Avocado - Persea Americana
New Zealand avocado varieties
Avocado trees likely originated in Central America and are now popular fruit tree varieties grown worldwide, including in suitable New Zealand climates. These unique fruit trees have become increasingly popular additions to home orchards and edible gardens across warmer New Zealand regions.
Generally speaking, there are three types of avocado varieties - Mexican, Guatemalan and West Indian - which all vary in fruit characteristics, leaf type and cold hardiness. When planning your edible garden with avocado trees, it's important to understand that avocado varieties have been classified into two flowering types:
'A' Type avocado varieties: Female flowers open morning of first day, then male flowers open afternoon of the second day. 'B' Type avocado varieties: Female flowers open afternoon of first day, then male flowers open morning of the second day.
If temperatures stay above 21°C, this flowering pattern works like clockwork for optimal pollination in your home orchard. However, when temperatures drop below this threshold, the daily flower openings become delayed and irregular - a key consideration for New Zealand growers using our fruit tree selector.
A mature avocado tree (7+ years old) can produce around 200 or more fruit annually, making them highly productive fruit trees for home orchards. Avocado trees require warm, sheltered, sunny positions in your edible garden, with protection from frosts, cold weather, and strong winds - particularly when young. These fruit tree varieties are quite salt-tolerant, making them suitable for coastal New Zealand locations.
Growing avocado trees successfully requires some supplementary watering during summer months, especially for young trees, but they don't tolerate waterlogged conditions. Avocado trees are shallow-rooting fruit trees, so it's recommended to stake them well and mulch around the tree base to protect surface roots and retain moisture.
In home orchard settings, you can allow one rootstock sucker to grow as a pollinator for your main avocado variety. However, careful management is needed to prevent the sucker from taking over your grafted tree.
Use our fruit tree selector to determine if avocado varieties are suitable for your specific New Zealand climate and edible garden conditions.