How to harvest avocado fruit

Growing an avocado tree is a labor of love. First, you have to root a seed, then care for your tree and watch it grow. You may care for your tree for up to 10 years before you see your first blooms. With proper pollination, once your tree starts blooming, it may begin to grow fruit. As you build excitement over the season, witnessing your tree finally produce its first fruit, you may begin to panic: how do you know when to pick an avocado? After years of waiting, the last thing you want to do is pick your avocados off the tree at the wrong time and risk ruining the superfruit. It’s time to enjoy the literal fruit of your labor, so when do you pick avocados off the tree?

The Life Cycle Of An Avocado

Before we talk about when to pick an avocado, let’s first briefly discuss how the fruit comes about in the first place. Once you root an avocado and place it in a warm, sunny location to grow, you’ve just begun your journey towards developing your own avocado fruit at home. Depending on what kind of avocado tree you grow, your plant may not reach flowering age for 10 to 15 years. To cut down on this time to maturity, consider grafting mature branches onto your young tree.

Use an Avoseedo to root your own avocado pit.

Avocado flowers are what’s called “complete,” meaning they have both male and female parts. Over two days, the flowers open as female and male separately. This fact means that an avocado tree is capable of pollinating itself to produce fruit. Most of the flowers eventually drop away from the tree, but the ones that are successfully pollinated can produce fruit. Once you witness your tree begin to produce fruit, they will continue to do so yearly, usually starting around April. When cared for properly, avocado trees can live for decades. The oldest tree still around today resides on the Berkley campus of the University of California and was planted in 1879.

When To Pick an Avocado

Now that we understand a little of what goes into producing an avocado, now we answer the essential question: when do we pick them? Some fruits grow larger and better the longer we leave them on their mother plant. Others reach their peak during a particular season and become less flavorful if we fail to pick them. So in which camp does the avocado lie? Technically, neither.

Leaving Avocados On the Tree

Though avocados mature on their parent tree, they do not ripen. Avocados must be removed from the tree to start the ripening process. Even once the fruit reaches maturity, producers leave many varieties on the tree as a form of storage until they are ready to harvest the superfruit. The most popular commercial type there is, Hass avocados, can “store” on the tree for up to 8 months! As the fruit matures on the tree, they often lose some of their bloom, meaning their color may fade, become less shiny, and they may develop rust-colored spots on the skin. Inside the superfruits, the seedcoat turns from white to dark brown.

Time To Ripen

The time between when avocados are picked and when they are perfectly ripe to eat is called the “softening” time. The softening process takes between just a few days and up to a week, depending on environmental factors like variety, climate, and storage temperature.

So, How Do You Know When To Pick An Avocado?

The best way to determine if the avocados on your tree are done growing is to pick one of the largest ones and allow it to soften at room temperature for a few days. If the fruit softens to a good consistency, is not tough or leathery, doesn’t shrivel up, and doesn’t taste bitter, then it’s good to eat! Great news: that means the rest of the avocados on the tree are ready to eat as well! If you aren’t prepared to eat your avocados, the best place to store them is on the tree. Remember, as soon as you pick the fruits, they start to ripen.

Maturity Season of Common Avocado Varieties

Avocados are fine salad fruit from the tropics to Mexico and Central America. Many home gardeners find it difficult to determine when avocados from their backyard trees are ready to pick and use. Different varieties of avocados mature throughout the year, but each variety matures at approximately the same time of each year. The Bacon in December, Hass in April, and the Reed in July. Climatic factors may cause variations of 1 to 3 weeks. The storage life of fruit on the tree will vary from 2 months for Bacon to 8 months for Hass.

Avocados are mature before picking, but not ready to eat. They must be softened off the tree. The softening process takes from a few days to a week, depending upon the degree of maturity, storage temperature and variety.

When the fruit on the tree begins to mature, it usually loses some of its "bloom" and changes color. Small, rusty brown specks may develop on some varieties and other fruit may become somewhat duller in appearance. Internally, the seed coat turns from ivory to dark brown upon maturity.

To determine fruit maturity, pick one of the larger fruits and keep it at room temperature until it softens. It is mature if it softens to good consistency, is not tough and leathery or bitter, does not shrink or shrivel, and is good to eat. The remaining fruit can then be picked from the tree as needed, allowing for softening time.

In some years, a crop of "off bloom" fruit may set prior to the regular crop. These generally will be larger and more advanced in maturity than the regular crop and will be ready to pick and use at an earlier date.

The best place to keep fruit until used is on the tree. Some avocado varieties hold their fruit satisfactorily for several months, others for only a relatively short time. This is a varietal and seasonal characteristic. The best place to store the fruit is on the tree. Picking only a few fruit at a time when needed may extend the harvest period many months.

Fruit refrigerated below ordinary temperatures may not soften properly. After the fruit has softened, it can be held in the refrigerator for a few more days.

Methods to test for readiness

To determine when fruit is soft enough to eat, hold the fruit in the palm of the hand and gently squeeze with all fingers. If the flesh gives with slight pressure, it is ready to use. Do not press fruit with the thumb. This results in discoloration and bruised spots and is the cause of much fruit being destroyed in the markets.

With some of the thicker skinned or hard-shelled types, softness may not be easily determined. Remove the button at the stem and insert a toothpick into the opening. If the meat is soft, the fruit is ready to eat.

The seasons indicated in the table are the approximate months of maturity. Seasonal, climatic effects and the district in which the tree is growing result in variation. Varieties not listed and seedlings vary greatly not only in fruitfulness, quality, and type but time of maturity as well. Maturity dates can be established by the suggested tests.

Fruit in commercial orchards is tested by determining the oil content at previously determined picking dates. Minimum standards for oil content have been set by the industry to assure high quality fruit on the market.