Avocado trees are either type A or B depending on when the male and female flowers are fertile. Ask your friend to contact his county extension office for advice in choosing a mate for his tree. Local advice is more valuable and it is free for the asking. Tell your friend to look in his phone book under County Offices for University of California Cooperative Extension. Al

Avocados are not "same hole" trees like stone fruits. Think of them as the "SUV's of the garden", lol! Even more "compact" avocados are only relatively compact (as opposed to ginormous non-compact avocado varieties). They need their own space. A slope is ideal, as they don't like to sit in standing water, but DO need lots of water, even more than citrus. Backfilling a hole just creates a "bathtub" effect in clay soil. The current line of thinking with trees is NOT to amend the hole, but to top dress with compost and other soil amendments. With clay you would want to plant on a mound to help facilitate drainage. You're going to want to monitor your soil moisture about 18" down to make sure you're not creating a water logged environment. I would try to move the the Reed, but warning - avocados do not at all like their roots disturbed, so this very well may spell the demise of the Reed, as may also upset the Gem. Always leave their fallen leaves underneath as this is something the feeder roots like and actually require. Drip emitters are fine, just make sure they do give a good soaking, and the well should be dug out to at least the drip line (edge of the canopy) where the feeder roots reside, just make sure that you're not creating too wet an environment for them. Drip emitters come in varying gph outputs, so you can get a very large volume of water to a tree with drip emitters. I have two per avocado, and have actually had to dial them down a bit. And your trees are still pretty young to bear fruit, not to worry. It can take up to 5 years for an avocado to become established enough to bear fruit. I have a Lamb Haas that is full of fruit in it's second year with me, which was shocking. All my other avos are still barren. Who suggested to you to plant these two trees in the same hole, anyway? Patty S.

Consider an Improved Meyer lemon for your first lemon tree. They are very forgiving, and also are big producers. You can purchase just about any citrus on dwarfing rootstock, which will help to keep your tree a little smaller, if size is an issue. Pruning can too, but know it will also cause a reduced harvest, at least for a season, maybe two. Avocados tend to be large trees, so consider a smaller, more compact variety, such as Littlecado (Wurtz) or Holiday, unless you have a fairly large area to dedicate to an avocado. If you can purchase in 5 gal containers, you'll get an established tree that will produce next season for you. Avocados do better with a cross-pollinator. They are divided into A and B types, so it can help if you have one of each, unless you have other avocados nearby that can provide cross pollination for you. Both avos and citrus like good drainage and lots of sun, plus a fair amount of wataer - avocados even more so than citrus. A good long watering once a week, or twice a week if the temps soar is the best way to water. No grass underneath your trees, just a nice large well as big around as the tree's drip line, well mulched with compost and bark to retain moisture here in our drier S. Calif. weather, taking care not to pile the compost or mulch around the tree trunk, as that can cause the bark to get too moist and can lead to rot. Also, for your young citrus and avo trees, paint their trunks and exposed branches with plain old flat white latex house paint, diluted in 1/2 with water. NOT oil-based paint, but water-based flat latex paint to protect their tender trunks. This will also protect your trees from boring insects as well. Be sure to protect them from snails and slugs (both of which love to munch on citrus leaves, and will cause extensive damage and introduce other diseases.) If you have an option to plant both on a south-facing slope, you'll make them very happy :-) You'll want to check your soil drainage first, before planting. Dig a hole twice as wide as the tree root ball, and as deep as the top of the root ball. Fill the hole with water. If it drains in 24 hours, you've got enough drainage to plant both. If not, you may need to plant your trees so that the top of the root ball is a couple of inches above the soil level (if you're in clay). You can also top with worm castings with the compost. Both help to acidify our somewhat alkaline soil, which helps both trees take up micronutrients better. Your avocado will drop its leaves, but it is very important to leave them under the tree as mulch. Avos do NOT like their roots disturbed, so when you plant your avocado, take care to very carefully plant it without disturbing the root ball. Don't lift it by the trunk. Turn it on its side to loosen it up from the pot, and gently slide the pot off. Then, carefully place it in the hole. Backfill with your native soil. Then top dress with the worm castings and compost, then top with bark mulch. Be sure to create a nice big well so the water will collect in a ring around the drip line of the tree, and soak down to the feeder roots. Fertilize your new trees every 2 months with a good citrus/avocado fertilizer. Citrus like as close to a 5:1:3 NPK ratio. Avos are a little more forgiving. If you see aphids, just blast them off with a forceful water spray. Put out ant bait to keep the ants out of the tree and from farming the aphids. It's better to plant in the fall when temps are lower, or in early spring. Summers here are really awfully hot to be planting young trees. You can chance it, but I'd suggest providing temporary shade, and a LOT of water. And, there are so many good books out there. Here are just a few: The Sunset Western Garden Book - this is THE essential gardening book for anyone living in California Sunset Western Garden Book of Edibles Growing Citrus: The Essential Gardener's Guide Citrus: Complete Guide to Selecting & Growing More Than 100 Varieties for California, Arizona Texas, the Gulf Coast and Florida The Biology of Citrus by Pinhas Spiegel-Roy& Eliezer E. Goldschmidt The University of California Agricultural & Natural Resources (UC ANR) has a number of very good articles & books as well, here's their web site: http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/ And, UC Davis has a great California Backyard Orchard web site. I've included the main link, but here are links for avocados and for citrus: http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/Fruits_&Nuts/Avocado/ http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/Fruits&_Nuts/Citrus/ Lastly, you might want to consider joining your local California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) group in your area. They have a very well organized organization, and there are some real experts that belong to the group who can mentor and assist you in learning how to grow fruit trees in California. Their main web site is: http://www.crfg.org/ Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: UC Davis: The California Backyard Orchard

I've had only a few avocado, the Florida type many seem to not like, but I like them a lot. I'm no expert by any stretch and not familiar with problems as mine have all been trouble free. Anyway, re-potting has shocked mine, but ultimately they like being in the ground. Leaf drop NEVER happened to me when they were in the soil. You didn't mention watering but I never watered mine excessively till they fruit then they like a bit more water but too much has caused fruit drop. Your tree is pretty big, I'd think cutting the top would force branching. I ALWAYS cut my trees a bit high because I'd rather walk under than around them.