Judging the Ripening of Avocados?

[1voyager1]

I was out trimming dead leaves off the banana trees when I noticed that the Sharwil is beginning new growth.
A closer look and it seems that blossom growth is beginning.
I had not expected it to start this early.
The other two avo trees have not begun anything yet.

The Sharwil did bloom earlier than the other two last year giving me concerns about pollination.
The Sharwil and the Ota are "B" types while the Lamb-Hass is an "A" type.
The Sharwil was almost finished blooming when the other two finally began opening blossoms.
They do not seem to be synced very well.

The next round of figuring out their ripening is beginning.
Acording to my "contract", I should get more fruit to work with on it this year.

[1voyager1]

Wow, things are beginning to move.
Not only is the Sharwil getting ready to bloom , yesterday the Lamb-Hass has dropped its first fruit. The one that I have been feeling to judge its ripening.
It was the first to set ahead of the other fruit on that tree by a few weeks.
I would assume that it has ripened a few to several weeks ahead of the balance of the fruit on that tree.
It is a dark purplish to blackish color.

It is still quite firm, but I can detect a slight softening of the fruit just under the skin.
Two to three days or more before it is truly ready for eating.
Looking forward to trying it out.

[1voyager1]

OK, got the Lamb-Hass figured out now.

It has been complicated by the spring crop of young rats climbing the tree and eating the fruit.
The 2 cats we got for rat control are almost useless.
They are very good ratters.
But, M'Lady feeds them too much, too often.
They see the rats as toys, not food.
They catch a lot of them.
But, bring them into the house to play with.
Had to trap a rat in the house for the first time a few months ago.
Finally went back to poisoning them to get them back under control again.

The Lamb-Hass do turn black when they ripen.
As they near being completely black with only a small amount of green left on them they can be picked, then allowed to finish ripening on the counter.

The tree has set the new fruit for the next season's crop while still ripening the old crop of avos, big ones ripening with little ones growing all at the same time.

EDIT:
I'm thinking of picking up a Yamagata avo at PIH next weekend.
They ripen through the summer months.
That should give up ripe avos through almost the entire year.
I just don't have a place to put another tree right now.

[bananahead]

sharwil, you have a 3-4 month window to pick, they will be ripe to eat 6-10 days after picked.... easiest of all HI avos...

******************************************************************
save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha

[mella l]

From my 2001 Sunset Western Garden Book, Puna district of Hawaii Island is H2 growing zone and there are several avocados recommended.
All B type flowering avos;
Kahaluu` fall to winter harvest medium to large, green skin, superb flavor a hybrid;
Murashige spring to late summer harvest, med to large pebbly green very good quality, small seed, hybrid heavy producer; Sharwil fall into spring harvest, medium size pebbly green skin excellent flavor, hybrid heavy producer;
Yamagata late spring thru summer harvest, medium to large with pebbly green skin and rich flavor, hybrid heavy producer.

Do you have any updates from last year?

mella l

Art and Science Our Future

bytheSEA

[1voyager1]

@ mella1
Updates on what?
The earliest any avos I have that will be ready is next fall/winter.
it is a wait and see game now.
But, I'm not confident that I'll have much to go on next season.
Between the copious rain this winter/spring, then the SO2, and not seeing but a very few bees around, and not seeing any set fruit still on the Sharwl or the Ota, I don't think it's likely they'll bear next year.
Plus, the Lamb-Hass is dropping the small growing fruit [even faster since the SO2 fog].
It looks as if someone threw a bunch of large black olives around under the tree.
I'm not expecting much in the line of home-grow'd avos next season.
Hopefully I may be surprised.

I think I just missed getting the Longan to flower this last winter/spring.
Somewhere in Jan/Feb/Mar it began a feeble growth spurt that produced a very few leaves.
I was hoping that it might produce flowers, but no.
Right afterwards, much sooner than normal, another growth spurt began and quickly produced many new leaves and limb extension.
I'm thinking that the feeble growth spurt was an attempt to flower.
I'm hoping that next year it will finally bear fruit, if we survive the lava and SO2.
I'm thinking about trying the old "potassium chlorate" trick to induce flowering, even though it is complex to do.