On 22/07/2015 8:39 PM, Nick Maclaren wrote:
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.

I agree with that "not typically".

When I've seen some very dodgy advice here from people who I usually
think know what they are on about, someone usually takes up the issue to
get them back on track. Thankfully.

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.

Dave Poole says they have been known to do so. I never thought that he
told lies or didn't know his stuff. You participated in that thread in
April 2006.
Start quote,
Dave Poole writes:
|
| It does produce in the UK and if you are geographically fortunate, you
| may even pick a moderate crop of palatable fruits after a decent
| summer. They will not be as large as those in the shops, but be
| grateful - this is England and they normally do their stuff in far
| warmer places. If you are so inclined, grow your seedling on for a
| year, keep it frost free next winter and plant it out during late May
| in a sunny corner. Nay-sayers may think otherwise, but I rate it quite
| highly, but only for the south.

Interesting. I didn't get around to posting, but it is definitely a
SUB-tropical plant, and it takes light frost in California, Africa etc.
Apparently, there are a couple of species that are hardier, but I don't
think that any would survive in my garden :-(

On an unrelated matter, my Feijoa came through last winter in a pot
with no protection and without dropping leaves - and the soil froze
several times. That is most definitely a plant that deserves more
attention. My pomegranate did, too, but I didn't expect that to
worry too much about frost as such.



Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
End quote

There was one other paragraph in Dave Poole's post which you snipped
when you replied and the OP would, given their question, be interested
in part of that paragraph, viz:
"If you live within the Greater London conurbation, along
sheltered parts of the south coast or in the far south west, you can
successfully grow avocados to near tree-like proportions if you can
provide wind shelter. As a 3-5 foot high, spindly 'twig' in a pot, it
is a very dull plant indeed. Grown to a few to several metres high and
across, it makes a very impressive shrub or tree with fine foliage."

The OP may also be interested to know that Avocados grow well in NZ
where we saw then growing as street trees in the North Island. I doubt
that many Kiwis would think that that North Island had a "sub-tropical"
climate. Maritime, yes, sub tropical, no.

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

If you believe that then you will be happy to know that the book I
mentioned in an earlier post about a man who grows fruit out of the
range in which the experts say they will grow, says that Avocado are
hardier than lemons even though int he early years it needs more
protection than do lemons.