Q. I recently purchased a ‘Lila’ dwarf avocado tree. I've
never heard of an avocado tree in southern Nevada, but with warming
temperatures and a tree that is supposedly cold resistant down to 15 degrees,
I'm giving it a run. Are you familiar with cold resistant avocados and do you
know of any living in Southern Nevada?
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| Avocados brought into a local fair in Zimbabwe when I was there. |
A. You have the right attitude about growing avocado here.
Give it a go but don’t expect miracles and enjoy it while you can. If you’re
thinking about avocado, think about citrus as well. Both grow in the same
climate zone which is subtropical. If your neighborhood has grown citrus for
several years, then you can probably grow this avocado at least for a while.
Classification of Avocados
Scientists
classify avocados into three types: Mexican, Guatemalan and West Indian. Some
of our favorite avocados from the grocery store are Mexican types. ‘Lila’ has
good fruit but a bit smaller than you would buy from the store.
Cold Hardy Types
‘Lila’ (aka
Opal) is one of the cold hardy varieties of the Mexican type. So instead of
getting damaged at freezing temperatures like many other avocados, Lila can
handle temperatures down to near 15° F for a short time when it’s fully mature.
More reasonable low-temperature estimates might be the low 20s for it and
others like it. Other Mexican varieties like ‘Joey’, ‘Fantastic’, ‘Opal’, ‘Poncho”,
and ‘Mexicola Grande’ can be grown in areas where there are low winter temperatures
as well.
Semidwarf
The next
good feature of ‘Lila’ for backyards is its height. It is one of the smallest
cold hardy avocados you can buy. It is considered a semi-dwarf avocado tree
which can grow to a height of 20 feet, but you could keep it pruned down to
around 10 feet tall.
Pollination
You need
a second avocado tree for good fruit production. If you plant only ‘Lila’ you
will get some fruit but not as many as if you get an avocado pollinator tree.
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