by Greg Alder | Apr 20, 2018 | Avocados | 61 comments
It was 95 years ago that J. Eliot Coit, who would later be called the father of the avocado industry, wrotethe article“How to make the avocado tree bear.”In other words, we’ve always wished avocado trees gave us more fruit.
One way to encourage production is to be the bee. Avocado flowers are mostly pollinated by bees, but there’s nothing stopping us from using our hands and joining their pollen transfer party.
How can we hand pollinate avocado flowers? I’ve played with this for many years, but during this bloom season I’ve spent more time at it and learned better methods.
Method one: Direct Contact
The essence of hand pollinating avocado flowers is simple: Put pollen on stigma. And the simplest method to achieve thisis to take a male flower and touch it to a female flower. The male flower has the pollen and the female flower has the stigma. Scroll up to see the top photo again. That is what I’m doing there.I’m holding male flowers and I’m touching them to stigmas (which look like little upright sticks) of female flowers.
Or here is a close-up:
How do you know if an avocado flower is male or female? The female has a stigma standing tall and alone in the center of the flower while the male has many parts standing up, those parts being the anthers which release pollen.
To be specific, what you must do is use a male flower that is dehiscent, meaning the ends of its male parts (anthers) look tattered because they are releasing pollen. Male flowers are not dehiscent right when they open up; they start to release pollen after they’ve already been open for a little while. So pay attention to this characteristic.
Then you lightly touch the male flower to the female’s stigma — lightly because you don’t want to damage this delicate part. This will leave pollen grains on the stigma and — Voila! — we have pollination.
Avocado flower basics
Before I go on to the second method of hand pollination, let me back up for a second and note that there actually aren’t male and female avocado flowers. All avocado flowers are the same in that they have both male and female parts. They open two times. On the first day they open and act like a female and then they close only to reopen the next day and act like a male. Strange indeed.
But as a shorthand, I’m going to continue talking of male and female flowers rather than saying something like “functionally male flowers.”
Please read more about the antics of the avocado flower in this article by Bob Bergh appropriately titled, “The Remarkable Avocado Flower.”
My son pollinates his Fuerte avocado tree with male flowers from a Lamb.
Applying the direct contact method
This direct contact method was found to be the most effective in a study of different hand-pollination methods on avocado flowers titled,“Optimization of controlled pollination in avocado” by M.L. Alcaraz and J.I. Hormaza.
It is also a convenient method to use if you have both an A- and B-type avocado tree. You can collect male flowers from a B type in the morning to use immediately on an A type (which is female in the morning). Or you can collect male flowers from an A type in the evening to use on the females of a B type.
Avocados are classified “A” or “B” according to the times of day they act like males or females. Some common A types: Hass, Reed, Pinkerton. Some common B types: Fuerte, Bacon, Zutano.
However, if you have only one tree or only trees of one type, then you have two alternatives. One, pick and store male flowers. As long as they’re used within a day, the pollen’s viability is said to only be reduced slightly. Best storage conditions are said to be high humidity (95%) and low temperature (39 degrees F).Think: crisper drawer of refrigerator.(See this article for details on avocado pollen storage and viability.)
Or two, visit your tree in the middle of the day when it has both male and female flowers. There is always a window of overlap of an hour or so. For example, in the photo below, my Pinkerton had both male and female flowers at 2:30 PM. That’s about the typical time of day when there’s overlap. But it does vary depending on the weather.
Be aware, of course, that when you remove a male flower you are removing a potential avocado.So this is only something you’d do if you had a large tree that could spare flowers or a tree whose fruit you didn’t particularly adore. Or if your tree produces some flowers right near the ground where you wouldn’t want fruit to grow anyway, then just pluck those off.
In the case of the Fuerte tree that my son is pollinating above, I collected male flowers from my Lamb tree because my Lamb had an “off” year last year and is currently flowering like crazy so I am reasonably sure it will set tons of fruit — more than it can hold until maturity — and won’t miss the handful of flowers I’ve taken.
