Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 10 Sep 2025

Avocado shrimp boats: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes

Avocado shrimp boats: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes

🍴 Avocado shrimp boats: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes


  • 🟢Halve an avocado, scoop out a little extra.
  • 🟢Fill with sauteed shrimp tossed in garlic-lime butter.
  • 🟢Enjoy instant tropical feast!


🛒 Grow your own Avocado tree

Avocado shrimp boats: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe avocados
  • 1 cup shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Instructions

  1. Halve the avocados and scoop out a little extra to make room.
  2. Sauté shrimp in butter with garlic and lime juice until pink and cooked through.
  3. Season with salt and pepper.
  4. Fill avocado halves with shrimp mixture.
  5. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Avocado

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Date: 5 Dec 2025

What Avocado is better - Mexican or Guatemalan?

What Avocado is better - Mexican or Guatemalan? What Avocado is better - Mexican or Guatemalan? What Avocado is better - Mexican or Guatemalan?

🌎 What Avocado is better - Mexican or Guatemalan?



Avocados come from three main regions, and each group has its own special look, taste, and growing habits. The three types are Mexican, Guatemalan, and West Indian. Many of today’s popular varieties are hybrids, mixing traits from these types.

  • Mexican type:

These avocados are small, with thin skin and rich flavor. The skin often turns dark green or black when ripe. The flesh is very buttery, with high oil content (up to 30%), and the leaves smell like anise. Mexican types are also the most cold-hardy, so they do well in cooler areas.
Popular Mexican avocado varieties: Anise, Bacon, Brazos Belle (Wilma), Brogdon (Brogden), Fantastic, Florida Hass (Haas), Lila (Opal), Mexicola, Mexicola Grande, Ulala (Oh La La, Super Hass).
Hybrids Mexican x Guatemalan: Winter Mexican, Buck, Wurtz (True Dwarf), Maria Black, Fuerte, Hall, Ettinger, Thomson Red.

  • Guatemalan type:

These are medium to large avocados with thicker, sometimes bumpy skin. They have a creamy texture and rich flavor with plenty of healthy fats. The fruit is usually pear-shaped and ripens in winter or spring. Guatemalan types are commonly grown in both Florida and California.
Popular Guatemalan avocado varieties: Black Prince, Booth 8, Joey, Nishikawa, Reed, Tonnage, Yamagata
Hybrids Mexican x Guatemalan: Winter Mexican, Buck, Wurtz (True Dwarf), Maria Black, Fuerte, Hall, Ettinger, Thomson Red
Hybrids of West Iundian and Guatemalan: Beta, Catalina, Choquette, Day, Hardee Red, Kampong (Sushi), Loretta, Lula, Marcus Pumpkin, Miguel, Monroe, Oro Negro.

West Indian type:


These avocados are the biggest, with smooth, shiny green skin and a lighter, more watery taste. They have less oil but lots of pulp, perfect for salads and guacamole. The fruit can weigh up to 2 pounds! They grow best in tropical climates like Florida, the Caribbean, and the Bahamas, but not in California.
West Indian avocado varieties: Bernecker, Donnie (Doni), Hialeah Red, Pollock, Poncho (Pancho), Red Russell, Russell, Simmonds, Waldin.
Florida originated varieties: Catalina, Hardee Red.
Hybrids of West Iundian and Guatemalan: Beta, Catalina, Choquette, Day, Hardee Red, Kampong (Sushi), Loretta, Lula, Marcus Pumpkin, Miguel, Monroe, Oro Negro.

✍️ In short:

  • ✦ Mexican - small, rich, cold-hardy
  • ✦ Guatemalan - medium, creamy, thick skin
  • ✦ West Indian - large, smooth, tropical


✔️ Check out
Avocado Variety Guide interactive chart. Sort them by flower type A or B, tree habit, fruit shape and quality, cold hardiness, origin, season and more!

🛒 Explore Avocado varieties

📖 Our Book: Avocado Variety Guide, Snack or Guacamole?

📚 Learn more:


#Food_Forest #Avocado #How_to

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Date: 25 Nov 2025

What Avocado is better - Type A or Type B?

Avocado tree flowers

Avocado tree flowers

What Avocado is better - Type A or Type B?



Avocados are divided into two types based on how their flowers open - Type A and Type B. This has nothing to do with how the fruit looks, only with how the flowers work.

TYPE A:
The flowers open as female in the morning of the first day, then close. On the afternoon of the second day, they reopen as male.

