All About the Great Wurtz Avocado Tree

If you’ve ever laid slices of avocado on your toast or paid a little extra for guacamole in your burrito, there’s a chance you’ve wondered about the avocado that makes such a powerful difference in your food. The avocado tree, or Persea americana, comes in many varieties. One very special variation is the Wurtz avocado tree.

Keep reading to learn all about this great variety!

Looking to buy a Wurtz (AKA Little Cado) Avocado Tree? Check availability.

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What Makes This Avocado Tree Different?

The Wurtz, also known as the Little Cado, bears the name of its creator, Roy Wurtz, who first bred it in 1935 in Encinitas, California. Since then, this exceptional avocado tree has soared in popularity and spread all over the world.

The Wurtz avocado tree has one major advantage over other avocado trees: it’s a dwarf tree, the only one of its species. As it only reaches ten or twelve feet in height, it’s more manageable than its cousins which can grow many times taller.

However, while the tree itself is small for an avocado, its fruit is not. This is one reason why it’s the first choice for those seeking to grow their own avocados.

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About the Wurtz Avocado

From the wurtz avocado tree comes the fruit. The Wurtz avocado, like the tree that bears it, is also unique among avocados.

The Physical Traits of the Wurtz Avocado

The Wurtz is an attractive fruit. Its skin is thin, dark green, and shiny. It’s not small either. It varies in weight (on average from six and twelve ounces) and has an oil content of about 16%. Set into its creamy green flesh is a seed that can range from small to large.

The Taste of the Wurtz Avocado

The Wurtz avocado boasts more than just a pretty face. While a comparable size to its famous cousin, the Hass avocado, the Wurtz is a little less oily yet maintains, when ripe, the classic rich, buttery, creamy flavor that you want in an avocado.

It has the nutty taste of other avocados, but it’s less overwhelming than some of its higher-fat relatives. The Wurtz has many fans, with some swearing that it is the best-tasting of any avocado. If you enjoy avocados, this is one to try.

Nutritional Attributes of the Wurtz Avocado

Avocados are packed with healthy fats, making them a fantastic source of energy. The unsaturated fats they contain can help combat high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

Avocados are full of vitamins E, C, and K, and make a phenomenal source of fiber. They even beat bananas for recommended daily value of potassium. Click here for a more detailed nutrition guide.  Then, keep learning about the health benefits of avocados and discover some tasty recipes.

How to use the Wurtz avocado Kitchen

The fruit of the Wurtz avocado tree is versatile. It’s served alone, with a little bit of salt, turned into guacamole, sliced and used to top a burger or bagel, and included as a prominent ingredient in any number of dishes. One particular recipe that has rocketed to international fame is avocado toast. It’s served in cafes and restaurants the world over. Learn how to make avocado toast at home with this step-by-step guide.

I love to pair my avocados with a baked sweet potato and use it as a side for steak or grilled chicken. For this, the Wurtz is a particularly good choice as its lower oil content helps it complement, rather than compete, with the protein.

If you also use avocados frequently when preparing food, you should learn how to store them correctly.

A Fruit for All Ages and Tastes

The avocado belongs in everyone’s diet. As it is soft and calorically dense, it’s a wonderful option for children and can even be enjoyed by babies once they start to eat solid food. One good way to get kids a little older to start falling in love with the avocado is to introduce it in a dish that’s sweet as opposed to savory.

Take, for instance, a dessert dish popular in the Philippines where they mix avocado with ice and condensed milk. Simple and strange as it may sound, variations of this recipe have exploded on the app TikTok and millions have been introduced to this delicious sweet avocado dish through videos from TikToker Anna Paul. Why not give it a try with a Wurtz? 

Where to Buy Wurtz Avocados

Unfortunately, the Wurtz avocado is not as popular as some of its cousins, so it may be difficult trying to find it at your local grocery store. But the great news is that you can just buy the Wurtz (AKA Little Cado) avocado online!

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Growing Your Own Wurtz Avocado Tree

Can I Grow A Wurtz Avocado Tree Myself?

As the Wurtz avocado tree takes up the least amount of space, this is your tree if you want to grow avocados from home. The question is: can you? Well, if you’re looking to grow your tree outdoors, you’ll have trouble doing this in most places in the US.

The tree is hardy in USDA plant hardiness zones 10 and 11 which are almost exclusively in Florida, California, and a few places in Texas and Arizona.

If you do not live in one of these places, fret not! Remember, it’s a dwarf tree and can be grown indoors during the winter. When you start your indoor avocado growing journey, learn how to do it best.

Tips On Growing the Wurtz Avocado Tree

The quickest way to produce Wurtz avocados from home is through grafting. Grafting is where the scion, or living portion of a plant such as a bud or a shoot, is detached from the plant it was growing from and then reattached to a rootstock, or compatible plant that is currently growing. In fact, oftentimes, when you purchase a young Wurtz avocado tree, you are purchasing a grafted tree.

As the Wurtz avocado tree only grows to roughly 10 feet, you can grow it in a pot. Just choose a large receptacle such as a half wine barrel and make sure the bottom has holes. This tree requires lots of drainage. If the soil is soggy, the tree could be susceptible to health issues.

When watering, be attentive to the soil. It may need water almost every day or as irregularly as once a week depending on the heat and how quickly the water dries up. To prevent rapid evaporation, put down mulch about six inches from the base of the trunk. The potting soil should be loose, sandy, fast-draining, and kept slightly damp.

For its first year, the Wurtz avocado tree is vulnerable to sunburn if given too much exposure. However, after that, it should be able to handle, and in fact does best, in full sunlight. Get the full guide on growing avocado trees.

Pollination

The Wurtz avocado tree is a type-A avocado tree. This means that its flowers open as female in the mornings rather than the afternoons. The flowers reopen as male the following day. That means that the Wurtz avocado tree has the useful ability to self-pollinate and can produce fruit independently without needing other avocado trees.

Harvesting Wurtz Avocados

The Wurtz avocado tree produces fruit from May to September each year. The avocados don’t ripen on the tree, so they’ll be hard when you pick them. However, if you’re patient for just a few weeks, they should be delicious and ready to eat. If you don’t want to wait that long, learn how to ripen your avocados even faster.

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Some Final Notes on the Wurzt Avocado Tree

All in all, if you’re looking to grow an avocado tree from home, the Wurtz avocado tree is the tree for you. It produces lots of great-tasting fruit relatively quickly and on a small frame. Furthermore, the Wurtz has many fans who love it, declaring it to be among the finest tasting avocados.

Excited for more avocado content? Then check out my avocado page for more growing tips, info guides, and great recipes!