You did not over react. That is why Brogdon is a very popular avocado. Not only is it a great tasting avocado, it is self fertile. It has both type A and type B flowers on it. Now, what is unrealistic, is your expectation on how fast the trees are going to produce fruit. It may take a couple of years for the trees to get a good root system and some size on them. They need to be mature enough to hold onto fruit. Be patient. It will be worth the wait.

Christine

Let me echo happy fl gardener's words. I planted a Brogdon about 5 years ago and it wasn't until year 2 that I had any fruit at all and that was very small in size and number. Year 3 was better and when year 4 arrived, voila!, I had more fruit than I could eat and was giving it away to my neighbors. Be patient-"Patience is bitter, but it bears sweet fruit."

Didn't mean to imply I was looking for full sized avocados to harvest in Nov, just that there was no sign of even one tiny, immature fruit this late in the season. Have no problem with waiting a few years.
I planted the new Monroe tree yesterday, about 64 feet from the Choquette, hope thats close enough for cross pollination. I appreciate the replies.

jofus --- 64 ft. is very far away. Usually cross pollination occurs for most plant within 25 feet.

Hi happy fl gardener : Thanks for your advise, but now I am confused. The website I perused, said that prior to installing the first avocado tree, to look into neighbors yards and around the neighborhood for other avocado trees. " If you find one or more, then cross pollination will not be a problem." So, upon finding none, and to keep things symetrical in my yard, I planted the new tree in a spot that was 64 ft away from the original Choquette tree, figuring that would not be a problem since the website said " Neighbors yards. "
Your info has now got me wondering. Is 25 ft away, indeed the maximum distance to insure cross pollination ?
Appreciate any comments.

I have only one grafted choquette and this year I had to remove at least 50 small fruits. The tree is only 2 years old. I left only 4 fruits and they are getting huge. The only avocado tree in the neighborhood is 4 blocks away from my house. My understanding is that one choquette tree produces without another one for pollination.

ah... the mysteries of cross-pollination. what i really like to find is the (many many) examples of fruit tree listings from two different companies, one that claims that the tree is self-fertile, the other that it requires a pollinator.

i think in general it's safe to assume that many (but not all) fruit trees and bushes do BETTER when there's a member of its species, but with very different phenotype, nearby. the closer, the better. (dave wilson, a god of fruit, recommends planting two varieties in the same HOLE to make sure cross pollination occurs).

but lots of trees can be self-pollinating... just not as fruitful.

right?

Which is the most cold hardiest out of those?
Felix

25' is not any rule by any means. I have a female fiddlewood at the front edge of my property, and the male is 150' away and on the other side of the house. They don't pollinate via wind either, and it gets berries, so get's pollinated by the male. This was occuring before I got my own hive, but I've always had lots of native bees and other pollinators. Absolutely having more plants and proximity helps insure pollination. Bees can fly for miles, I don't know the likelihood of hitting two plants a half mile away from each other on one trip, but stuff like that must happen, as sometimes plants a good distance will get pollinated. But sometimes you hear the opposite stories also. There's probably various factors, like if they're in line from the hive, or how much other desirable pollen is available...

My avocado (don't know what variety) blooms in late March and the fruit ripen in October, if the squirrels haven't stolen all the immature fruit by June. The nearest neighbor with an avocado is about 200 ft away and that seems to be close enough for the bees to pollinate both.

John

I am in agreement with you Michael.

Gary, good point about the bees. Very interesting. Since you mentioned your yard, I hope that you will post more pics of your place sometime. It sounds like you have a lot of interesting fruiting plants.

Felix, are you asking which is the most cold hardy avocado?

Christine

There are some old posts which go to my photobucket album, but I do need to do some new pics, and hope to soon. Pollination seems to be a highly variable thing.

Yes,Christine. I want to try to grow some avocado. I need to know which would be best for my zone,South Marion county.
Felix

Great, Gary. Looking forward to your picture yard tour in the future.

