this year my mandarin tree is
covered in fruit. Whether the mandarins will yet get to be eaten is to
be seen. I suspect I should have taken some off as the amount of fruit
is way too much for the size of the tree.

I planted both of those things that I supposedly can't grow after a)
reading a book by someone who had set out to prove that he could grow a
range of fruit (including sub tropical) in a place that I'd consider to
be a cold climate, and b) after I'd seen 2 huge mandarin trees growing
and fruiting where they supposedly never could survive and much less
produce fruit.

I planted my mandarin tree when I went to visit a woman who had these 2
huge mandarin trees on either side of her front door. I said to her and
I KNEW they wouldn't grow where she lived. Her response is that every
single gardener who visited her told her the exact same thing and the
mandarins just kept on ignoring such advice.

There are numerous techniques that can be used to get plants to grow
where they supposedly won't. Just one example I've seen is where grapes
were grown in 6 ft deep slit trenches with corrugated clear roofing
sheets on top of them. The grapes were growing well and had fruit and
the owner of those grapes had been told that he couldn't grow grapes in
his climate so he set out to prove he could do it. His worst problem
was kangaroos jumping on the roofing and falling through.

Since the OP asked for any advice, mine is to plant their 12 inch plant.
It may grow. It may even fruit. They won't know until they test it
out.

In article ,
Fran Farmer wrote:

Unless the OP plants their 12 inch avo, they will never know if the
plant will grow and fruit or if it will not.

A lot of garden advice is "knowledge" that is simply recycled endlessly
without that "knowledge" ever being put to the test.

It is, but not typically on this group. Quite a lot of people have
planted avocados, and few (if any) have lived. London has a very
warm microclimate, so it might (though I suspect not), but thinking
it might fruit there is deluding oneself.

Citrus is a much more UK-tolerant range of plants.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.