Hello, I have been growing my avocado tree for about 3 or 4 years. I had bought it from Home Depot. It had never flowered, and of course no fruits yet. So I'm looking at this, and I am wondering is this beginning stage of Avocado flowers?

Yup.......

Yes, you're just a couple weeks away from flowers there.

one of mine is at the same stage,grown from seed three years old! any thing i need to do! artie...

March 22, 2011: It has been 5 weeks since I posted my question. And only few days ago, I have seen about 3 flowers open up yet. These avocado flowers take long time to develop & open, for sure. There are still hundreds of these flowers that are about to open up. These Fuerte Avocado flowers must bloom around late March to April in Southern California. Not sure if it will continue to flower to May.

March 30, 2011: Lot of flowers are open. Yesterday and today's temperatures have been up around 80 degrees or so. Flowers are possibly reacting to warmer temperatures.

From the flowers I posted earlier, this tree is finally giving fruits.

Congratulations! I haven't tried avocados and wont till I get everything else somewhat mastered.

To be successful growing avocados long term you need to be in the deep tropics south of 19N latitude. North America is way too far north for avocados.

I'm counting on the Al Gore effect.

I'm also looking for investors in my beachfront lemonade stand. I know I'm about three miles inland but with sea levels rising........Who knows!!!

I believe!!!!!

Tri, I'm not sure where the 19 degrees latitude idea comes from, but it's mistaken. Avocados are grown very well, commerciallly, to at least 36 degrees North in California, and the more cold-hardy varieties are grown in home dooryards quite a long way north of that. As of 2011, they have more than 52,000 planted acres of trees, with an estimated production this year of 253 million pounds of fruit.

Spain, in a production area that runs from 37 to 43 degrees North, produces around 100 million pounds per year.

My 19N latitude comment was with reference to North America. I think this winter temperatures could dropped down to -10F to -20F on Gulf coast and 10 to 15 F south of Miami, Florida.


It has been over 200 years since temperature were last below -5F on Gulf coast but temps may fall that low this winter although not likely. We could see -90F or colder in northern Minnesota and maybe -130F to -140F in northern Canada. That is cold stuff for sure and it may not get that cold but the potential is there for it to get that cold. That would be all time record low temperatures for at least the last 200 years! I am not even sure 19N latitude is far enough south if temperatures drop that low.

We got real lucky in December 1989 because even though temperatures dropped to record lows it could have been MUCH colder. We lucked out big time!

Sorry, but you're talking temperatures that have not happened in at least many thousands of years, and perhaps not ever. And we have zero reason to think such temperatures would happen any time in the future. So, we have well-developed avocado industries in California and Florida that are well over a century old, and which aren't going anywhere. I see no reason to recommend not growing avocados in those areas.