Amazing Lila Avocado Harvest! This AVOCADO TREE Grows Where Others Fail

What's growing on, gardeners? It's Friday, August 25th, and today is the day that I've been waiting for for almost five years. My in-ground avocado tree that I have growing here on the southeastern coast of North Carolina has finally matured its first fruit, and I can't wait to take you along for a harvest. If you're new to the channel, please subscribe and hit the bell to receive new video notifications, and check out our Amazon store and Spreadshot links in the video description for everything I use in my garden The avocado tree that you see planted right here is my Lila avocado tree, and my Lila avocado that you see right here is on its fourth season in-ground. I bought it about five years ago when I was renting a house here in North Carolina, with anticipation of it being one of the first things that I plant in-ground once I actually had my house built, and that's exactly what you see right here. It's on its fourth season, and it is towering over my house, and I can't wait to take you in for a closer look. This tree has thrived in-ground here on the southeastern coast of North Carolina, and although it has set fruit every single year over the past four seasons, it has dropped all of its fruit every year, except for this season. It held on to one of the fruits all the way to maturity. And why has this tree dropped its fruit every single year? Well, I'm not really that sure, but it may be because I've fertilized it too aggressively. Maybe I've given it too much nitrogen, and that has caused the fruits to drop. I'm not entirely sure, but up until this point, I am... Here, here, you can actually see here is where the fruit was holding on to the tree. Well, up until this point, it's dropped every one except for this, and I need to pick this now because it looks like some bugs are actually getting into it, unfortunately. Now, as I said, this variety of avocado is a Lila. Some people also call it Opal. Lila and Opal are effectively the same variety, and this variety is a true Mexican avocado. It is the second most cold-hardy variety of any of the known avocados. All Mexican avocados, true Mexican avocados, are tolerant of frost and freeze. Now, you may be asking me why am I growing the second most cold-hardy variety of avocado known in ground. That's because the most cold-hardy variety, which is called Fantastic, is a very large tree. The Lila variety is a semi-dwarf. It only grows to be about 12 to 15 feet tall, and I keep it in the 8 to 10 foot range all throughout the year through pruning. Now, as I said, this is a true Mexican variety of avocado. It is tolerant down to about 12 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit when fully mature, and the tree itself can tolerate down into the 20s, low 20s, with little to no damage. Now, the varieties of avocados that we're most familiar with, like Haas. Haas is a Guatemalan type. It can only tolerate temperatures down to about 30 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit before it takes massive damage. Now, the variety that is also often found in supermarkets, this is a larger variety. I think this is a Fuerte avocado, which is a hybrid between a Mexican and Guatemalan type. It has much larger fruit, and it can tolerate temperatures down to about 28 degrees. So here you can see the Fuerte versus the Lila avocado. You can see the big size difference. And you will very rarely see true Mexican varieties in the grocery store because they have such thin skins, and they are therefore very likely to suffer damage in shipment. The Guatemalan varieties have much higher, thicker skins. They're easier to transport. So that's why Haas has become well-known throughout the industry. It's a good shipping avocado. So I'm going to have to take this true Mexican variety, and I'm going to have to leave it on my counter for a few days for it to actually ripen. And then I can't wait to show you a taste test once it actually reaches a peak ripeness. Because the Mexican varieties are actually very high in oil content, they're actually supposedly highly desirable for taste. So it's been a few days, and our Lila avocado is finally ripe. The only downside here is that because of that bad spot on it, it has allowed oxygen in, and it is oxidized in this point. So best case, we may only get half an avocado out of almost five years of waiting, unfortunately. If we compare it side by side to a grocery store avocado, which I believe is probably most likely a Haas avocado, you can see how they differ side by side. Now these pure Mexican avocados, they have very thin skin that make the avocados very difficult to scoop. And some say that the peel is actually edible, whereas your commercial varieties like your Haas avocados, they more represent one of the Guatemalan varieties, and they have thicker skin. Now I know technically Haas may be a hybrid, but if you look at any commercial avocado, because none of them grow true to type, and they're all crossbred to some degree, you're not going to find any pure avocados of any lineage in the grocery store. But I think that the Haas more approximates a Guatemalan type, due to its frost sensitivity, skin type, the quick release of the pit, whereas I expect this pit to cling. So now we're going to cut this open and see what it looks like inside, because most of us have probably never had a true Mexican avocado, because they don't ship well due to this very thin skin that is prone to damage. So