We're really stoked that our avocado trees are now producing only 2 years after planting. We have 8 varieties (of which only 3 are yet producing). These 3 are Esther (heaps of fruit), McEldowney (heaps of fruit) and Pinkerton (1 lone avocado). I'm having great trouble finding what sizes these fruit should be in order to pick them. Any ideas please? Thanks
mojo49,
Apr 15, 6:18pm
It is about maturity, not size.The longer you can leave them on the tree, the higher the oil content will get and the better they will taste. We are eating Hass that are falling off the trees now having set in Nov-16 and they are fantastic, but no good for export as they will not keep. Better to read up on when each variety is considered " fully ripe." If you pick them too early they will have very little flavour and could well rot before they ripen. Interesting that you can get them to grow where you are. Make sure you keep them warm overnight when they flower. They need an overnight low of no less than 10 deg C to set fruit and a daytime high of 17 deg.
budgel,
Apr 15, 8:58pm
I found that on my Fuerte if you lightly held the fruit, it would come off in your hand if it was ripe.
harm_less,
Apr 16, 8:52am
Interesting to see some lesser know avocado varieties being grown. With 8 varieties you probably have the potential to be able to pick over the whole year if they all produce in your situation. I would expect you to have similar climatic conditions as South Kaipara where friends of mine have had successful commercial organic avo orchards for many years. Seasonality seems to be somewhere between Northland and Bay of Plenty as they often start picking Hass as early as June.
And also, give them as LITTLE water as possible - more water does make the fruit grow far quicker but equally makes the fruit tastless. We have a 50+yr old tree and it's producing a moderate amount of incredibly high quality fruit. If you're selling them then pur the water on. If they are for own use, then don't.
happyrats,
Apr 16, 2:44pm
Thanks so much for all this info :-)
Mojo, good to learn about the oil content with leaving them longer. We went to a lot of effort to ensure we could grow them here because we get some nasty frosts. We made a special structure for them with a frost cloth and wind cloth roof, and frost and wind cloth curtains.
Budgel - do you find that method works for other varieties too or just the Feurte?
Harmless - thanks for the great link re Esther. It's producing really well but I was a bit sad to read from your link that it doesn't appear to be particularly appealing! Re the Pinkerton, I see Laurie Meadows mentions the need to ensure good pollination. Well we only got one lone Pinkerton avo but we have now installed a solitary bee house alongside the avos so that should help next season :-)
Tegretol - Thanks for the water info. We've tried to regulate this by having them on a slope and hopefully that will do the trick. I guess we'll know in a couple of weeks when we cut into our first picked avos, as to whether they have good flavour or not.
Thanks again everyone for your great info and advice.
harm_less,
Apr 16, 7:03pm
Don't be too concerned about type A/B pollination which is applicable to the likes of California, Israel or South Africa but under NZ's highly variable weather conditions flowering on individual cultivars can have both male and female flowering present simultaneously in an orchard, or even in the same single tree. The A/B avo types are inverse to one another in terms of flowering habit so act as pollenizers to one another in stable climates.
The real risk that you have with 'overwatering' avocados is in promoting phytophthora root rot which thrives in waterlogged anaerobic soil conditions. This disease is best countered by applying heaps of mulch under the tree to aid aerobic soil conditions for the crucial surface feeder roots and avoiding disturbance of the under-tree area with machinery such as tractors, mowers or self-propelled pickers. Overwatering is not going to directly affect fruit quality. Avocados originate from the rain forests of Central America so can cope with plenty of water, so long as they don't have prolonged 'wet feet'. Tasteless fruit is usually the result of early season picking (for export market opportunities) of fruit that has barely reached maturity, and we see the reject fruit of those picks in our supermarkets in a couple of month's time.
happyrats,
Apr 16, 7:21pm
Hey Harmless, you're full of great info :-) Do you grow avos commercially a the moment? With regard to picking too early, for our first ever pick (2 days ago) I think our McEldowney will be okay but have no doubt I've picked Esther and the lone Pinkerton far too early. Just an experiment at this stage though so no biggie :-) We'll learn from this for future crops.
