Cold-hardy avocado breeding for the PNW

I've joined this group as I'm keen to exchange information and experiences on growing avocados outside of their usual geographical range. I grow all my trees outdoors, in the ground, in a coastal climate in southeastern England (UK). All avocado material has been raised from seed and grown on its own roots. I have eight trees, the oldest is almost 6-years-old, the youngest is less than a year old.

I'm particularly interested in obtaining a couple of seeds of Aravaipa or one of the other Mexican types. Here are links to my blogs, updated continuously whenever I have new photos or interesting observations to share:

‘Hass’: https://imgur.com/a/5gflnlU

'Fuerte': https://imgur.com/a/0XuODou

'Bacon': https://imgur.com/a/FmRvs7d

'Del Rio': https://imgur.com/a/dAbixIe

My background is in horticultural research, specializing in the adaptation of plants to environmental stress for 20 years (physiology & biochemistry) and worked in UK, Europe & N. America. Now retired, I still follow this interest through some of my gardening activities, i.e. attempting to grow crops outside their usual geographical range, with a particular interest in avocado, and possibly citrus (satsuma).

It looks like that last project update had HTML special characters inserted into the body of the message by the EFN update form every place where I hit the "Enter" key. Unfortunately, that broke the sign-up link. If you visit the EFN project page and view the update online, the link is functional, and I will try to insert it here one more time: https://www.drymifolia.org/join.php ... Thank you again, and I look forward to getting in touch with each of you once you sign up. Happy growing! - Winn

Greetings, fellow avocado enthusiasts!

It has taken a bit longer than I had hoped to get the new version of the website up and functional (for the most part... I hope!), but you can finally officially join the project and request your tree(s) at this URL:

https://www.drymifolia.org/join.php

I will follow up directly with all new members in the next month or two to coordinate tree deliveries this coming spring. If you have any questions, or if you run into any technical difficulties on the website (very possible!), please email me at info@drymifolia.org. If you are outside the geographic area where I will deliver trees, feel free to join anyhow but understand that you will probably not get a tree in the first distribution next year.

Other parts of the new website are still under construction, and the photos and information for the tree database are in dire need of updating, but feel free to peruse those sections as well.

Best wishes,

Winn

I've had a few questions recently about when volunteers should expect to receive trees.

In short, a link will be sent to all participants during the fall or early winter (November-ish 2022), allowing volunteers to provide details about their rough geographic location and the number of trees they hope to adopt/host. That link will also be added to this profile once it goes live.

In order of registration, volunteers in our research area should expect to be contacted over the winter to coordinate delivery of their tree(s). The first trees will be distributed in late spring of 2023, and new trees will be distributed each year thereafter around that time of year. The number of trees available should increase each year as our breeding trees grow larger and produce more seed, but the first distribution (2023) will include only a couple dozen trees.

As casualties are expected to be high in early years, priority will be given in later years to those who need to replace dead trees.

Please direct questions to info(at) drymifolia(dot)org.

I am interested in following this project in order to maybe learn more. I don't know if i will be of much practical help because i live in brittany, france. I am trying to grow avocadoes outdoors where i live. The climate where i live is comparable to the pacific northwest. I have one mexicola and one fantastic seedling growing outdoors.
My findings for now are that they die back down in winter but regrow from the roots the following year.
Only by protecting them can they be prevented from dying in winter. I don't fully understand the exact reasons but temperature is only one, and not the most important, factor.
I have another fantastic seedling that i planted in my polytunnel and it survived the winter just fine despite having been exposed to the same temperatures, but protected by the polytunnel.
Young avocado plants seem to really dislike the long weeks and months of cold moisture descending down and freezing on their leaves if grown outdoors