Method two: Indirect Contact
A slightly less effective method of hand pollinating avocado flowers is to use a tool to gather pollen from male flowers without actually removing the flowers. Many tools can be used, but most people use small paintbrushes. I’ve found that one of my wife’s makeup brushes works well. (Shhhh. She doesn’t know.) I’ve also used a Q-tip.But my favorite is a small stick that I wrap in cobwebs. I just spin the stick in a spidery corner. And when I brush it against a male flower the cobwebs have almost a magnetic attraction to the pollen. It seems to work very well.
Collecting pollen with my cobweb stick.
Anyhow, you brush a male flower to gather some pollen on your tool and then brush the pollen off onto a female’s stigma. Again, do this during the overlap time mid-day, or if you must wait for female flowers to open, then the pollen should still be viable.
Why hand pollinate avocados?
I’m not selling this idea. Hand-pollination of avocados is not a solution for a poorly bearing tree.Farmers don’t go around hand pollinating in their orchards, and Coit did not advise us to hand pollinate back in 1923. But for us home gardeners there are a couple of situations where hand pollinating might be worth the effort.
My Fuerte tree is far from my other avocado trees and so doesn’t benefit from cross-pollination opportunities. The Fuerte variety in particular is known to bear erratically, especially if it doesn’t have an opposite flowering avocado tree nearby. By doing some hand pollinating, I can fill that gap.
If you have a young tree of a variety whose fruit you’ve never tasted, then you may want to hand pollinate in order to get a fruit or two as early as possible.
Avocado fruitlets on Gwen variety. This is what we want to see!
Results of hand pollinating avocados
But don’t have unrealistically high expectations. Avocados on their own are inept at turning flowers into fruit, with a success rate of less than one percent. (See page 33 of Gary Bender’s Avocado Production in California for more on this.) A large avocado tree with a million flowers usually only turns out a couple hundred fruit in one year.
And through hand pollination the success rate only inches up. For example, one experiment found a success rate of between three and eight percent, depending on the variety of pollen used.In other words, out of one hundred female flowers that received hand pollination, only a maximum of eight turned into fruit. (See the study:“Selection of potential pollinizers for ‘Hass’ avocado based on flowering time and male–female overlapping” by M.L. Alcaraz and J.I. Hormaza.)
But it doesn’t take very long to hand pollinate one hundred avocado flowers. It takes maybe ten minutes. And if I get even two Fuerte avocados for ten minutes of handiwork, well, that’s not a terrible wage.
You might also like to read:
Cindy Alderon April 20, 2018 at 10:41 am
Wow! I never knew sensitive avocado trees are!! I will appreciate the fruit much more!!
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Wai Lingon April 23, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Thank you for all the helpful information that you provide on avocados!!! I took your earlier advise on where to get a Kona Sharwil avocado tree. From West LA all the way to Atkins Nursery in Fallbrook!
After reading your article I checked my 4 years old Reed avocado. HAD tons of flowers but they all look dry. Did I underwater? Lost ALL the older leaves and most flowers. Have few new leaves. What happened?Reply
Greg Alderon April 24, 2018 at 12:35 pm
Hi Wai Ling,
Good to hear you got your Sharwil. My guess is that you were seeing the flowers that had finished opening and had not been pollinated. Those ones dry and drop. But do you see any tiny avocados forming too?
Reed avocados flower later than most other varieties. For example, mine has always continued to bloom even into June. So don’t give up hope on fruit set just yet.
Avocados shed many of their older leaves now, at the same time that they flower. They also start growing new leaves about now. It’s their routine.
Check the moisture in the soil where your tree’s roots are just to make sure there is enough.
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Wai Lingon April 24, 2018 at 1:12 pm
Thank you, Greg!!
There are few tiny avocados formed. Hope that it will become mature fruit.
Again, thank you.
