Avocado Recommendations...And Why Hass Isn't On The List
I love avocados! Before the big move, I could go out and pick avocados off my trees almost year round. I can't describe how much I miss that. The second and third trees I put in the new garden were avocados. It is so hard to wait...
People ask me about tree, plant, and veggie selections every single day. I am honored to be considered an authority, and believe me, I don't take that trust placed in me lightly. When I give recommendations, I feel a great responsibility. Based on my suggestion, a person is going to spend hard earned money, and will invest: planting labor, water, planting space and time.
Let me pull back the curtain, and reveal my #1 rule for making fruit and vegetable choices in the orchard and garden. Plant what is not readily and inexpensively available from your local market! It is such a simple idea, but in actuality quite profound. I will repeat: Plant what is not readily and inexpensively available from your local market.
If you follow this overarching rule, I think it will transform your plant choices.
Let's flesh this idea out a little. I do not plant onions in my garden. Never. No, never. Why? Onions are cheap, they are easily available, they are available in many forms, onions generally taste the same whether grown at home or purchased at the market. If you have three acres, you have the luxury of lots of space (though perhaps limited and expensive water). If you have but a single 4x8 raised planter, there isn't a chance in the world I am telling you to plant onions. Are you kidding?
I think folks have such a dreadfully tough time narrowing their plant choices. If you were to ask me the number one gardening sin it would be...Hang on let me put on the priest collar, let me get into the confessional. Father John is ready to hear your confession. What is the number one gardening sin? Hmmmm, I see this one all the time. Almost everyone commits it, I too am very, very guilty of this gardening sin. OVERCROWDING!
I sometimes see in a 4x8 raised bed: 4-6 tomatoes, a squash plant or two, green beans, some peppers, oh and maybe some corn. They all look soooooooooo cute in those little color packs. In a month or so, it's call me Bwana, as I hack through the jungle with a machete looking for your little tomatoes.
I commit this sin over and over, and I have been at this for over forty years. "Hi, I'm John, and I am a habitual over-planting gardener." "Hi, John, welcome to the group, so are we."
You know why breaking this habit is so hard? We want it all, we have high expectations, and we have limited space.
Hmmmm, back to avocados. You want avocados. You have limited space...maybe room for one. Stop right now. If you have room for one, go buy them; you really need two. O.k. then, it's two avocados going in to your lovely garden. Which varieties should you plant? Hass seems like a good choice; it is in every market nearly all the time, they seem to be the only variety the big box stores usually carry, and it is the one all the commercial growers cultivate. Bad reasoning on several levels.
Remember farmer John's #1 rule? Oh how quickly we forget. If it is readily and inexpensively available at the market, why grow it at home in your incredibly precious cultivable space? Grow what you can not buy at the market. Grow things that are very expensive, grow things that are very rare, grow things that when grown at home, and allowed to reach their pinnacle of flavor by fully maturing, are outrageously and scrumptiously better for it.
Hass avocados compose 95% of the entire avocado population in the state of California. Is it rare? Hardly. Is it readily and inexpensively available at the market? Yes. Is it a lot better as a variety if I grow it at home? No. Is it the tastiest avocado I can obtain? No. Don't get me wrong. I am not going to turn down any offer of free Hass avocados...ever. I will gladly take them off your hands, and I will enjoy them. But here is the deal...you can do better, lots better.
Then why, oh why, is the Hass so wildly popular? Hass has several traits that make it a superior choice for commercial growers; but remember, commercial growers have totally different needs than you do. Why is Hass popular with growers?
1) It has a short time frame from pollination to pickable fruit (as short as 6-8 months).
2) It has an exceptionally long hang time, and lengthy, expandable harvest. Commercially, harvest can begin in January and end in October; almost year round harvest. Avocados do not ripen on the tree! This means the fruit can be "stored" on the tree, and harvest staggered, allowing the farmer a steady and regular income.
3) The fruits are relatively small for an avocado. This makes it easier to sell multiples, and smaller fruit is more popular with consumers. Lighter weight per unit makes it easier to ship and handle.
4) Hass is very productive, producing high yields.
5) Thick bumpy skin allows for easy shipping.
6) Relatively tolerant of low temperatures.
I've given you the positives, at least from the commercial grower's perspective. What are the negatives about Hass?
1) It is very widely grown. I have a two word response to its huge popularity: BEWARE MONOCLUTURE! Remember Hass composes 95% of all the state's avocados. When so much acreage is devoted to the cultivation of a single variety, there is a tremendous risk of a pest or pathogen wiping out the entire population. Our society is frequently propounding the merits of diversity, except in agriculture.
2) Hass fruit is small. For a commercial grower, that is an advantage; it isn't for me! I will be very happy to have the huge fruits of Reed, Fuerte, or Holiday.
3) The small fruits of Hass get even smaller as the tree ages. Have you seen the bags of avos, 20 for $5.00? Those are often those tiny Hass fruit shrinking as they age.
4) Hass has low resistance to phytophthera. The "parent" Hass tree (1926-2002) itself finally died of phyophthera in La Habra Heights in the year 2002, despite noble and extraordinary efforts to save this historically significant tree.
5) Hass frequently has those nasty brown "strings" running through the fruit.
6) Some people find Hass to have a gamey, musky taste to it occasionally.