The most popular type A avocado varieties:
Bernecker, Black Prince, Catalina, Choquette, Day, Donnie (Doni), Fantastic, Florida Hass (Haas), Lila (Opal), Loretta, Lula, Mexicola, Mexicola Grande, Red Russell, Reed, Russell, Simmonds, Ulala (Oh La La, Super Hass) , Waldin, Wurtz (Dual Type, A&B).

TYPE B:
The flowers open as female in the afternoon of the first day, then close. The next morning, they reopen as male.

The most popular type B avocado varieties:
Anise, Bacon, Beta, Booth 8, Brazos Belle (Wilma), Brogdon (Brogden), Buck, Ettinger, Fuerte, Hall, Hardee Red, Hialeah Red, Joey, Kampong (Sushi), Marcus Pumpkin, Maria Black, Miguel, Monroe, Nishikawa, Oro Negro, Pollock, Poncho (Pancho), Thomson Red, Tonnage, Winter Mexican, Wurtz (Dual Type, A&B), Yamagata.
  • 🟢 Each tree can make its own fruit (it’s self-fertile), but if you plant both types together, they will help each other make more fruit. The flowers of A and B types open at opposite times, so bees can carry pollen between them more easily. This means better pollination and a bigger harvest.
  • 🟢 For home gardeners, one tree is enough to get fruit, but having both A and B types nearby will give you a larger crop. If you grow avocados in pots, it’s a good idea to have at least one of each type.


✍️ In short:
One tree = some fruit
Two trees (A + B) = lots more fruit!

✔ ️Check out Avocado Variety Guide interactive chart. Sort them by flower type A or B, tree habit, fruit shape and quality, cold hardiness, origin, season and more!

🛒  Explore Avocado varieties

📖 Our Book: Avocado Variety Guide, Snack or Guacamole?


Hard copy
PDF File Download

📚 Learn more:


How Avocado trees flower and set fruit
Avocado Variety Guide
#Avocado #Food_Forest #How_to

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Date: 12 Jul 2025

Avocado that laughs at frost: Mexicola Grande for cooler climates

Avocado Mexicola Grande

Avocado that laughs at frost: Mexicola Grande for cooler climates

  • 🟢Avocado Mexicola Grande is one of the best cold-hardy avocados you can grow. It can tolerate temperatures down to the low 20sF, making it ideal for gardeners in zones 8b-10 who want a dependable avocado.
  • 🟢Medium-sized tree, grows to about 15-20 feet tall, but you can keep it smaller with pruning.
  • 🟢Glossy black fruit, thin-skinned, smooth, and shiny black when ripe - easy to peel and eat fresh.
  • 🟢Anise-scented leaves: its foliage has a mild anise aroma when crushed, which is unique to Mexican-type avocados.
  • 🟢Creamy and rich: the fruit has a high oil content and a buttery flavor, excellent for guacamole or toast.
  • 🟢Early producer: often fruits earlier in the season compared to other varieties.
  • 🟢 A great addition if you're looking for a productive, flavorful avocado that can handle cooler temps!


🛒  Shop Cold Hardy Avocados

📚 Learn more:


#Food_Forest #Avocado

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Date: 22 Mar 2016

Plant Horoscope. Aries Zodiac lucky plants: Aloe and Erythrina

Aries - 3/21-4/19. Aries is a FIRE sign ruled by the planet Mars. Plants associated with this element and planet very often have thorns or prickles. They can be also spicy or bitter in flavor, or red in color.

Because Aries rules the head, eyes and face, the plants for Aries purify the blood, stimulate the adrenal glands, and/or are high in iron (Mars rules the mineral iron). Mars-ruled Aries is assertive, energetic and fearless. Mars rules the red blood cells, the muscles, and metabolic processes, as well as the motor nerves and the head. These plants help you when you want more get-up-and-go and the courage to take on the world.

Aries Zodiac lucky plants - Governors plum, Hibiscus Karkade, Tapioca, Mamey Sapote, Ruda, Baobab, Euphorbia, Acanthus, Aloe, Caesalpinia, Erythrina, Opuntia, Dragon Fruit, Pachypodium, Pomegranate, Chilli peppers, Syngonium, Begonia, Geranium, Red Sandalwood, Jamiaca pepper (Pimenta, Allspice), Camphor, Jujube, Anise, Red Roses, Tiger Lily, Impatiens, Calendula, Tarragon, Ginger, Coriander, Basil, Ruda, Amaryllis, Wild Indigo, Gooseberries, Sesbania, Campsis, Red Oleander, Maple, Schotia brachypetala, Momordica, Coffee, Amla , Ephedra, Red Kapok.

For other signs information, see full Plant Horoscope.