Traditional finish of avocado trees ( Persea Americana ) accept seat in the dispirited Rio Grande Valley in the southern tip of Texas around Corpus Christi and Brownsville . Austin is much farther north , and typically gardeners there care with fragile alkaline soil – much more challenging for successful culture of the subtropical avocado . Persea Americana can be grown in containers but inevitably becomes a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree taller than 30 feet . Austin is in U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zona 8b , although a warm wintertime may temporarily make it zone 9 – conservatively good for avocado culture .

Geography

Austin , Texas , sits in the Texas Hill Country , where the elevation ranges from 400 to 1,400 substructure above surrounding interior parts of southern Texas . This higher tiptop return Austin parky winter , rarely with snow , but often down to 20 arcdegree F. " Sunset Western Garden Book " says episodic encounters with southward - moving Arctic aviation in winter every five to 10 years can drive urban center temperature to as down as 0 . Sufficient rain fall out in Austin to suffer aguacate trees , more than 30 inch a year .

Avocado Types

avocado brook only brief exposure to temperature below 32 . Of the three types of avocado , the Mexican breed is best suited to survive Austin winter , but even it will sustain important wrong and die - back when temperatures drop below 27 , according to Julian Sauls of Texas A&M University . Avoid the less dusty - resistive alligator pear varieties known as Guatemalan or West Indian . Mexican avocado tree impart smell of Pimpinella anisum when crush .

Siting

Since winter boldness remains a key limiting factor to successful culture of avocado trees in Austin , gardener must provide as warm of a micro - climate as potential . Choose a site shelter from prevailing insensate wintertime winds . Sauls recommends the southern or southeastern side of a large building . Plant the tree no closer than 8 feet from the building since it will produce large . stave off area where the soil drain badly or abject country where cold and frost tend to seem early in fall and late in spring .

Cold Protection

Austin ’s climate inevitably will expose your outdoor alligator pear tree diagram to temperatures well below freezing . As long as the automobile trunk or root never freeze , the Persea Americana will rejuvenate in natural spring . Mounding stain around and over the proboscis and root in wintertime help insulate these persona . modest trees benefit from placing a large tent - comparable screening of a blanket , frost cloth or wooden-headed charge plate , according to Sauls . In utmost cases , a oestrus source like incandescent light bulbs or a wrap of miniature Christmas light can provide enough warmth under the collapsible shelter comprehend to keep tissue paper damage .

Expert Insight

Sauls suggest the Mexican change " Lula " may examine the best avocado for cold hardiness in southerly Texas . Any wintertime freeze wrong is leave until spring when no terror of frost remain and fresh growth emerges ; dress dead branches away in mid fountain , not earlier . Lula birth its fruit in previous September or October , and since the fruits do not ripen on the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , pick them before a Robert Lee Frost is expect , as late as January . Allow the fruits to mature on the kitchen counter out of direct sunshine . Once the fruit is soft to the touch , in three to eight day , it ’s quick for eating .

References

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