Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[vjardin]

Hi. I have a Vietnamese guava tree and an avocado tree that haven't been growing too well through the AZ summers. I'd like to experiment with grafting hardier cultivars onto them to see if they will improve. Does anyone have hardy guava or avocado trees and would be willing to part with a few cuttings? Many thanks.

[phoenixtropicals]

Avocados are very hard to grow here, but tropical guavas are easy to grow. The only problem guavas have is freezing during the winter. There is really no such thing as a hardy tropical guava, because they will freeze below 29 degrees F. Fortunately, they will come back from their roots. I have found the Mexicola and Mexicola Grande avocados to be the best performing locally bought avocados here. Still they need lots of shade, and I have yet to taste a nice tasting locally grown avocado here.

[vjardin]

phoenixtropicals, I had problems with both the guava & avocado getting frosted in the last 3 winters despite being covered during cold nights. I'm hoping a new graft might result in improvements.

[phoenixtropicals]

Some varieties of avocado are quite hardy. In fact, the Mexicola I have wasn't even touched by temperatures around 26 degrees last winter, even though it was totally unprotected. Yah, the last couple of winters have been brutal. If you want to try a fruit that is really hardy, you can try a pineapple guava. They aren't really a guava, but they can take temperatures below those which citrus survive. I recommend planting a coolidge and a nazemetz right next to each other, for cross pollination. All of these plants are available at Home Depot on and off. One of the best HD in the valley to get tropical fruiting plants is the one in Mesa at Broadway and Val Vista.

[phoenixtropicals]

By the way, it wouldn't be affective to graft a more hardy variety to a less hardy rootstock because the graft would die when the supporting plant did.

[vjardin]

phoenixtropicals, thanks for the suggestions.