@@allthefruit Could you heat up the greenhouse with some heaps of horse manure? And maybe near the avocado trees. Let's say 2 or 3 meters from the small trees. And also use some fleece protection. In Northern Spain they grow them in the coastal areas of the Basque country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia. And in London are several trees. Try to get some cuttings or seeds from those trees. And try to get your hands on many seeds to sow in the greenhouse and outside so that you can make selections of the hardiest ones. You can also use these as future rootstock. Mexicola's are definitely hardier.
@@allthefruit Even elephant manure. Do you guys live near a zoo? lol I guess she doesn't like it because of the smell. hahaha Or is she a vegan gardener?
There is a farmer in America that grows oranges in a unheated greenhouse in a very cold place, what he uses for heating is actually Christmas chain lights wrapped around the trees. They produce enough heat to keep the leaves from freezing. Simple system
Overwintering citrus plants without heating in cold winters in Germany is easy. Even if it is very cold outside, they are well protected in the unheated barn.
@@Gartenschlau the humidity in the greenhouse is the biggest issue for these plants. The winters in the countries they normally grow in are very dry so ice doesn't really form on the leaves and stems. In said greenhouse in Germany air humidity will be a big issue and for that the lights / heating elements will work great. The heating elements are a bit expensive tho and lights have the nice bonus of looking great as well on top of being dirt cheap 👌
There is a gardener in Sweden, located in zone 7a, who built a large, unheated greenhouse buried about 1 meter deep. Even when the temperature outside drops to -19°C, it remains around 0°C inside the greenhouse. He harvests ripe avocados and mangoes by November. Additionally, he has a few banana, cherimoya and papaya plants connected to his house, which produce ripe fruit. He got 250 bananas in one year!
The new growth on the Mexicola avocado is looking very healthy. I wouldn't worry about the old leaves. One of my avocados did the same thing after I moved it out of my greenhouse and into the garden, it's since dropped those leaves and pushed put new healthy leaves. One option for winter protection might be get get some large black plastic barrels and put them next to the tree and fill them with water. Then they could put up a simple wooden supports around it and the tree and put some frost cloth over the wooden supports during the cold spells. The water in the barrels should warm up during the day and then release some of the heat overnight. The frost cloth would be there to help insulate the tree and keep the heat from the plastic barrels from escaping too quickly. I'm not sure exactly how much protection it would provide in that setting though, but it might add a couple of degrees of passive heat without the need for power. I did something similar on a smaller scale in my garden last year with a clementine tree but used a large bucket of water. I did also have a brick wall behind the tree too, which might also have helped. But it helped keep the tree a few degrees above freezing when it dipped a bit below 0°C. After that though I got some incandescent lights to add some additional heat, but of course, I'm guessing you're not going to have access to power in there.
@@allthefruit I probably won't be able to post the link here, but if you search "Avocados and Frost in Europe (plus info on the cold-hardiest avocados and how to grow them)" you should find a forum about growing avocados in cold areas of Europe. There might be some more ideas in there. I occasionally post on it too along with some other guys that are trialling avocados in the UK and other parts of Europe.
Such a nice place to bE ,I love the wild permaculture style used here,I had avocado or mango not sure in the compost plastic barrel and it didn't survive,leaves fell off when the winter started ..
That's amazing. I am growing some cold hardy avocados, 'Joey' and 'Brogdon' that can withstand temps of about -8C for a few hours. I had no idea supermarket avocados would survive.
@@maryfralixlanier35 I am in zone 9a, in Florida. I have read that the Joey and Brogdon have been grown in the Carolinas and Georgia too in zone 8. That avocado toast gets pricy! 😅
I wouldn't worry about the old leaves half dying, avocados suffer badly from transplant shock and the roots don't work for a while so the leaves don't get the fluids they need and die back. Also most suppliers grow them in shaded greenhouses so planting in an unshaded greenhouse would result in leaf scorch. The new leaves being healthy suggests the roots have now settled and of course the new growth will also be adapted to the brighter light.
@@allthefruit I would imagine almost everywhere in Europe that has young grafted plants being prepared for sale, and once they go on sale. I've seen many videos of people that have visited nurseries in Spain, France, Cyprus, Greece and Italy where I've seen hundreds of potted avocados on display and they are always in greenhouses which are shaded. I myself have visited large nurseries on holiday and seen grafted plants on sale in the South of France and they were always displayed in shaded greenhouses. Young avocados just cannot handle full sunlight as young plants until they have been adapted to less shade
@@allthefruit obviously I watch 90% of your videos and actually when you visit the warmer parts of Europe and film both private and public collections as well of course fruit foraging in public, I don't recall you filming many ( if any ) visits to garden centres which sometimes might make an interesting video. A friend of mine filmed a nursery in italy when he was there on holiday and they had hundreds of citrus and grafted avocado plants on display as well as tropicals such as white sapote, mangos, syzygiums, guavas etc. I'm surprised your friend has not decided to try some citrus as well as the avocados....
