#phytophtera

Looks like two avocado seedlings will survive the first round of selection. They are both Phytophtera resistant and dryland adapted (i.e. they don't require irrigation once established). Let's see if University of California Riverside can do any better with their recently announced avocado breeding program.

Finally planted out all my avocado trees for Phytophtera testing! It feels good to be done planting. Now I need to start getting ready for winter rains (planting lettuce, wheat, oats, broccoli and kale this year). My summer crops are already starting to finish, so I need to get more stuff growing.

Put some more avocado seedlings out in the Phytophtera test bed. I'm almost done planting out this experiment. Then, if I can reach the test site, I'll start planting my cold-tolerant avocado seedlings up by Lake Arrowhead in San Bernardino (zone 8). I also put out some more mango trees here. The purple one is looking especially promising.

Added 60 more avocado seedlings to the Phytophtera bed today. There are areas I've already planted twice or more, and I'll keep going until everything is planted. Also included a picture of the bed. They look great the first month, then some start dying (some faster than others). I'm planting super close because most of the trees will be dead by the end of the year.

Added 60 more avocado seedlings to the Phytophtera bed today. There are areas I've already planted twice or more, and I'll keep going until everything is planted. Also included a picture of the bed. They look great the first month, then some start dying (some faster than others). I'm planting super close because most of the trees will be dead by the end of the year.

68 more avocado seedlings for my Phytophtera selection. I'm starting to worry the genetics might be too good, since I'm not seeing many dead trees yet. But I still have plenty of room for planting more, so it's not a problem yet.