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Ron Roussellon January 16, 2024 at 3:52 pm
All very interesting, informative, and considering the potential improvement in yield, I think I’ll pass. A few years ago when I found you and very much appreciated your advice. Which I think I under watered and under fertilized. I live in zone 10 Mission Viejo. I also failed to provide enough water. Last summer I visited our areas community dump. They offer free pickup as much compost as you want. It’s certified clean and non toxic. I get boxes for free at Trader Joe’s about a dozen. Fill to the top and drive home. I applied a 3” layer to my reed and Fuerte and they doubled in volume over the 12 months since the application. I watered more. Our soil is clay based. Both trees this year are loaded with blooms.
Having access to high quality finished compost plus more water has been quite rewarding.
Greg your advice has been excellent over the years. Thank you.Reply
Greg Alderon January 18, 2024 at 7:29 am
Great to hear, Ron. It’s harder to grow avocados in clay compared to a lighter soil so you should pat yourself on the back for the success. Almost everyone has one or two challenges for avocado growing. I have easy (suitable) soil conditions, but I get too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer so my trees suffer from that. I hope you get tons of fruitset on your trees this spring!
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Marlies Calvilloon July 13, 2018 at 10:42 am
Hi neighbor,
I live in Elfin Forest. I have one avocado tree that I planted 21 years ago. (sadly the other avocado trees didn’t make it). It produces huge crops almost every year. I’m wondering if that’s because there is a huge avocado grove a couple miles away? And there are a few wild bee colonies in the hills behind our property.Reply
Greg Alderon July 13, 2018 at 4:08 pm
Hi Marlies,
Is your tree a Hass? The nearby grove could be helping your tree’s fruitfulness with cross pollination, but maybe it’s that you’re getting visited by honey bees from their hives. And I’d also guess that since you’ve got native vegetation all around you that there are plenty of wild, native bees and other flying insects visiting your avocado flowers. Or maybe you’ve got a super tree!
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Richard A Selby Jron April 15, 2022 at 8:17 am
Can flies pollinate an Avocado tree? Due to the cool wether we are having in California I’m seeing a lot of flies hanging out on the dark green leaves. Some of them are crawling through the flowers so I assume they can pollinate other flowers.
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Greg Alderon April 15, 2022 at 3:17 pm
Important question, Richard. I’ve seen no definitive study on the topic, but there are lots of reasons to think flies can pollinate avocado flowers. They certainly visit the flowers, as you’ve seen. And I’m told by one researcher that they’ve found pollen on syrphid flies that were visiting avocados so it seems likely that the flies can transfer the pollen to a female flower too.
Flies probably aren’t as effective at pollinating avocados since they’re not as hairy as bees, generally, so the avocado pollen won’t stick to them as well. But they seem able to do some pollination.
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Bruce Weber.on February 16, 2022 at 12:56 pm
I’m trying to pollinate an indoor avocado with a small brush. I can’t seem to collect any pollen.flowers are opening gradually every day, male in am,female in pm. Is pollen visible? How long are stamens viable? How do I know if they have dehisted?
I’m planning to plant the tree in a greenhouse. I live in the north Willamette Valley just south of Portland. Zone 8. How much heat will it need in the winter?
I bought it from Logee’s catalog. They call the variety “Day” which I’ve never heard of. Any idea what it might be? It’s grafted. Thanks for your very informative website.Reply
Greg Alderon February 16, 2022 at 6:03 pm
Hi Bruce,
Great to hear you’re growing an avocado there. My wife is from Salem, we got married in Eugene, and we have family and friends from there up through Vancouver, Washington. The Willamette Valley is one of my favorite places on Earth.Based on hearing the experiences of other greenhouse growers of avocados in places like central Texas, I would suggest you keep things open during the day while the tree is in bloom so that bees and other pollinators can do the work for you, if that’s possible in your situation.
If you want to hand pollinate, look for the male-phase flower to release its pollen roughly an hour after it opens in the male phase. In other words, the anthers are not dehiscent as soon as the flower opens as male. If you rub a male-phase flower with your finger and it is releasing pollen, it will leave a little yellow residue (pollen grains) on your finger.