Our avo trees are in a 3x3m box on a slope so are not subject to mowing etc. and seem fine with regard to wet feet. We've filled the box around the trees with bark/wood chips. Also we've planted the avos into built-up mounds.
Do you mind if I bother you with another couple of questions, if you have time?
Given that it's still early days for us, i.e. only planted 2 years ago - Should we be concerned that on the Pinkerton we had only one fruit? Also the Zutano had heaps of flowers but no fruit.
Thanks again :-)
harm_less,
Apr 16, 8:31pm
Hi happyrats, Had a 5ha orchard years ago but just 4 trees (2 Hass, 2 Reed) for our own consumption now.
Box idea is good I think. During the active growing season in late spring try moving a bit of the mulch with your hands and see what root activity is like. You should be seeing white feeder roots in amongst the mulch. If so you're doing things right.
Pinkerton may just be due to it being a young tree. The crop on your Esther is great in this regard.
The Zutano not cropping is more likely to be due to its flowering period being early in the season. As somebody earlier said you need warm nighttime temps for successful fruitset. It takes a couple of days for the pollen tube to reach the ovary and fruit to set. If temp drops much below 12 degrees during this process the flowers will just abort = no fruit. And cold following fruitset can cause fruitlet drop.
We had a couple of Zutano in the BOP and we sold all the fruit to a nurseryman to sprout for rootstocks. Zutano fruit is watery and not worth eating in my opinion.
happyrats,
Apr 17, 11:33am
Hi Harmless, interesting about the Zutano. We really got this one because we figured that if none of the others could cope with our climate, at least the Zutano should - being able to cope with colder temps. Needn't have worried though as all the trees are flourishing. We may consider replacing the Zutano with a tastier variety :-) Thanks again for your advice.
artemis,
May 14, 6:22pm
I have a Reed, in Wellington. Beautiful fruit but takes a bit of getting used to whether it is ripe or not. Found that first pick end of April is about right, and found that it is best to cut them with a stem. When the stem loosens and the seed rattles a bit it is ready to eat.
Mine are the size of tennis balls, but have had them in Hawkes Bay twice the size.
Any further advice much appreciated harm_less.
the-lada-dude,
May 15, 12:11pm
Are you adding extra nitrogen to the mulch under the trees ?
artemis,
May 17, 6:26pm
No, will do though. Thanks.
harm_less,
May 18, 10:54am
Reed are a great variety and well suited to areas with marginal spring warmth for pollination due to their later flowering (Nov-Dec in BOP for us). Our trees were 20+ years old so well mature and our record fruit size was a 750g monster.
Avocados should always be harvested by cutting with a long stem, followed by trimming back to a 'button'. This way the button keeps the fruit sealed preventing stem end rot as it ripens. Also trimming away any protruding stem minimises the risk of fruit damage from stems puncturing other fruit while in storage or transport.
Judge ripeness by flicking out a button and pushing a toothpick into the exposed flesh. If it easily goes into the pit then you're good to go. In terms of fruit maturity on the tree Reed have a habit of dropping fruit once the tree decides that all is done, a couple of months into their season. That happened in June for us if we didn't pick quickly enough.
In a domestic situation there should be little need for nitrogen application so long as a generous mulch is maintained out to the drip line. If anything just a bucket or so (for a 10 year old tree) of chicken manure is more than enough but keep it on the mulch as the tender feeder roots in and under the mulch can easily be damaged by contact with harsh fertilisers.
Excess N in avocados will result in generous vegetative growth at the expense of flower/fruit and faster overall growth which may not impress your neighbours, particularly those being shaded as the tree size increase. Excess N can also generate sucking insect problems such as scale.
steptoesnr,
Nov 6, 10:57am
McEldowney very often spoils just before maturity but the tree's are vigorous and appear to be phytophera resistant so a suggestion would be to graft another variety on to it then when established prune off the unwanted vegetation. Cheers.
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