7) Here is the biggest drawback. It just isn't as rich, nutty, or buttery tasting as some other superior varieties.
What are those varieties you ask? Next time, next time.
People ask me about tree, plant, and veggie selections every single day. I am honored to be considered an authority, and believe me, I don't take that trust placed in me lightly. When I give recommendations, I feel a great responsibility. Based on my suggestion, a person is going to spend hard earned money, and will invest: planting labor, water, planting space and time.
Let me pull back the curtain, and reveal my #1 rule for making fruit and vegetable choices in the orchard and garden. Plant what is not readily and inexpensively available from your local market! It is such a simple idea, but in actuality quite profound. I will repeat: Plant what is not readily and inexpensively available from your local market.
If you follow this overarching rule, I think it will transform your plant choices.
Let's flesh this idea out a little. I do not plant onions in my garden. Never. No, never. Why? Onions are cheap, they are easily available, they are available in many forms, onions generally taste the same whether grown at home or purchased at the market. If you have three acres, you have the luxury of lots of space (though perhaps limited and expensive water). If you have but a single 4x8 raised planter, there isn't a chance in the world I am telling you to plant onions. Are you kidding?
I think folks have such a dreadfully tough time narrowing their plant choices. If you were to ask me the number one gardening sin it would be...Hang on let me put on the priest collar, let me get into the confessional. Father John is ready to hear your confession. What is the number one gardening sin? Hmmmm, I see this one all the time. Almost everyone commits it, I too am very, very guilty of this gardening sin. OVERCROWDING!
I sometimes see in a 4x8 raised bed: 4-6 tomatoes, a squash plant or two, green beans, some peppers, oh and maybe some corn. They all look soooooooooo cute in those little color packs. In a month or so, it's call me Bwana, as I hack through the jungle with a machete looking for your little tomatoes.
I commit this sin over and over, and I have been at this for over forty years. "Hi, I'm John, and I am a habitual over-planting gardener." "Hi, John, welcome to the group, so are we."
You know why breaking this habit is so hard? We want it all, we have high expectations, and we have limited space.
Hmmmm, back to avocados. You want avocados. You have limited space...maybe room for one. Stop right now. If you have room for one, go buy them; you really need two. O.k. then, it's two avocados going in to your lovely garden. Which varieties should you plant? Hass seems like a good choice; it is in every market nearly all the time, they seem to be the only variety the big box stores usually carry, and it is the one all the commercial growers cultivate. Bad reasoning on several levels.
Remember farmer John's #1 rule? Oh how quickly we forget. If it is readily and inexpensively available at the market, why grow it at home in your incredibly precious cultivable space? Grow what you can not buy at the market. Grow things that are very expensive, grow things that are very rare, grow things that when grown at home, and allowed to reach their pinnacle of flavor by fully maturing, are outrageously and scrumptiously better for it.
Hass avocados compose 95% of the entire avocado population in the state of California. Is it rare? Hardly. Is it readily and inexpensively available at the market? Yes. Is it a lot better as a variety if I grow it at home? No. Is it the tastiest avocado I can obtain? No. Don't get me wrong. I am not going to turn down any offer of free Hass avocados...ever. I will gladly take them off your hands, and I will enjoy them. But here is the deal...you can do better, lots better.
Then why, oh why, is the Hass so wildly popular? Hass has several traits that make it a superior choice for commercial growers; but remember, commercial growers have totally different needs than you do. Why is Hass popular with growers?
1) It has a short time frame from pollination to pickable fruit (as short as 6-8 months).
2) It has an exceptionally long hang time, and lengthy, expandable harvest. Commercially, harvest can begin in January and end in October; almost year round harvest. Avocados do not ripen on the tree! This means the fruit can be "stored" on the tree, and harvest staggered, allowing the farmer a steady and regular income.
3) The fruits are relatively small for an avocado. This makes it easier to sell multiples, and smaller fruit is more popular with consumers. Lighter weight per unit makes it easier to ship and handle.
4) Hass is very productive, producing high yields.
5) Thick bumpy skin allows for easy shipping.
6) Relatively tolerant of low temperatures.
I've given you the positives, at least from the commercial grower's perspective. What are the negatives about Hass?
1) It is very widely grown. I have a two word response to its huge popularity: BEWARE MONOCLUTURE! Remember Hass composes 95% of all the state's avocados. When so much acreage is devoted to the cultivation of a single variety, there is a tremendous risk of a pest or pathogen wiping out the entire population. Our society is frequently propounding the merits of diversity, except in agriculture.
2) Hass fruit is small. For a commercial grower, that is an advantage; it isn't for me! I will be very happy to have the huge fruits of Reed, Fuerte, or Holiday.
3) The small fruits of Hass get even smaller as the tree ages. Have you seen the bags of avos, 20 for $5.00? Those are often those tiny Hass fruit shrinking as they age.
4) Hass has low resistance to phytophthera. The "parent" Hass tree (1926-2002) itself finally died of phyophthera in La Habra Heights in the year 2002, despite noble and extraordinary efforts to save this historically significant tree.
5) Hass frequently has those nasty brown "strings" running through the fruit.
6) Some people find Hass to have a gamey, musky taste to it occasionally.
7) Here is the biggest drawback. It just isn't as rich, nutty, or buttery tasting as some other superior varieties.
What are those varieties you ask? Next time, next time.
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