Back in 2012 I posted that I was going to plant two avocados: 'Wilma' and 'Opal.' According to the grower (Devine Avocados, located in Devine, Texas) they are self-fertile with thin, edible skin; grafted onto 'Lula' seedling rootstock (a heat & salt tolerant West Indian/Guatamalan cross) and reportedly hardy down to 16 and 14 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively. Devine doesn't ship out of state, so a kind and generous Lone Star F4F member went beyond any reasonable expectation and sent them to me.

I planted them in 2013 and quickly lost the 'Opal', but fortunately had grafted a backup which is growing slowly but doing fine. The 'Wilma', on the other hand, is now 12 feet tall with a nice crop of fruit developing.  'Opal' is on the left, 'Wilma' on the right:
 

Developing fruit:
 

I can't speak to how much cold they can take because the past couple of winters have been pretty mild, but without protection they survived temperatures that killed volunteer avocados sprouted from grocery store seeds tossed out as mulch.

A few days ago I learned of another variety that thrives even in Phoenix--'Aravaipa', available from Shamus O'leary's Tropical Fruit Trees. It is also sold as 'Don Juan.' So, if you figured you can't grow avocados because you live in an area with hot summers and frosty winters, you may be in luck after all.

Very interesting Ken. I'm not planning on growing any but I have a few friends that have been trying to find some trees that would survive and bear here in La. I pass over the info to them last night and I'm waiting to hear from them.
"gene"

Very impressive Ken.  That Wilma avocado looks great!  Have you tasted the fruit yet?

Not yet--this is its first year fruiting, and the biggest ones are still only a couple of inches long.

Ken, Did you taste the Wilma Avocados...and how was your season...
Mark

Hi Ken,

I picked up an Aravaipa 7 gallon from Shamus about a month ago. I have been frustrated with avocado failures in the past, but I am very optimistic for this one. The leaves are much thicker than other avocado plants I have tried to grow (Reed, Oro Negro, Mexicola, and various seedlings). The tree looks great and I am very interested / optimistic to see how it handles the summer next year (but this tree is 2 years old, so Shamus says it already took full sun AZ summer).

I also picked up a Lula seedling at the AZRFG fall sale today. Lula is supposed to be very salt and heat tolerant and Lula seedlings are used for rootstock in Texas (similar climate and soil issues to ours), exactly like you mention above in your post. I am going to use it for future grafting purposes.

So I am very avoacado-optimistic for the first time in a couple of years :)

Those fruit look great!

Good luck to all us crazy desert-dwellers trying to grow avocados :)

Avos need a lot of water and food.  They are the divas of the fruit world.  We have three.  A kona Sharwil, pollinated by a Jan Boyce, and there is that 12' high seed that grew from a trip we took upstate.  Zutano was the mama.  All are doing well here.

Absolutely dispize avocados but still pretty cool to see the small ones.

Mark, the jury is still out on the Wilma, as I haven't yet learned how to tell when they're mature and ready to pick. I picked the first four too early.  There are ten more to go, so hopefully I'll get the timing right soon.

I tasted the first ripe Wilma this morning, so here's the report. Since the ones I picked earlier had started shriveling on the counter while I waited for them to ripen, I put this one in a Tupperware with a slightly moistened paper towel. I think it was still a bit too early because it took a week or more to soften, and this morning when I checked it there was a dark moldy spot, which I trimmed off. I thought the flavor was good, but it wasn't the best avocado I've ever eaten. The texture was a little denser and stickier than what I buy in the grocery store, but that could be a result of being picked a little too soon.

I had worried about the loose seed, since some say that indicates a bad avocado, but then I read that the Mexican varieties often have a loose seed and it's not a problem. The thin seed coat sticks to the fruit but lifts off easily--however, I'd prefer not to have to fuss with picking off the pieces. I also wondered whether the black, edible skin would be bothersome, but it's fine--much like a tomato skin, I didn't notice it in my mouth. I mashed some of it up with a fork to see how it would look as guacamole, and the bits of skin didn't bother me.