As for heat in winter, you’ll want to make sure nights don’t drop below 30, definitely not below about 27 or you’ll certainly get damage, especially while the tree is small.
I know the variety called Day. It comes from Florida and the fruit is tasty, in my opinion.
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Guy Beaulieuon February 3, 2019 at 3:26 pm
Hi, I live in Canada and like to have a few plants in my house, I do have this avocado tree for approx 10 years, this year it decided to produce flower I’m doing the brush pollination, for now, I will try to find some spider web in this septic condo place.
Also, Will do the fridge conservation, for now, would simply like to have one pollinated and making one avocado, that would probably make the local news here and my delight.
If you have info and recommendation I would appreciate them, In the meantime keep fingers cross.Reply
Greg Alderon February 3, 2019 at 4:10 pm
Hi Guy,
Great to hear you’re growing an avocado in Canada! You want to preserve every flower on your tree so the paintbrush method is best for you. Don’t pick off any flowers.
Can bees access the tree? Let them work the flowers as much as possible, especially in the middle of the day when there will be both male and female flowers.
Best of luck! Let me know how it goes.
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Erinon March 18, 2019 at 1:09 pm
Hi Greg –
How far away is your Fuerte from your other trees? Our neighbor has an avocado tree and we are curious as to whether or not it’s too far away to cross-pollinate with ours.
Thanks!
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Greg Alderon March 21, 2019 at 9:02 am
Hi Erin,
My Fuerte is about 100 feet from the nearest avocado tree (a Hass). (Actually, I have newly planted avocado trees closer now, but this has been the case for most of the last five years.)
I’ve read of research finding avocados pollenized by trees up to 250 feet away, but this distance can’t be counted on to make a significant increase in yield. The conclusions from most studies is that there is little effect on yield if the other avocado tree is more than about twenty feet away.
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maryon May 16, 2019 at 8:21 am
My avocado flowers has cobwebs all around it and they also don’t bear fruits. How do I get rid of the cobwebs? Last year the fruits were just very small and did not get bigger, it just fell off the ground. Please help thank you. My tree bear just 3 big fruits 4 years ago then stopped bearing fruits just flowers!
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Greg Alderon May 19, 2019 at 8:33 am
Hi Mary,
It is promising that your tree at least flowers. Do you know which variety this avocado tree is? And where do you live?
You can gather cobwebs easily with a stick or Q-tip.
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Dave Silverbergon June 6, 2019 at 10:18 pm
Hi Greg. I watched a video about spraying diluted honey onto avocado flowers to attract the bees. It seems that bees in my yard prefer the citrus and bottle brush over the avo flowers. Have you had any success with that method? Would love to get your thoughts.
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Greg Alderon June 8, 2019 at 3:48 pm
Hi Dave,
I also usually notice that when the citrus trees are blooming the honey bees are mostly on those trees, not the avocados. Farmers have observed the same, and so they try to place hives within the avocado grove and away from citrus trees, if possible. Luckily, there are other bees and flying insects that can pollinate avocado flowers and don’t have such a preference for citrus blossoms — syrphid flies, for example.
I have tried spraying diluted honey a few times, on both avocado leaves and flowers, but never saw positive results. Mostly, it attracted ants. I saw no increase in bees visiting the avocado flowers.
I’ve also tried the “bee lures” or “bee magnets” that smell like lemongrass that you can hang in a tree, but likewise saw no increase in bees visiting the nearby avocado flowers.
These days, I’m most convinced that the best way to enhance pollination for avocados is having many bees and other flying insects around. You may have seen my latest post related to this: “Growing a Bee Garden.”
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Joan Son July 5, 2019 at 4:20 pm
Hi Greg,
I have 1, cold tolerant, B type avocado tree which has to come into the garage under grow lights in the winter, it’s had flowers the last 2 years but when I’ve tried to collect pollen with a small paintbrush the flowers fall off. What can I do about this problem?
