Fruit Trees

Secondo Avocado

Anyone who loves avocados should have one growing in their back yard and the Secondo avocado is a surpurb choice. The Secondo originates from the hills around Kyogle where it has been bred from a seedling selected by a local Italian gentleman who it is named after. The fruits are truely delicious, they are a large pear shaped fruit with creamy flesh and thick textured skin. They are a cross between a Hass and a Sharwill and are a combination of the best of both these fruits. Trees will crop heavily and are self pollinating although they will benift from being near a B group avocado to maximise pollination and fruit set. They come off at about the same time as the Hass cropping from August through to December to January if you can leave them on the tree that long. The Secondo is the staff favourite amongst the avocados here at the nursery and we are often seen sneaking back from the orchard with our pockets bulging during the harvest season. We have some beautiful specimens in stock ready to be established in your garden.

29 comments:

  1. how big does the tree grow?

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  2. The Secondo will grow to 8m if given ideal conditions but this will vary depending on soil type, moisture levels and nutrients.

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  3. Would this variety grow in Melbourne? If not, what other would you suggest, bearing in mind that we would like it to fruit as soon as possible.

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  4. So it grows 8 m tall, does it get very wide? Does it have invasive roots? Does it get invaded by fruit fly? and one more question, is it an evergreen tree. I have a small/medium backyard

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  5. The Secondo is a full sized avocado that grows to about 8m depending on conditions. It would be worth trying in Melbourne if you have the space. Trees can reach 8m wide when fully grown. Fruit flies do not sting the fruits. Avocados are evergreen trees, they have a taproot but it is not deep. Once established the roots can be spreading and competitive and can interfere with nearby plants or buildings.

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  6. I have an avocado tree with lots of medium sized fruit, but none seem to ripen....and they are not getting any bigger. Any ideas?

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  7. I have never tasted Sharwil, but I have heard it is a good one. So a cross between it and Hass is really intriguing.

    Is there any chance I'll be able to get this 'Secondo' in California any time soon?

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  8. I believe that avocados do not ripen until they have been picked from the tree. So start picking the fruit to enjoy them.
    Also if you are worried about the size of an avocado tree one can always prune it. A neighbour of mine does that each year to keep the size of his tree under control.

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  9. I have a tree grown from a stone (left over from some nachos a while back) - Its going well, will it ever fruit, how big will it get if I move it to a 1000mm diameter pot.

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  10. Seedling avocados are more vigorous than grafted specimens and they take about 6-8 years to set fruit. They are not true to type but you can be lucky and have a superb fruit from a seedling tree like the Secondo. They will be much happier if they are grown in the ground. If you pick the fruits too early they will not ripen off the tree instead the flesh turns black, this is an indication that they need longer to ripen before picking.

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  11. Hi. I have worked on Hass and Shepard avocado farms. I am wondering if Secondo has the bitter after taste of Hass, or is more like the "clean"taste of shepard.
    Also, is there a variety that will produce fruit in a slightly dryer climate (South Burnett)?

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  12. have large avocado tree in adelaide, how much and when should it be pruned? some of outer leaves quite brown. also what is best for around base of tree, natural foliage or can gravel/pebbles be used?

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  13. Jo, Most avocado trees are usually never pruned: if branches branches are exposed to the sun they become susceptible to sunburn and dieback. Pruning is only necessary to shape young trees and remove diseased or damaged branches, though you can prune very vigorous stems to reduce tree height.
    You can use gravel and pebbles as mulch under you tree but they do not give your tree any valuable. I prefer to use an organic mulch such as lucerne hay to mulch my trees with, this will not only suppress weeds but it will also feed your tree with nutrients as it rots down.

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  14. have an avocado tree in the garden with small first ever fruit, but I do not know what the month to pick is. Should I be picking them before April in southern victoria

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  15. I live in South-west Sydney and have an avocado tree in my garden. The tree is huge and about 13 years old. It flowers a lot, but gives very little fruit, which turns out also to be very small. Is there any thing I can do to improve things?

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  16. I live in Los Angeles and have 2 wonderful Secundo avocado trees in our backyard. The house was built in 1921 and we believe the trees are at least as old as the house, if not older, since there were many citrus and avocado orchards here back then. When our family bought the house in 1971, the soil in the yard had been depleted of minerals and was like sand, so we fertilized and turned the soil. The trees are very healthy. They have not grown much bigger then when we first bought the house 37 years ago. We have HUNDREDS of fruit this year for some reason, the biggest problem we have are with squirrels & blue jay birds knocking them down too soon, so they rarely get to grow to full size. However, this is not a problem. The best way to ripen them is place them in a brown paper bag, several is fine, in a cabinet, a cool dry place (NOT in plastic bags, they will rot quickly). Even the smaller young avocados will ripen to full flavor within 3 - 15 days and taste SUPERB! I cannot imagine an avocado tasting any better than these do. People at my work BEG me to bring them in! All you need is a little salt on them and you can eat them with a spoon right out of the skin! Or mash them on bread for a light sandwich. The flavor is devine. Tree size: The leaves & lower branches do reach to the ground if you don't trim them, which can be great for shade. The branches on our trees grow pretty low however so you can't place a gazebo under them, although you can place a picnic table under them easily. And you can stand and walk around under the trees. Our friends call our trees "money trees" because they are truly full of valuable treasure! We love 'em!