I'm interested to see how the rest of the crop ripens--a recent storm thrashed them around and damaged the skin on most of them.

 
 

Ken, thanks for the update, like you said it is too early,we also have to remember the tree is still young.
Mark

That avocado AND guacamole makes me hungry!  Beautiful avocado, by the way.

Congrats on getting your first ripe Wilma! Just getting one to ripen here is cause enough for celebration. I am sure as the tree becomes more established it will produce more consistently / evenly ripe fruit. Nice Ken!

UPDATE:

The Wilma avocado tree produced a lot more fruit this year, so I thought I'd share some info.
 

The quality is very good, and friends/family who have tasted the fruit have been pleased with it. In general, the longer it hangs on the tree, the better it gets--unless the skin has been damaged, which causes the flesh to dry out.

Cold damage has been minimal since I planted it, but we've had fairly mild winters.

The tree is a very fast grower, and needs more room than I've given it. 

Negative points:

It's only available from Devine Avocados in Devine, Texas, and they don't ship out of state.

The thin, edible skin is easily damaged by wind, birds, and rats.

Because the skin is so thin and delicate (similar to a tomato's), the harvested fruit can become somewhat dried-out if it's picked too early.

The thin skin is impossible to peel without wasting a lot of flesh, so it's best to eat the peel, which tastes fine, but makes for odd-looking guacamole.

There is typically a round, thin spot (visible on lower-right fruit in photo) at the base of each avocado where the flesh is gray and hard; I trim this away.

The papery seed coat doesn't stick to the seed, so it must be picked off the flesh--easy to do with a pair of tweezers, but still an extra step.


I'm looking forward to comparing Wilma to other varieties, and have Aravaipa, Mexicola Grande, and Wurtz (aka Little Cado) in pots ready to plant in the spring. My Opal produced its first fruit this year, which was pretty good but harvested too early--so I'll know more about it next year.

Sorry--for some reason, the photo won't post.


[I just saw TorontoJoe's very useful post about working around the photo-posting problem. I followed his instructions, and edited the previous post to add the photo--it worked like a charm. Thanks, TorontoJoe!!]

Hi Ken.
Great looking trees. Can the avocado be grown in a big pot? Will it fruit?

Thanks--and great avatar, btw! I've read about avocados bearing fruit in containers and have seen a few photos, but don't have any personal experience. Here's a short article about it: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/avocado-trees-container-37257.html.

Hey Ken,

I am so glad to hear how well your Wilma is doing! Now that the temps have cooled, I took my Wilma out of my nursery area and put it in the ground. And like we were talking about before, it didn't do well this summer even in mostly shade (but then again, this was easily the hottest summer that I can remember in AZ. In June we reached 123 F in sun / 119 F in shade, which is a lot to ask anything to survive in ... but the figs did fine :) ), but now that it is cooling down it is leafing out again. So I am optimistic that I can get it established.

Thanks for everything, and thanks for sharing your success, I love the inspiration!

Mark

Thanks for the report. How much water do you give your trees?

Ken, thanks for the update...
Mark

Mark (starch)--I'm glad to hear it survived the Phoenix inferno! As mild as your winters are, it should push new growth almost continually and become well established by the time the heat returns. I'll be very interested to hear how it does next summer with roots in the ground. It would probably be wise to shade it during the next hot season. Pardon my poor memory, but did you get it as an already-grafted plant, or a scion that you grafted yourself? What rootstock is it on?