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Greg Alderon July 8, 2019 at 11:22 am
Hi Joan,
Avocado flowers are small and delicate. If you are gentle enough, you should be able to get pollen from a shedding male flower onto a paintbrush. You just barely need to touch the anthers. Still, you’ll inevitably knock some off. I do. Fortunately, as the tree gets bigger it produces more flowers so you can sacrifice some.
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Ebiehon August 17, 2019 at 10:18 am
My avocados tree is about three years inside our compound where we live, it keeps on growing rapidly no flower no seed what can l do sir thanks.
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Greg Alderon August 25, 2019 at 7:54 pm
Hi Ebieh,
If you planted the tree as a seed, then you must be patient. Typically, avocado trees planted from seed take around six years until they flower. Sometimes they do flower after only a couple years, but sometimes they don’t flower until ten years or more.
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Bradon October 21, 2019 at 11:11 am
Greg, Thank you for the great article and the link to the awesome study by M.L. Alcaraz, J.I. Hormaza !
I have two Hass Avocado trees. Since I have two type A trees and the female flowers will be open first in the morning I’m wondering if from your experience you think the following method could be effective for manual pollination.
Rather than taking the whole flower, what if (using tweezers) I removed a few (not all) anthers from bunch of different flowers at the male stage in the morning. Then stored these in a small container in the fridge. Once the female stage of the flower begins later in the day I could use a brush and collect pollen from my jar of anthers to apply to the stigmas now exposed. I could repeat this as desired through the flowering season.
The thought is I don’t want to lose potential fruit by removing whole flowers and still take advantage of the smaller window of self pollination when the flowers change from female to male. That in mind I want to help boost my yields without a “B” tree through some form of manual pollination. Watcha think?
Thanks again for the great read!
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Bradon October 21, 2019 at 12:54 pm
I realize I had my process backwards, with type A I’d be saving anthers from the afternoon to manually pollenate the stigmas the next morning.. dohh haha from what I read in your citestudy it seems like the pollen wouldn’t lose viability if stored properly overnight at least still.
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Greg Alderon October 25, 2019 at 8:40 pm
Hi Brad,
Yes, that apparently can work. I have to tell you though, I’ve been trying hand pollination for about ten years now and the rewards are minimal compared to the effort. I continue to fiddle with it because it’s fun and it helps me learn, but bees are so much more effective at it than me even though they are pollinating incidentally! Just don’t want you to have unrealistic expectations. Best of luck!
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Monty Flanaganon October 23, 2019 at 7:12 pm
I read on one website that pinkertons don’t self polinate. Is that true? I have a B type tree but it’s a couple hundred feet away from the pinkerton. Do you think the bee’s will go that far?
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Greg Alderon October 29, 2019 at 10:50 am
Hi Monty,
I’ve never seen evidence nor heard of the idea that Pinkerton won’t self pollinate although I’ve never seen a Pinkerton tree that is hundreds of yards from another avocado either.
My Pinkerton has set fruit and it has been about 150 feet from the nearest B-type avocado in bloom (Fuerte). However, and this is often overlooked, another A-type avocado can also aid in pollination. Even though the phases of A and B types have many hours of male/female overlap, the phases of different avocado varieties of any flower type have slightly different timing. So two As or two Bs next to each other can increase pollination also. If you have another A-type avocado in your yard, watch the phases this spring and you’ll see that they don’t open and close at the same time.
Bees certainly fly hundreds of feet, but the likelihood of cross pollination goes down the farther two trees are from each other. This has been noticed in formal studies, and if you watch honeybees work an avocado tree you can see it in action. Honeybees mostly visit the flowers of a single tree for a time and then fly home — mostly. (If you have two avocado trees very close to each other, the honeybees act like it’s just one tree.) Native bees and syrphid flies, on the other hand, fly between different trees and flowers on a single flight more often, as far as I’ve observed. So it seems that they have the potential for more cross-pollination than honeybees.
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Erik Rydströmon April 24, 2020 at 12:10 am
Hi Greg,
Thank you so much for your article about manual pollination.
