I live in zone 9b, and we can grow Pinkerton, Fuerte, Bacon, Winter Mexican and any Mexican variety. I chose to grow Fuerte and Mexicola Grande, but haven't actually tasted the fruit. I have heard that Fantastic is really nice. The Mexicans are creamy, but most people who can grow Hass don't consider them to be as good as the Guatamalan-Mexican hybrids. Cold hardiness can be influenced by the root stock. All the cultivars in Japan are put on Bacon root stock for cold hardiness, but we have root rot issues with clay in the soil, so Mexican root stocks wouldn't be as good for that.

I have no idea what these zones are. They seem to be a US thing.

Also if i unerstood you correctly Bacon is mexican and while it's roots are good for cold tolerance it can't deal with much clay.

I have also heard that fantastic is nice, but i would like to get some first hand accounts of what it's actually like before i go and invest 10 years into planting a tree haha.

What guatemalan mexican hybrids are threre that people consider to be bette than the mexicans?

You can get a climate zone for any place in the world. Not just a U.S. thing. It really helps to communicate with zones because avocado cultivars are limited to certain zones.

How?

Just do a search for Climate zone, Christ Church, or whatever.

.... Well that can't be right.

It says it's a zone 7, but that would mean that we get -17°C at times... which we don't. Especially not nowadays.

But i checked out the US maps and apparently it's true. It's honestly shocking. Apparently significant parts of even Arizona and Texas are colder than over here.

So yeah Zone7

I guess you are growing avocados in planters then?

I am not growing avocados yet, and i am absolutely sure that it won't get that cold.

Some avocado sorts can apparently survive almost -10°C

Del Rio is said to survive -9.5°C or 15°F

Add to this that the coldest cold snap this year didn't even reach -7°C, and i think these things could work.

Also Del Rio didn't only survive that cold, but produced fruit the same year.

Fantastic is also durable apparently and can grow in zone 8, which is pretty close to our zone 7

Wow. That is encouraging news. I'm in zone 9b, significantly warmer than you, but I am wintering mine in planters indoors. I am trying to decide whether they should go in-ground next year and be vulnerable as young trees to the elements, or keep them in planters for yet another year before putting them out. I think the Mexicola Grande could make it, but I worry about the Fuerte.

@berryphile I'm in the same zone and have never put my trees indoors for the winter. When it drops below 32 I have a few trees I cover and others I do not. My mexicola , bacon, stewart, d'arturo and wurtz I leave uncovered.

Hi, Nick. How old were your trees when you bought them? My impression is that the ones sold in garden centers in the States are three years old and in fairly large containers. Mine are grafts that were done just this year, so they are babies. the containers are five liters - only 6 inches across. I will be transferring them to 10 liter pots in October. It will also give me time to prepare their permanent beds. I want to fix some drainage issues by installing a French drain to divert rain water, and I want to remove the topsoil, mix pumice gravel into the clay, replace the topsoil and mix the top 12 inches with lots of composted bark, and then heap it with a thick mulch, and have the worms go to work on it all winter. The area is already on top of a retaining wall, so I won't be elevating them above ground to get the drainage. But right now, during the rainy season, I am seeing some standing water that won't do for avocados. Once they go into the ground, I hope to give them a good nine months to build some healthy roots and leaf out before our two coldest months.

So which would you recommend? Which are creamy like the hass? Which taste good? I've seen tastes described as rich, but that doesn't actually tell me whether it's any good.

Mine were that age and in the 29- 49 price range anywhere from 3-4 foot.

@Poofy Gummy mexicola is good tasting and cold hardy. Take a look at this link below.

https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/how-many-avocado-varieties-do-you-know-here-are-over-50

Are Mexicola and Mexicola Grande very similar in flavor/texture? I know they share genetics, but I wonder...

I have not tasted a grande.

So what's the verdict? Fantastic? Mexicola? Mexi Grande?

Has anyone tasted the Fantastic?

This group isn't that active. Why don't you join the Avoocado Growers Facebook group? They are really active and so you might actually find someone who is familiar with that variety.

Just because i don't have facebook lol

Greg Alder does a blog that has videos with various titles that have the format "(Hass) profile", where he introduces ripe avocados of various cultivars and talks about how they taste, shows what they look like inside, etc. I do not recall a Fantastic profile, but he does a Stewart, which is a Mexican. I think he does one on Mexicola as well.

Yes I watch his videos on youtube

My only issue with Greg's blog/videos is that he lives in California, so his information is most helpful to the people who can grow the same varieties that he does. No one who grows many varieties in Zone 9 is posting regularly about that experience. There are the occasional videos regarding someone trying to raise one cultivar in a colder climate, but I would love to find someone who is collecting cultivars and writing extensively on comparing cultivars, adapting them to ease them from young sapling to mature, more cold-resistant permanent planting, etc. You are probably the closest thing to a Zone 9 collector that I have found. You should blog about it! LOL!

Well the question remains. Fantastic or mexicola grande. There has to be a person on the planet who has tried both!

@berryphile I might start blogging next years as my trees start to mature. I'm sill not getting the production from them I'm looking for. The heat here this year has been brutal and my mexicola has dropped 3/4 of its fruit. I have had it hold 40 fruit a couple years ago and this year started out with it loaded like I have never seen before, so its been disappointing. My mandarin trees didn't hold their fruit this year either and they are always productive trees. The only thing I can think of is the weather and early blooming that threw my trees off this year.

Well, I know tangerines often have rest years where they don't produce. I am assuming that mandarins are the same. I hope to hear more about your trees. I mean, if you could document even the failures and show how you move forward from those... that would be very helpful.

I just read a very favorable review of Mexicola in the Florida 9B zone. But, the research paper went on to say that Winter Mexican was particularly suited among the cold hardy cultivars to be used commercially. Apparently, taste is great as is disease resistance. It is very cold hardy and is a Guatamalen/Mexican crosss.

Interesting.

But my biggest issue is that "the taste is great" doesn't really tell me anything about what the taste is like.

I would have to import any saplings, and that's going to be difficult enough with me literally just doing some gardening and not commercial cultivation. Getting fruit from different varieties imported just so i can test it would be beyond my scope and the scope of my budget.

There has to be someone who tried both winter mexican, mexicola, and fantastic and can say which is closer to hass.

try searching Youtube.

So i tried searching youtube and i found someone's blog where they tested different varieties so i could ask them.... I got no reply. :\

Look, I was reading some research the other day that examined cold-hardy avocados for various attributes, including flavor profile. They specifically singled out Winter Mexican as the one with the most commercial viability due to vigor, yield, shipping quality and flavor. Obviously, the Mexican types are going to have thin skins that make them commercial rejects regardless of flavor, but since Winter Mexican is a Mexican/Guatemalan hybrid, it is more like a Hass.

Interesting, thanks for the info!

But the issue is that only the flavor is mentioned, same as everywhere else. The texture is just as important. If you get hard chewy fibers throughout the fruit it can have as good a flavor as it wants it's still not going to be edible for people.

Also "good flavor profile" can still mean that it has a totally different flavor from the hass.

Can you tell me where you found that research though?

Out of Florida. You will have to search to find it. I didn't save it. I usually just read and move on. But it's out there. It was discussing various cold-hardy cultivars and their potential for commercial use in North Florida.

I have talked to so many people about the flavor, yield, vigor, etc., of Sir Prize, which is a Mexican. If I could buy that one here, I would.