The differences between Reed Avocado trees and Fuerte Avocado trees

I love avocados. I live in Southern California where avocados are grown, so you'd think I'd have had avocado trees all my life.

Nope. I've been trying to grow avocado trees for 30 years or more. I seem to have a black thumb when it comes to growing Avocado trees, until the last few years, anyhow.

I recently moved to a home in Torrance that has wonderful sandy soil, and I planted a couple of avocado trees. Before I got them I did my homework. Since they take so long to grow and live so long, I wanted to get it right the first time.

I considered all the possible varieties of avocado. The Hass is the most common in the area, but they aren't really a favorite of mine. I love fuertes, so that was an almost for sure selection.

I decided, based on several recommendations that my other avocado tree should be a Reed. I'd never had a reed avocado but I heard they are delicious. I also heard they are large, and plentiful, and get ripe in the spring and summer. That works best for me since fuertes get ripe in the fall and winter. Year-round avocados seemed like a marvelous idea.

Also, I was advised to have one type A tree and one type B, so they would do a good job of cross fertilization. That sounded good but the reality of how things actually work made that less of a great plan.

There are a lot of things I wished I'd known about these two varieties that I couldn't find anywhere in my research. Maybe I can help a few people who are doing the same research. Or maybe I can at least entertain some who like avocado trees.

Tree vs bush

The first difference that is evident in the two varieties is that Reed trees want to be tall and straight. Fuertes want to be bushes. I've gone to quite a bit of effort to make them the shape I want, rather than the shapes they want. Reeds aren't really very good at being straight, so left to their own devices they will get to be about 8 feet tall, then bend over and become horizontal, then probably eventually fall down.

I cut the top off my reed at about 7 feet, and staked up the tree to make it stand nicely. Its trunk zigs and zags a bit, but it's basically straight. I assume as it matures it will hold its shape better. We'll see.

I trim off the side branches of the fuerte tree and leave most of the top growth. I'm training it to have several main trunks in the hope I'll have lots of fruit I can reach from the ground.

heat and Sunburn

The first summer I had my two trees I noticed the reed enjoying the warm sunshine and the fuerte drooping. The fuerte looked like it was beginning to get sunburned, too. I put a trellis over the top of the fuerte tree to give it partial shade, and that made it much happier. It has since gruwn through the trellis, and the part above it seems to be doing OK. but in the heat it gets wilty. I can't remove the trellis now even if I wanted to since the tree has made it a part of itself. That's OK with me. It seems to be good for it.

Frost resistance

My two trees are side by side in my backyard, although the Reed may be in a slightly more protected spot. There's very little if any difference. In January 2007 we had the coldest weather we've had in many years. The news told about many fruit trees in southern california being lost. My oranges were frozen but the orange tree survived without any ill effects, It was right beside the reed avocado tree.

The fuerte tree showed no damage from the freeze. It looked as happy as ever. I thought I might lose the Reed tree, though. The ends of most of its branches froze and eventually turned brown and dropped off. There were lots of tender buds that also froze and died.

The reed tree kept many of the inner and lower branches, so I'm quite confdent it will survive. But its cold tolerance can't compare with that of the fuerte.

leaf drop

The leaves on the fuerte tree seem to get old and drop off every now and then. I haven't paid close attention to their schedule. Maybe all of last years leaves fall at some time. It isn't obvious. The reed tree however loses all its leaves at once. It happens late in March or early April. At the same time its new leaves are coming in, so it's never completely naked, but if you don't know better (which I didn't the first year) you may think the tree is dying. I compared notes with my brother who also has a reed tree, and his lost its leaves even earlier than mine, and he thought it was a goner. But soon the new leaves came in.

blossoming differences.

Both trees begin getting new leaves at about the same time, early March. But the fuerte gets its blossoms first, long before it begins getting leaves. And the Reed waits until it has new leaves coming before it begins to get any blossoms. So the blossoms of the fuerte are all dying off by the time the reed blossoms begin to open. So much for having them pollinate each other. There'a a very small overlap of the last of the fuertes and the beginning of the reeds, but probably not enough to do any good.

As of April 7, 2007:

The Fuerte tree is full of blossoms. About a third of the blossoms have opened and either dropped or set fruit. On the sunny south side of the tree almost every bundle of blossoms has set at least one avocado. The other parts of the tree got a slower start.