I planted a few Fuerte and Hass trees in Turkey last year. I was told the trees will bear the third year, but to my great surprise about half of the trees produce clusters of flowers. Most of the clusters are quite large. The Fuerte trees are 5-6 feet high but the Hass trees are rather small, 1-2 feet. They are planted 20-23 feet apart.
How many female flowers may I pollinate with one male flower?
How often should i pollinate?Thanks in advance / Erik
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Greg Alderon April 25, 2020 at 3:05 pm
Hi Erik,
I don’t know precisely how many female flowers one male flower will effectively pollinate, but I do know a few things that might help. It was found in one study that a single Fuerte flower carried approximately 4,700 pollen grains whereas a single Hass flower carried about 7,600. See the study here: http://www.avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_39_1955/CAS_1955_PG_184-186.pdf
Also, it has been found that at least 20 pollen grains need to come into contact with the female avocado flower’s stigma to get good fruitset, but the more the better. One study found that over 40 pollen grains deposited was most likely to result in fruitset. (Although technically, you need only a single pollen grain contacting the stigma to have pollination and potential fruitset.) Here is that study: https://www.californiaavocadogrowers.com/sites/default/files/documents/Factors_Influencing_Avocado_Fruit_Set_and_Yield.pdf
You can pollinate once per day on each tree, preferably soon after the female flowers open so you know that the stigma is viable. On Fuerte, that might be around 3 PM, and on Hass that might be around 10 AM, but it all depends on the weather.
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Ockie Davelon August 19, 2020 at 3:44 pm
I received a plant from my grandson a number of years ago.
Pip in a bottle routine. We potted it and to cut a long story short,
the tree is now in the garden, and is about 4 meters tall.
We have no idea what avo it is. It was covered on flowers last year.
Not a single fruit. The tree looks very healthy, and is covered in a lot of strong
leaves and new growth. Oh… We only have the one tree, and no other trees
anywhere. I have a friend with a big tree. Should I attempt to go and pick flowers
off his tree, morning and night, and try to hand pollinate? Any other suggestions?
Regards from far away New Zealand.Reply
Greg Alderon August 23, 2020 at 2:33 pm
Hi Ockie,
My understanding is that in some parts of New Zealand the temperatures during bloom are so cool that avocados with a B-type flower don’t set fruit reliably. This is something to consider. You might observe the tree during its next bloom to learn whether it’s an A or B. More on that here: http://ucavo.ucr.edu/Flowering/RemarkableFlower.html
Hand pollinating might give some success, but it is a lot of work. If your tree is that big and it blooms well, then you should be getting pollination as long as you have some flying insects visiting the flowers — unless, possibly, your tree is a B type and your climate isn’t conducive to that. There are a few other possibilities, but I’d start there.
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Matton August 21, 2020 at 7:55 pm
If you planted an avocado seed and hope to get fruit from your tree, just be patient. You may get some eventually. The surest way to get fruit from an avocado tree is to purchase one that has a known avocado variety grafted onto good root stock. You might get lucky, but chances are if you get fruit they won’t be that great. Hand pollinating likely won’t help. You don’t need another tree around to get fruit.
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Ockie Davelon August 23, 2020 at 4:29 pm
Thank you.
Regards.
Ockie.Reply
Lourdeson September 17, 2020 at 11:02 am
I recently bought Grafted Hass avocado tree. Do I need to get another tree like Fuerte avocado? How can I tell if the avocado tree is Fuerte avocado
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Greg Alderon September 22, 2020 at 6:48 am
Hi Lourdes,
You don’t need to get another avocado tree, like a Fuerte, in order to get fruit from your Hass, if that’s what you’re wondering.
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Alex Kon December 13, 2020 at 11:13 pm
Greg,
Thanks for the multitude of your excellent articles on avocados. They’ve been fantastically helpful. I’m a big fan.
I’m in Encinitas, CA., ~3 mi. from the ocean.
I’ve planted 5 grafted 15 gal. avo trees in a close group. 10 to 15 ft apart.
