Recently, I was at the grocery store...ostensibly for groceries, as one usually does...
But when I walked in, I noticed all their plants on display outside were on clearance. Some were $4.49 and the rest were $7.49. Regular readers know, I will look for a deal. So I did look around...and found...
A "Cherry of the Rio Grande" also called "Barbados cherry". Not a true cherry but related and grows in a more tropical climate. That's us. We have our two Nanking cherries growing but I figured this would be fun to try and see what comes of it. Then I scored an avocado! We have wanted one for ages but they are always expensive. Both trees were 5 gallon containers so I picked them up, finished my grocery shopping, put them in the car and headed back to work.
After I got home, 2nd Man said "maybe we should get another avocado tree since we love them so much?" I knew they had more like the one I bought so the next day, I went back. I was just going to get one more, thinking they just had the same variety as I got the day before.
Then I saw another variety!
And yet another!
I grabbed both of them and put them in my cart. I figured two for $15 ($7.49 each) was worth it. As I was at the checkout, they rang them up and she goes "that will be $119.49".
What the what?
They rang up at full price of almost $60 EACH.
I said "uh no, these are supposed on clearance, I bought two others yesterday". She called over the manager and he looks at them and goes "oh yeah, they are all on clearance. They are $4.49 each".
I wasn't going to argue, $120 worth of trees for $9
SOLD!
I loaded them into the car and went back to work. At the apartment I put them in our parking spaces until we could get them out to the farm.
Here they are at the apartment parking garage one morning when I left for work. They had nice sun coming in and I kept them watered.
I took them all to the farm the following weekend.
We have three avocado trees;
MEXICOLA
LILA
JOEY
They are all cold hardy (once established of course) down to low 20's and one, to the upper teens and are best suited to our climate/zone. Sounds good to us! They'll stay on the porch until Spring and we'll keep them protected if we have a freeze.
Sorry 2nd Man, you asked and now we have to figure out where to put our "avocado orchard"...
That is quite a little orchard you are developing.
ReplyDeleteAlmost all the fruit trees behind the house are doing great we just need to find a place for these now.
Deletewow, what a great deal! i would have bought all of them!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I probably should have. Just plant all over and hope for the best, ha.
DeleteThat was a great deal!!
ReplyDeleteRight? I thought it was good at the slightly higher price but it was a REALLY good deal even lower, ha.
DeleteI would have bought at least 6 more trees - no matter what kind
ReplyDeleteYou know, in retrospect I should have. Trees for a deal are alwasy a good thing. I was there two days later and they were all gone so at least I hope they all went to good homes, ha.
DeleteWow, you are King of the Deal! You are always finding really great things at fantastic prices! You are developing quite a Food Forest at the Farm.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I always look for a good deal. Right now I'm looking for discounted turkeys (not frozen). But yes, the goal is to have some fruit producing plants out there. We're almost there on the fruit trees, these will take a few years. Fingers crossed!
DeleteWell done. I have read that it is advisable to have more than one avocado as it helps with pollination. May you reap many avocados in your future.
ReplyDeleteThank you! And yep, we had heard that as well, while not required, it can definitely increase the pollination and give you more fruit. I'm ok with that, ha.
DeleteJackpot once again.
ReplyDeleteThey look like nice looking trees. Hope they all do well for you.
Have a great evening.
They'll be in the ground next Spring. They say they can fruit in two years so fingers crossed.
DeleteYou definitely scored with those prices! I wonder what the difference is amongst the 3 varieties! It will be interesting to find out as they mature!
ReplyDeleteThey are all very similar but of course each variety does have it's own characteristics. An avocado taste test would not be a bad thing sometime, ha. We LOOOVE avocados.
DeleteSo when are you going to build there and move permanently?
ReplyDeleteIronically I have a post coming up about that. Long story short, new is the way we will go instead of the remodel (that's what the post will be about, it was a process just getting people out but again, more on that coming up). Our plan is to be done out there by this time next year or shortly into the next, depending on whatever delays we run into. Talking to banks now.
DeleteWell how cool is this?
ReplyDeleteWe're definitely looking forward to seeing how they do. Heck, just having three gives us the chance to at least get one success, if we get two even better if all three produce well, then win win win, ha.
DeleteYou probably already know all there is to know about Avacado trees but you might find this interesting https://treejourney.com/how-long-it-takes-to-grow-an-avocado-tree-timeline/
ReplyDelete