    Susan Jones
    Glendale, California

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  17. I live in Los Angeles and have 2 wonderful Secundo avocado trees in our backyard. The house was built in 1921 and we believe the trees are at least as old as the house, if not older, since there were many citrus and avocado orchards here back then. When our family bought the house in 1971, the soil in the yard had been depleted of minerals and was like sand, so we fertilized and turned the soil. The trees are very healthy. They have not grown much bigger then when we first bought the house 37 years ago. We have HUNDREDS of fruit this year for some reason, the biggest problem we have are with squirrels & blue jay birds knocking them down too soon, so they rarely get to grow to full size. However, this is not a problem. The best way to ripen them is place them in a brown paper bag, several is fine, in a cabinet, a cool dry place (NOT in plastic bags, they will rot quickly). Even the smaller young avocados will ripen to full flavor within 3 - 15 days and taste SUPERB! I cannot imagine an avocado tasting any better than these do. People at my work BEG me to bring them in! All you need is a little salt on them and you can eat them with a spoon right out of the skin! Or mash them on bread for a light sandwich. The flavor is devine. Tree size: The leaves & lower branches do reach to the ground if you don't trim them, which can be great for shade. The branches on our trees grow pretty low however so you can't place a gazebo under them, although you can place a picnic table under them easily. And you can stand and walk around under the trees. Our friends call our trees "money trees" because they are truly full of valuable treasure! We love 'em!

    Susan Jones
    Glendale, California

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  18. We moved into our house 18 months ago & didn't even know what type of tree it was until we saw a lone pear shaped fruit taking its time to grow. We want to tidy up the lower branches, they are showing some damage. Also we wouldn't mind taking out the height of the tree. Is there a better time of year to prune on the Central Coast of NSW?
    Does anyone have advice on ways to encourage more fruit to grow?

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  19. Could you please advise me if I could grow an Avocado tree in a half wine barrel.I live in Inverell Northern NSW where we get winter frosts.What type would you reccommend if any.
    Kind regards,
    Smadau.

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  20. To help Avocado trees bear more, apply a good dressing of Sulphate of Potash & Super Phosphate to the soil. Mulch the tree heavily too.December is a good time to do this

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  21. We've recently installed a pool and have been considering planting an Avocado tree about 3 meters from the pool (Shade for the decking underneath). It will be watered 3 days a week and there's a natural water source 2-3 meters down. Would you please tell me if the root stock will be too invasive to plant near a pool. I'd love to have an Avo tree, but not to the detriment of of the pool.

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  22. I wouldn't plant an avocado tree that close (~3m) to a swimming pool (or any other pool), because the roots of the avocado are VERY invasive. Why not plant a dwaft Wurtz avo tree in a very large pot?

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  23. We planted a grafted avocado tree 30 yeas ago in a small Sydney eastern suburbs courtyard. It gave fruit for some years after about 10 years. When it changes leaves it's messy! It has grown to an enormous height, we have had it trimmed but needs doing again. Very expensive! The roots are now lifting the paving and wonder what it's doing to foundations. Beware!

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  24. Hi there, i live in Inner West, Sydney and we have an avocado tree which is about 50ft tall! Yes, HUGE!!! We had it pruned in January this year to less than 1/2 it's original size and the fruit this year has been the best we've had. The only problem is that the tree is so large that we cannot pick the fruit up high and we have had an influx of crows and maggies who have feasted on it for the past 6 months. We had had a huge mess in our backyard from falling fruit, damaged and over ripe. Does any one have any ideas on how to collect fruit from such a large tree or any ideas on how to slow the flowering and fruiting? If we pruned the tree from the very top branches would this kill the tree or could it slow the production of fruit? We love the tree (it been here since we purchased the property some 20 years ago!!) but it is dangerous to go outside and it is destroying out back yard!! Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks. Su

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  25. just wondering what avocado would grow best in the melbourne area?

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  26. Hi I live in southern Adelaide, and would love to grow an Avocado tree. I see that you highly recommend the secondo, would this be suitable for our area? Also, should we plant another variety to aid pollination, and which ones would you recommend. I love the taste and texture of the Hass variety, and would like to get varietys as close to that as possible. Thanks :)

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  27. Liz here just curious about picking. We have a avocado
    and the fruit is ready. I picked some to check and they were beautiful however at the ends where the stem would of been they went black and a little yuck. I just scrapped this away and the rest was yummy. However how do you avoid this should I pick with some stem left on??

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  28. My avocado tree is about 8 years old. Its located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. For the last 5 years around February thru May the leaves turn brown and fall off the tree. Also, I noticed as if something is eating the leaves because a lot have holes on it but don't brown. This problem always happens during the time the tree is flowering and bearing fruit. This year lots of new fruit were growing but after a month there was very few left. Seems that the problem with leaves falling and apparently being eaten is causing such a loss of the fruit. I have noticed some small blue flies, could this the problem? I used some organic pesticide but it rain the next day and it washed it away. The tree looks healthy now but the damage has been done.

    Please Advise.
    Jose Barrios
    jbarrios28@aol.com

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  29. I dont have an avacado tree, and im not sure wether to get seedlings, a plant from the nursery, and if i get a plant from the nursery how long will it take to bear fruit and whats the absolute quickest way for me to have a fruiting avacado tree in the least amount of time. ?
    Thankyou

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