Haas – 4 years ago
Fuerte, Reed, Wurtz – 2 years ago
Kona Sharwil – this yearMy fuerte decided to start blooming in November. I read fuerte don’t set fruit when the temps fall below 70 for long periods, which is what we have with the temps going below 50 at night. I don’t see many flying insects around either.
Do you think it’d be worth it to give manual pollution a shot?
Not setting fruit in this case may very well have to do with the lack of flying insects.Both Haas and Wurtz are all covered with the flower buds that are anout to open. It’s a weird timing, isn’t it?
Are they all confused on the account of the warm weather, and their flowers are doomed?Thanks,
Alex.Reply
Greg Alderon December 14, 2020 at 4:55 pm
Hi Alex,
Thanks. In your location, you shouldn’t be too surprised to see such early flowering. I have family in Encinitas about two miles from the ocean, and their Hass and Fuerte trees have always bloomed starting in the fall or early winter — far earlier than my trees where I am currently (Ramona).
See a photo of a Fuerte in San Clemente, a couple miles from the ocean, starting to bloom in October in this post: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/the-fuerte-avocado-tree-a-profile/
But you also shouldn’t be surprised if you don’t get much fruitset from the early bloom. Just as you mentioned, it seems to depend both on the temperatures and the presence of pollinating insects. There aren’t as many pollinating insects around right now compared to spring, and your yard’s micro-climate may or may not be warm enough for the flowers to have successful pollen tube growth and fertilization.
If you are seeing many female flowers on your Fuerte in the afternoon, then I would give hand pollination a shot because it means your temperatures are relatively warm. If you’re only seeing female flowers in the late afternoon or evening (or even in the morning), then it’s probably too chilly to have much success. That’s my best guess.
By the way, you live in an awesome place to grow avocados. In many ways, I’m jealous.
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Alex Kon December 14, 2020 at 6:25 pm
Thanks again, Greg. Your Fuerte tree profile post was one of the major influences in my planting a Furerte tree, and I did note the San Clemente picture at the time. Unfortunately, it told me nothing about the outcome of that flowering event. I presume you did not know yourself. ;-(
My tree suffered a mishap about a year ago. A property fence fell down. It glanced over its side and sheered off a few branches. The tree recovered nicely and it’s over 10′ tall now (up from 5′ last year). Last year it produced a single flower. This year I got 6-7 clusters. Nearly nothing, but better than last year. It still preparing to open a few more flower clusters. It does open flowers in the female phase in early afternoon. I’ll give a brush a shot. We’ll see what comes out, though I don’t have major hopes for success. Maybe 2022 would present a better chance.
The weird bit for me is that my tiny, 6’/2yeas since planting Wurtz tree flowered in March this year and produced 10 very nice berries. Yet, it’s about to flower again. Probably in a couple to four weeks. I understand it’s not unusual for my area, but it’s a really weird shift.
Speaking of Wurtz, my little experience taught me it’s a misunderstood variety. I read it’s good to pick in Sept – Oct., and its fruit is of “good” (or sometimes medium/mediocre) quality. I found it to be true if you pick the fruit in Sep – Oct., and speed-ripen it with apples or some such. As an experiment, I left the last avocado on the tree till Nov 4, and ripened it on a window seal in vertical position. Unlike its counterparts, its stem did not fall of, it stayed in a “ripening” state for a couple to three weeks and got a bit dehydrated/winkled. But the result was very different. If the previous fruit was all a bit watery, the last one ended up with the texture of Haas – creamy and buttery, but with a pronounced nutty + mushroomy flavor. Very, very tasty. I.e., there may be some bright future for Wurtz after all…
Once again thanks for all the excellent help and advice you’ve been proffering to the avocado-growing community. I have Google photos albums with monthly chronological pictures of all my trees from the moment I planted them. I’ll be happy to share them with you should you want to use them to illustrate your posts.
Cheers,
Alex.Reply
Greg Alderon December 15, 2020 at 7:54 pm
Hi Alex,
That’s great that you’re taking pictures of your trees consistently. I appreciate all of the photos that I have taken of my trees so I can look back on their development. And I really appreciate the offer to use your photos. Maybe I can use a Wurtz photo someday for a profile of that variety.