About a third of the buds are still far from opening, and a third are open or nearly open now.

The reed tree has far fewer buds and few of them are near ready to open. Most of them are still beginning to form.

crops

In the first few years of both trees lives I've just gotten a few avocados. both trees set hundreds or thousands of fruit, but nearly all drop off while they are still tiny. I had one mature fuerte in the fall of 2005 and one in the fall of 2006. In the summer of 2006 I had one Reed, and I should have 5 reeds in the summer of 2007.

2007/2008 should be the first year I have a worthwhile crop. I understand Fuertes are fickle, some years having great crops and others having very few or none. I'm planning to do quite a bit of trimming on the fuerte, with the understanding that it can encourage it to have a good crop. We'll see. I'm expecting (hoping for) probably 10 fuertes in the fall of 2007 and 20 reeds on the summer of 2008. Yes, I'm counting my avocados before they're hatched. I get to.

1/28/2008 update:

There are a grand total of 7 fuerte avocados and 3 reed avocados on my trees. I had a big dropoff. I haven't picked any of them yet but I'll probably start picking the fuertes this week. They look really nice.

Yesterday I noticed the first actual blossoms on the fuerte tree. It looks like there will be thousands of blossoms opening in a few weeks. The reed tree is still very far from blooming. There are buds that will eventually turn into blossoms but not any time soon.

The reed tree's leaves look horrible. I'm used to that. I expect them to all begin falling off soon. The fuerte leaves are mostly brown around the edges. They will probably fall too.

2/20/2008 update:

I've been picking the fuerte avocados. they are very nice. The three reeds are getting fatter and prettier. I'll still have to wait a few months to sample them.

The fuerte blossoms are blooming like there's no tomorrow. The reed has bundles of buds beginning to extend but they are still far from opening. Both trees have horrible looking leaves, but they haven't begun to fall off yet. The reed tree has tiny leaves beginning to stick out from the bud bundles.

4/16/2008 update:

The first reed avocado fell off today. I shook the branch gently and off it came. I suppose that means it's mature. The other two are still hanging on tight. They aren't supposed to be ready for a couple more months. We'll see.

The reed tree has bajillions of blossoms, and very few tiny leaves. All the old leaves have fallen off. I don't see any new fruit yet, but there could be a few tiny ones. There are very few bees around this year, but there are some so I suppose it will be OK.

The fuerte avocados are all gone now, all seven of them.

I was afraid the fuerte blossoms were too early and there wouldn't be any fruit at all this year. I suppose there will be a few. Usually I think there are thousands of fruits set and 99% of them fall off long before they mature. This time there are only one or two tiny avocados on each branch. If they manage to hold on there will be a decent crop. We'll see if they manage to hold on. I have my doubts. There aren't any buds left and almost all the blossoms are done.

The fuerte tree has a nice bunch of new leaves, unlike the naked reed. And the blossoms are only half done.

Fuerte tree January 2009
Reed Tree January 2009
Fuerte blossoms January 2009
Reed blossoms January 2009


11/1/2008

2008 - 2009

The year without avocados



This year the fuerte tree set about 5 avocados that lasted until they were nearly as big as small marbles. One of them got to be about 2 inches long before it fell off.

The reeds never got that big. So I'm without a single avocado this year. It's a good thing we still have grocery stores and farmers' markets.

Several people I know who have avocado trees tell me they are having a terrible year too. I know avocado trees sometimes have off years, but this is ridiculous. Oh well, there's always next year.

2009

The year the Fuerte bloomed too early



12:58 PM 1/12/2009

For some reason my fuerte tree is blossoming much earlier than usual this year. It's in full bloom and has been since Christmas.

It may be because I did some major trimming on the shade tree thaat was over it. Now it's getting more sunlight and maybe that made it think it was already spring. I'd be more sure of that reasoning if I didn't know someone whose fuerte tree is also blooming very early. If that isn't it I don't know what is.

The Reed tree is beginning to bloom, possibly a bit early, but not very early.

Both trees are about 10 or 11 feet tall. If they ever get their acts together and start giving me avocados I'll probably get lots of them. I'll believe it when I see it.

May 14, 2009

The fuerte tree has set bajilllions of baby avocados. Will they survive? Stay tuned.