now let's cut into this avocado and see what we're looking at here. I have looked all over the internet for reviews of the Lila avocado, and there just aren't many reviews out there, so this may be one of the only ones. And wow, that is truly beautiful inside. I am very, very impressed by the look of this avocado. The meat of the avocado looks perfect. There's very little cracking in the pit. These Mexican avocados are notorious for leaving chunks of the pit behind when you pull it out. Get a good look of that avocado right there. That is beautiful. I am really impressed by the way this looks. So now, after about five years of waiting, I finally get to try this Lila avocado. I've been looking forward to this for so long. This has been so much anticipation. Now, like I said, the Mexican avocados are actually notorious for their great flavor and high oil content. It's just they don't ship well because of that thin skin right there that is the reason why you don't find them in grocery stores. So I actually have high hopes for the overall flavor of this avocado. So what's interesting about the avocado is it's actually pretty hard to scoop out of the skin. These aren't very scoopable. Wow. The taste is, it's very different from any of the grocery store avocados that I'm familiar with. In short, it's just, it's a lot stronger. And I think it's probably because of that high oil content. There's a lot going on here. Wow. That is very rich, very nutty. It has a hint of sweetness in the back. Oh, man. Wow. This is really good. It's just so creamy. Oh, wow. This thing is fantastic right here. I cannot believe how good this avocado is. This is truly one of the best avocados I've ever had in my entire life. And it's not even perfectly ripe. To be completely honest, I should have let this go another day or so. But that bad spot was starting to take over. Had I let this go another day or so, this would have been, it would have been unbelievable, like cream. I have to be completely honest, that avocado was incredible. That was probably the best, most flavorful avocado I've ever had in my entire life. Now, granted, up until this point, I have only had avocados from the grocery store. So I've never been able to have a fresh avocado off the tree like that. And that was a life-changing experience, similar to what a fresh tomato off of a homegrown tomato plant tastes like when comparing it to a grocery store tomato. It's not even in the same league. Now, in all fairness, I have heard that a Haas avocado off a Haas avocado tree tastes nothing like a Haas avocado from a grocery store either. That it's so much better, like comparing an heirloom homegrown tomato to some mealy baseball that you get in the grocery store masquerading as a tomato. So keep that in mind. A fresh avocado off the tree is always going to be better than anything you get in a grocery store. But that being said, if you want a fantastic avocado to grow at home, you have to consider the Lila avocado. That was worth all five years of waiting for this tree to fruit for me. Again, if you live in a climate that gets frost and freeze like I do, the Lila avocado is probably the tree to grow in your backyard. Not only is it a semi-dwarf, but it is a type A avocado, which tend to be more fruitful than type Bs. It's self-fertile, especially when you hand pollinate. The fruits are a good size for a Mexican avocado. It had a nice easy release of the pit, unlike a lot of the cold hardy avocados. And the taste and the flavor was just incredible. You can tell that it has a really high oil content. That taste was just amazing. So if you can only grow one avocado tree in your backyard, because that's all the room you have for and you get frost and freeze in your climate, this Lila, or sometimes also called opal, is the one that you probably want to go for. I can't wait until this avocado tree starts producing more avocados. That was worth every bit of the five-year wait for. And of course, like almost anything that you can grow in your backyard, the only way to get the best tasting avocados on earth is to grow them yourself. You will never get the best tasting food from the grocery store, so remember that. So everybody, I sure hope you found this video helpful. If you did, please make sure to hit that like button, subscribe to the channel, and please ring that notification bell so you're notified when I release more videos like these. If you have any questions about this Lila avocado tree, you want to see the methods that I use to grow it, the cold protection methods, I will link to them down in the video description and also drop a comment if you have any specific questions that I can answer for you. If you're curious about any of the products that I use in real life in my garden, I have them all linked down below in my Amazon storefront in the video description. And while you're there, check out my spreadshop for custom merch if you want to support the channel. Thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video. I'm about to show you all just how smart Dale is. Dale knows when dad gets his headphones out, that could only mean one thing. Oh Dale, does that mean we're going for a walk? Come on buddy, where are we going? Where are we going? Oh, you want something up there? Oh, you want your harness and your collar and your leash? Is that what you want? Oh, somebody's excited. Look at him. Oh, he can't wait. Oh, it's been so hot all day, but it's finally cooling off. We're gonna take Dale for a walk.