Father of 2 California crops had date with destiny

• Published in: Redlands daily facts
• Main Author: Siskin, Joshua
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Redlands, Calif Los Angeles Newspaper Group 04.09.2015
• Subjects: Popenoe, Frederick; Vitale, Jim

I have not mentioned the name of Frederick Oliver Popenoe in this column up until now but, thanks to Jim Vitale of Altadena, I recently learned much about Popenoe's horticultural feats and feel compelled to share his story. Popenoe grafted the budwood from these superior Mexican varieties onto ordinary avocado seedlings. Then, during the winter of 1913, the baby avocado trees that grew from those grafts were exposed to a hard freeze. They were the only avocado trees in Popenoe's nursery to survive the freeze, and they all came from a single mother tree, which was henceforth named Fuerte. It was a variety that would soon be planted to large acreages and become the mainstay of California avocado production for years to come. Jim Vitale, who resides in Popenoe's former Altadena home, emailed me after reading a column where I mentioned that I had never heard of an avocado tree in Southern California that lived longer than 76 years. The tree I cited was the original Hass avocado tree in Le Habra Heights that lived from 1926 to 2002. Vitale made me adjust my thinking on this subject since he has two avocado trees, a Fuerte and a specimen from El Salvador which, planted by Frederick Popenoe himself, are more than 100 years old. The Fuerte, which is somewhat protected from the sun, still produces fruit all year long.