HOW MANY AVOCADO TREES ARE ALREADY GROWING OUTDOORS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA?

There are likely already at least a thousand Avocado trees growing outdoors in British Columbia. Many of them may be unrecognized in someone’s backyard. A few may even be growing in the wild. But maybe there are also some that are growing in public places, right in front of our eyes.

Everybody knows that Avocado trees will die if they are planted outdoors in British Columbia (BC).

Obviously.

It freezes in BC every single winter. And that’s enough to kill any Avocado tree. As soon as the first freeze hits, the Avocado tree is toast.

Except, that most people don’t realize that there exist a few Avocado trees that have enough cold-tolerant DNA to be able to survive freezing weather as cold as -10°C (14°F) and still be able to produce a crop of Avocados the following summer.

This amount of cold-hardiness in some Avocado trees has been known and recognized for over 80 years, yet nobody has taken notice enough in British Columbia to do some serious experimentation and/or research to demonstrate whether a) any varieties of Avocado tree are capable of surviving in BC consistently every winter, and b) whether any of these varieties would be capable of producing a harvest of Avocado fruit in BC.

Why not? Wouldn’t you want to know if you could have your very own producing Avocado tree in Vancouver, BC?

There are two ways of gathering information on the practicality of growing Avocado trees in BC:

1. Start now, by growing many Avocado trees — from seed. Experiment with every variable imaginable to know what works best. (See my article on “The BC Avocado Project” to learn more about this angle)
2. Locate existing Avocado trees in BC, and then start asking questions. Probe what the limits are, as far as maximum cold tolerance for the various Avocado trees that survive outdoors, whether any fruits are actually produced, set and/or harvested, etc.

Since the process of locating existing Avocado trees and gathering the important facts may take months or years, it would be best to begin immediately planting and growing Avocado trees from seed, outdoors, to make sure that we eventually will get all the info and personal experience that we need. In the mean time, we need to look for any existing cold-hardy Avocado trees that are already in our midst.

It’s definitely within the realm of possibility that a few Avocado trees could survive Vancouver weather, and also produce a crop of fruit (if only occasionally).

Vancouver seldom gets below -10°C (14°F), yet some Avocado trees can survive this. So, why not buy a few of these trees and simply grow them here and see if they survive outdoors? Unfortunately, nobody has imported one of these trees. And I cannot afford to go through the complicated process of importing one.

But maybe we can do something equivalent: Maybe we can find one or more home-grown Avocado trees that someone has in their backyard that simply survives local weather every year (and maybe even already produces fruit).

To that end, I began searching for any evidence of any/all Avocado trees growing outdoors in BC. Here are my criteria:

These Avocado trees must be: 1. living outdoors, 2. without any protection from the weather, 3. all year long, 4. for at least one full year. I have the following confirmed information:

1. An acquaintance of mine (I’ve known him for 10 years) has two Avocado trees growing in his backyard in Burnaby. He planted these Avocado trees 3 years ago (by accident) and they have been growing outdoors without any protection from the weather for the entire time.
2. I know of 4 or 5 cases of people (whom I don’t know personally) who have told me by email (or text) that they own a tree or two (in their yard) that have been growing outdoors for over a year in British Columbia. No other information is known other than this confirmation. Two of these trees were grown on Salt Spring Island (near the ocean) by people who have recently moved to Vancouver. Another one or two were grown in or near Richmond (also near the ocean).

This proves, to me, at least (because I know my friend well enough to believe him.) that Avocado trees actually do live in BC outdoors and unprotected, year after year after year. But it doesn’t confirm whether they can set or grow a crop of fruit in any given year (if only occasionally).

I also have the following unconfirmed information which is not first-hand, but which may also be true:

1. Several statements online and in various media stating that a few cold-hardy Avocado trees do grow in (or around) Vancouver, outdoors. Sometimes it is stated that these trees do not produce any fruit. Sometimes it’s also stated that these trees require some protection, but it is vague about what or how much protection is required.
2. On Yahoo Answers there is a clear statement from one poster (only identified as “Nigel” that “I have found a 50ft [Avocado] tree with lots of fruit on it in fern crescent[,] maple ridge”. This post was made in 2015 or 2016. Fern Crescent is thelong street in Maple Ridge, BC that leads to Golden Ears Provincial Park
3. In an old post on the UBC Botanical Forums, there is an unconfirmed sighting of another Avocado tree growing in Riley Park (a neighborhood section of Vancouver near Queen Elizabeth Park) in 2005 which was growing a good-sized crop of Avocados. However, there was no later confirmation that any of these Avocados had ever matured enough to become ripe (Avocados usually need anywhere from 4 months to 15 months to become ripe — depending on the variety).

From the foregoing, it seems possible that Avocado trees can indeed set fruit, and even ripen fruit, at least occasionally in coastal British Columbia. So far, nobody has ever recorded harvesting ripe Avocado fruit in BC that was grown entirely outdoors.

Is it possible?

I think so. If only because I know of at least one variety of cold-hardy Avocado which produces ripe fruit only 4 months after blossoming (a variety called “Joey” which has never been imported to Canada, to my knowledge).

If Mother Nature can produce one cold-hardy short-season variety of Avocado, she can produce another.

If the statement above from “Nigel” is true, then there may be someone from Maple Ridge who could confirm the existence of an Avocado tree growing on (or near) Fern Crescent in Maple Ridge. I went on Google Maps (Street View) to look at Fern Crescent. It is about 2.5 kilometers long, and has many trees lined on both sides of the road, almost the whole way. I cannot see enough detail in the Google pictures to know if any Avocado trees exist there at all. (Certainly, as the road nears Golden Ears Provincial Park there are only pine trees. But at the opposite end of Fern Crescent, there are many broadleaf trees).

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO CONFIRM EXISTANCE OF LIVING AVOCADO TREES OUTDOORS IN BC?

There are 3 key reasons why it is important to confirm and demonstrate the existence of living Avocado trees that continue to survive out-of-doors in Vancouver, BC (and especially if they have set fruit or even finished producing a ripe harvest of Avocados):

1. We can take photographs of them and show these pictures to friends, neighbors and even skeptical persons. This is very good convincing evidence for most people. Seeing is believing.
2. If the tree is on public property (ie. in a city park, along a roadway, etc.) then it becomes possible for all people to travel directly to the tree in order to see it for themselves, touch it, take their own picture, etc. This magnifies our promotional/educational efforts considerably.
3. If several cold-hardy Avocado trees can be located on public property, in different locations throughout British Columbia, then that is even better. It just makes it that much easier for everybody to see a cold-hardy Avocado tree that survives year after year in BC, Canada. Suddenly it is no longer seems like a million-to-one possibility for the average citizen to have his/her own cold-hardy Avocado tree.

I consider it a high priority to track down, locate and (if it’s on public property) let people know where any cold-hardy Avocado tree can be viewed.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do you know of any avocado trees growing outdoors in British Columbia? Especially if the Avocado tree is growing in any PUBLIC SPACE, outdoors (like in a CITY PARK or other public property) where anyone can easily go and take a picture of it (and where we can tell others to go and look)?

If so, please contact me and let me know.

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— George Stancliffe loves Avocados, and is interested in creating a cold-hardy variety that will thrive in the Western British Columbia climate, so that home gardeners can grow and harvest their own avocados. Mr Stancliffe has also written extensively on the subject of teaching Speed Reading to Children of all ages (including those with ADHD and/or Dyslexia). Many of his Speed Reading articles are on Medium.com. For more information, please read his articles here on Medium.com or go to his website: www.SpeedReading4Kids.com .