Harvesting avocados

[allensylves]

Here is a link to an interesting article on harvesting avocados by Ken Love from Kona on Hawaii247:

http://www.hawaii247.com/2008/12/01/love...-avocados/

Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP

[Menehune]

Very good Information!
Mahalo!

Time will tell - I'm listening?
Time will tell - I'm speaking?

[Kelena]

Thanks Allen,

That guy, Ken Love, who I think is over in Captain Cook, Kona side, is a champion of local produce. He is doing great work.

[Hotzcatz]

We just let them fall to the ground, throw the broken ones to the chickens and eat the rest or give them to our friends. The avo by the newspaper box is real handy. Get the newspaper and pick up a couple of avos. If we were going to be selling them, though, then I'd pick them with a picker. Usually ripe ones will come off with a tiny tug. If it takes more than that to get them off the tree they aren't ready yet. But that's just me.

---

"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[Devany]

Ken Love was featured in an article on Avocados in the Hawiian Airlines in flight magazine, October I think. When we were placing our fruit tree order at Plant it Hawaii, we bought some Avocado trees for our new house. The owner of the nursery had differing opinons on the best Avos for our area. She had seen the article too. His work is certainly beneficial to the consumer and especially to educating grocers. It never fails to amaze me when I am in a grocery store in and see so many imported produce items, when the local fruits and veggies are fresher, less expensive and far more abundant.

After reading Ken's article, I started looking for different varieties of avocados at various farmer's markets. One day I bought five different kinds at Waimea Farmer's Market. None of the people I bought them from knew the variety they were selling, they just assured me that they were good. And all were delicious. They were differing shapes and sizes, one the size of grapefruits had the most amazing buttery taste and was very smooth.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com

[mella l]

I also read the article and the links to Hawaii Edu links. Interestingly enough I'm still wondering how to harvest, when to harvest, which to plant to have a year round crop production. I think to harvest you need to cut each individual fruit leaving a stub of a stem, but I could be wrong. It would be hard to do this in a tall tree.

The info on seasons of fruiting should be available, ala Sunset garden books, for the area of Hawaii.

Read not long ago about self pollinating avocados from Mexico that were ever bearing also. Life and times of gardens, so interesting!

mella l

[Devany]

My Uncle had an Avocado farm in S. CA. I think that they snipped the Avocados close to the stem, leaving just a tiny nub. They were picked about a week before they were ripe, because ripe avocados bruise easily and they will continue to ripen after being picked. They picked from ladders back then. Why don't you contact Mr. Love and see what he has to say about the best plants for your area, according to him there are something like 100 varieties growing in Hawaii. The ones we bought do not need polinators. According to Mr. Love people brought them to Hawaii from all over the world and because our climate is so ideal they have flourished and cross polinated making new varieties. I also know that in CA it takes from 7-10 years for a tree to start producing where as in Hawaii they usually start producing in 3-5 years.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com