I planted a choquette two years back and had a good fruit set this year without a pollinator. I did plant a brogdon a year back but the freeze took care of her. I do live close to Gary and we are within ~ a half mile of the same bee hive and he does have a brogdon. I don't think it's likely that it was pollinated by his but who knows. I always thought they were fine by themselves but were just better fruit setters with a pollinator, specifically in grove settings. They aren't a dioecious species, they just open male and female flowers at different times of the day, with the A doing the opposite of the B.

countrynest -

Maybe go with a Brogdan tree. Pine Island Nursery has a few varieties they recomend as being safe in occasional frost areas that should be fine up in Marion county.

I'm considering planting either a Choquette or a Brogdan tree. Already have a Russell Avocado tree, honestly I'm not thrilled by the Russell avocado. Its not quite creamy enough to make a good guccamole. Can anyone comment on the Choquette and its use in Guccamole? I have tasted Brogdan avocado and liked it but I have heard its more suited for central Florida then South Florida.

The Choquette is supposed to be self-pollinating, and is supposed to be cold-tolerant down to abt. 28 degrees... I had one years ago, all by itself with no other avocado nearby, and had great fruit for years, and it took several really hard freezes, here in St Pete.......sally

Sure appreciate all the interesting replies. I think I can finally put this cross pollination debate to bed,..as regards to my Choquette avocado tree anyway.
I have a good friend who lives in the Upper Keys and one of his buddies down there owns 14 acres in Homestead upon which he grows nothing but avocados. This fellow said that I do NOT need any pollinators anywhere near my avocado tree, that it will produce many fine tasting fruits all by it's lonesome. Can't wait !

According to the owner of Treehouse Nursery in Pine Island where I bought some avocado trees for my son who was living nearby, Brogdon is very good for south FL also.

Does anyone know where I can buy a good size Brogdon in the Port Saint Lucie area?

we just bought our choquette tree how often do we need to water it? n does it matter if we plant A diffent avocado plant next to it. our choquette looked good in the pot . but now its been a week in the ground n watered it very little n got some lite rain sunday .we dont want to loss this tree how often should we water the tree?

If you are still curious, the Choquette should be about four years old before setting any fruit so that the trunk size is sufficient to support the weight of mature fruit. I had a very mature (over 20 yrs) tree split down the center from too many fruits that become quite heavy in this variety.

I have not found the Choquette to have pollination difficulties with the nearest avocado tree 100 ft. away, although I do have two wild bee hives on my property.

As to the Russell mentioned in another post, I find this variety to have excellent flavor when allowed to ripen. The fruits are very large and elongated and will show a slight yellow tint well before they are really ready, so you need to wait for signs of softening before picking, assuming animals haven't gotten there first.

I bought a Choquwtte from Lowe's. I was told that it's grafted male female I will produce fruit all by itself.

Sorry if this has already been said, but I didn't read the whole thread. I had a friend in North Port who had a Brogdon. It did get burned back badly during one year's freeze and produced no fruit that year. Every other year, it was full of fruit. You're supposed to pull all fruit off of fruit trees the first year anyway, to allow them to establish themselves. As for cross-pollination, there usually isn't a problem if other people in your neighborhood also have avocados. I know many people who have only one tree that produces fine, because it gets cross-pollinated from other trees bees visit in the vicinity.

YOU DON"T HAVE TO HAVE 2 A/B TREES - BUT YOU'LL GET MORE FRUIT IF YOU DO!!!

@SWRANCHER

After I planted my bought & planted Choquette my nurseryman gave me a Choq off his own tree. I wish he had given to taste first. I wasn't impressed. It was bland and didn't have much flavor. Brogdon is better. I am about to add a 3rd cado and will probable for with Oro Negro which is supposed to be a worthy competitor to Hass.

I have had green pears that I thought were okay tasting, but the only Choq I tried was a disappointment. Good productive tree tho.