I had been confused about reports that Brazos Belle is a genetic clone of Wilma, so I phoned Bill Schneider (who holds the trademark on 'Wilma') about ten days ago to see what he could tell me. He had no information about Brazos Belle, and could not tell me anything about its origins or relationship, if any, to Wilma. However, I learned that Schneider's trademark protects the specific product that he sells, and that he is the only one authorized to sell it under the Wilma name. As I understand it now, Wilma avocados are only those which he produces, which are on a particular rootstock and grafted in a specific way (with the graft union very close to the roots themselves), which allows the union to be buried a couple of inches or so below ground level. This way, the superior cold-hardiness of the above-ground portion is not compromised by exposure of a frost-tender trunk. His rootstock also has other advantages, such as tolerance of alkaline soil.

Schneider's reason for trademarking the Wilma name (along with others that he sells) is that if someone else were to graft scions from his trees in the more traditional way, say several inches higher on the rootstock, or onto less cold-hardy or otherwise inferior rootstocks, and sell them under his trademarked names, they could not be expected to perform as well as his trees, and might well damage the reputation of his particular product.

I was worried that I might have impinged on his trademark by sharing grafted plants and cuttings from my Wilma tree (which was purchased at his nursery), but he said anyone can propagate it any way they see fit, and even sell it, but they can't call it Wilma--they have to come up with their own name. So, if I understand it correctly, a trademarked plant is less restrictive than a patented plant (such as Peterson Pawpaw cultivars, which are illegal for anyone but Peterson or his authorized agents to propagate), but only the owner of the trademarked name can legally apply that name to plants propagated from the named variety.

Sas, I water them quite a bit, and at this point I'm sure they could get by on less. They're on a drip cycle that comes on every day, and in addition, I've run one of the down-spouts from the roof's rain gutter into the surrounding berm, so they get heavily watered whenever it rains. However, the soil in this part of my yard is sandy and drains rapidly. They are also mulched with several inches of leaves and wood chips.

Hey Ken,

That is awesome information! My Wilma is from the scions you gave me. I had two successful grafts, one onto Lula seedling (which died in the summer), one onto an unknown seedling (the one that is currently still alive). The graft point is about 3" up from soil level. But now based on what you are saying, I am considering heaping soil around the trunk to force the Willma section to start growing roots. Since it is getting colder I won't do that now because it would probably rot instead of root. But in the spring when it starts warming up again I think I will give that a shot.

And thanks for the trademark vs. patent explanation, that makes a lot of sense!

Good luck, Mark--and if you need to try again, let me know.

Here's a paper http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/files/2015/04/avocados_2015.pdf from Texas A&M that might be useful to anyone growing avocados in marginal areas.

This one http://30r8p93i26e4rjv9qo3ulokei.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Avocados-For-SA1.pdf gives more information on planting so the union will eventually be below soil level.

Awesome, thanks Ken!

I've read to confusing reports.
One says that "Fruit production is greatest in full sun."
The other one says :
"The quickest way to let your tree die is to plant it in full sun here in the desert. This means you’ll need to plant your avocado tree on the east side of your property, preferably under a larger tree".

Which is it?

As is often the case with trying to get plants to grow in challenging climates, there are lots of exceptions, but it's a good idea to protect young avocados from extremes of sun, heat, and cold. I put a shade cloth over mine the first year when it started getting hot, and I covered them with a sheet during freezes during their first winter. It's better to err on the side of caution. Different varieties may need customized treatment--the in-ground Wilma wasn't fazed by hot weather this summer, but a 2-gallon plant grafted from the same tree really suffered, and had to be moved under the eaves. Leaves on the small Opal next to the big Wilma start shriveling when it gets really hot, so it needs temporary shade--but I'm hoping that will change as it gets bigger.

Thanks Ken.

Thanks, All, for your interest, comments & questions. And, thanks to TorontoJoe for instructions about posting photos even after reaching F4F's limit.

 
Here's a batch of Wilma guacamole I made for our Thanksgiving house guests, roughly following this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/guacamole-recipe.html. It disappeared in a hurry! I also learned that on older fruit, where the skin has dried out and gotten somewhat wrinkly and tough, it was much easier to peel away from the flesh--which is why this batch doesn't show as many black bits as in the earlier shot.