Greetings,

First some climate context: I live north of Santa Barbara, California, USA, in Sunset Garden zone 14. My house gets frost now and then, and temps regularly dip down into the 30's at night in the fall/winter months, but it isn't diabolically chilly. In summer, we get more days over 100 degrees than they get in the more coastal and moderate Santa Barbara to the south.

I have been looking forward to planting some fruit trees. I have been mindful of temperature constraints, and I think the climate around here is workable for the things I'd like to plant, but when I was about to plant an avocado tree today, I realized that my biggest problem will not be sun, water, temp, or soil conditions, but it will be wind. we get tons of wind where we live, and where I was gonna plant the avo is pretty exposed.

I can, and will, of course stake up any young tree to give it some protection, but I had the feeling that the wind today would have ripped the young leaves of the avo tree off!

So my questions are: What kind of fruit trees (if any) are particularly tolerant of wind? How much will an avocado tree suffer from high wind conditions (the tree in question is a Fuerte).

I have planted a bunch of valley oaks in the same windy zone I was thinking of using as my "orchard" and the oaks are doing great, so maybe I am overestimating the harms associated with winds.

Thanks in advance of any advice!

Chuck