Highly interesting, as a biologist (specialized in phytopathology) and professional gardener I might give it a little try as well. But they need a lot of water as well as warmth. Am already growing a hundred yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) from different varieties outside. Think I saw some yacon in your video sitting inside the unheated greenhouse. A small greenhouse cover andheating fom compost (Jean Pain or other methods). Give regular watering and the tips of leaves might not dry out. Kind regards to Doro and I envy her great terrain with greenhouses.
@@allthefruitNo, I store the rhizomes and repot them indoors in January. They get planted out in containers and directly in soil in May. Harvest per plant can be 10kg. This year I have so much material that I might leave some rhizomes in the ground. Here is Biosphärenreservat Elbtalaue in Northern Germany. An English company here on RU-vid has mild climate and has plants surviving winter ouside.
I have got myself four fig trees recently. Our main issue is wet, dull summers due to our maritime zone 8A weather, here in the northwest of Ireland. Thankfully, I have space in a poly for them. Since the breba crop is my best bet at actually getting something worth eating. I'm also going to need a back-up plan if we get a bad winter/spring. 10Th of May is our last frost date. Violette Dauphine / Grise de Tarascon Ronde de Bordeaux Brown Turkey Little Miss Figgy Those are the four cultivars I have at the moment.
@@allthefruit I went to the allotment site after posting that. When I got there, and fill my kettle, a hail shower started. They will be grown in large pots in the poly tunnels. I have a 5×1.5×2ft concrete block raised bed at the base of a south facing garden wall here, at home. I may try a brown turkey cutting in there, after I grow it on for a year first. It's prob the best suited to our awful weather out of the four. I was also thinking of adding a bag of lime chippings, and maybe a bucket of perlite. I know a guy who works for Irish seed savers, and does stuff for allotment sites, and most schools have at least one poly tunnels. So plan to pass on a lot of rooted cutting to him. Ficus Carica are interesting subtropical plants. They should be pretty easy to care for, as long as they aren't outside. Also, good plants to teach kids some basic botanical concepts. Or just fruit hobbyists on allotment/urban garden sites.
@@allthefruit I hope your friends have some good news in the new year, and their plants make it through the winter. They have a great set-up to try all manner of plants.
Large five gallon blue, or black drums of water around the plants. It won't help much during overcast weather, but it is those freezing bright days when the night temps really dip. You could also stack bails of hay around it, just be careful you don't get mice moving in.
I didn't do this yet, so its just a theory, but it would probably be better if you would get a translucent bottle and fill it to the top with a dark tint liquid, and maybe spray it black on the back side (from where the sun doesnt shine) That way you are not just heating up the exterior but the whole interior.
@@allthefruit i was watching a video on a channel no-till growers. I can't exacly remember what he said but during the winter the barrels got cold and just postponed the season in the spring because they were cooling the greenhouse. But i'm guessing he had water inside the whole time. Also. I had this idea where you could pump hot water deep in the ground during the summer and then keep the greenhouse warm during the winter by pumping that heat up.
@@GameMovieStudios2000 Water is a very good conductor of heat. If you have a black bucket, fill it with cold water and leave it in the sun/greenhouse/poly on a sunny day. It will get to room tempt very quickly. I use a bucket of water to keep the milk for my tea cold. Still need to put it in the shade for it to work. Those blue, or black drums heat up pretty fast. Just put your hand to the lid of a dark-coloured wheelie bin on a hot day. All that heat will be conducted into the water, slowing down how fast it heats up, and cools again.
maybe put foil around it and set up a heating mat below it. On the lowest setting? And put it on a timer so it only works in the night? Or maybe not foil but just that white garden fabric so it can breathe.
In Australia. People grow Ducasse red bananas as far south as Sydney and avocados even further south into Victoria. I'm not surprised, they tolerate a fair bit of frost, mostly Hass and Bacon avos.
I was told that a farm in Virginia, USA used rabbits in their greenhouse to keep the plants alive with the heat that the rabbits heat that their bodies produce!! I'm sure they turned around & used the droppings from the rabbits also. Would that work there? How tall does an avocado tree get.
some black barrels full of water which heat up in the sun and release the heat at night seem to to wonders for „TheMillenialGardener“. He even uses christmas lights für the very vulnerable stuff.
Why not pomegranate? I heard theres some even in the outskirts of moscow. We have tons of avocado on the canary islands they are not just for millenials :D Great video btw! I heard in australia after decades of research they have a new commercial variety thats 3x the size!
There is a farmer in America that grows oranges in a unheated greenhouse in a very cold place, what he uses for heating is actually Christmas chain lights wrapped around the trees. They produce enough heat to keep the leaves from freezing. Simple system