I know very little about Wurtz. I’ve never even eaten one; I don’t grow it either. I have seen some Wurtz trees, that’s about it. A guy in La Mesa had a Wurtz tree that I saw one time and it had a lot of fruit on it for how small it was; he also told me that he likes the taste but that the thin skin annoyed him.
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Alex Kon December 18, 2020 at 2:55 pm
Sure thing, Greg. email me directly with “AVOCADOS” in the Subject so it won’t end up in the SPAM folder. I’ll be happy to share my “Wurtz” album with you. It has a sequence of everything from the flower to a ripe fruit cut in half, the fruit on the scale, etc.
I selected this variety because of its reputation as “the only true dwarf avocado”. So far it behaves well. It reached about 8′ and seem to like it at that height. I have a very narrow spot (~4 ft) by the fence that I allotted for the Wurtz tree. I wanted a minimal amount of fighting for keeping it fit to that spot. I’m in the middle of the project of replacing two huge, old trees (a pine and a massive weeping fig ficus) with avocados and a vegetable garden. So, my growing priority is a bit weird. I’m focusing on getting avocados grow up to 20′ and as wide as possible so they’d serve as a privacy fence. The fruit is a desirable, but secondary goal.
As I mentioned above, in my short experience, if the Wurtz fruit is not kept on the tree long enough and not ripened “just so”, yep, it will taste watery and a bit “wild” or grassy. I actually like the skin. It’s super thin, very green and glossy. The fruit looks beautiful. The tree itself, though, took off and grew the fastest. I got 5 avocados from it on the very first year of planting when it was puny. 10 avos on the second year.
Just as advertised, the tree has a weeping growth habit. Branches begin to bend down as soon as they grow 3+ ft.
I plan to graft various varieties when the trees get a bit larger – for fun and “365 days/y fruit coverage”. I tried grafting Reed on Wurtz last year, but the grafts failed.
Nicole Con January 8, 2021 at 8:41 am
Good morning
I’ve been patiently growing an avocado tree, started from a pit as a project with my kids for 6.5 years now. Just this week I noticed blossoms starting and reading up on how to pollinate! It’s grown in our house as we live in a more northern region of Canada, so not possible to take it outside to be pollinated by bees. It’s not the healthiest looking plant and the leaves are sparse. Anytime it shoots out new growth, it loses all the old leaves, but from what I’ve read – this might be normal? Any extra tips on how to get some (or one) avocado fruit from it would be appreciated and very exciting!
ThanksReply
Greg Alderon January 10, 2021 at 9:02 am
Hi Nicole,
So exciting that your tree is blooming! Good for you that you have grown an avocado tree in Canada for over six years. That is not easy.
When avocados make new leaves they do eventually shed old leaves, but it’s not always immediate. Varieties differ in their habits here. Generally, the longer an avocado tree holds onto its old leaves, the healthier it is.
I would try to pollinate by hand indoors, but if the tree is still blooming while temperatures are above freezing outside I would try to move it out briefly so any bees or other flying insects can help. The bees are so much better at pollinating than we are.
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Brent Powellon March 13, 2021 at 8:41 pm
Thank you for the info. I planted a pair of Choquette seeds 3.5 years ago. The trees are now over ten feet high, full, with trunks 6″ in diameter. Never seen a tree grow like that. They are covered in buds and after reading this, I begin playing bee tomorrow. Don’t know if I will be any good at it, but your site has me ready to try. No other avocados within a quarter mile so I have few options. The tree seems to be mostly unopened buds instead of flowers, how long do these things flower and how many times will a flower open and close in it’s lifespan?
Thank you.Reply
Greg Alderon March 21, 2021 at 7:36 am
Hi Brent,
Avocado trees usually bloom over the span of a couple months, but varieties all differ somewhat. Each individual flower opens and closes two times, first acting as female and second acting as male, as long as the air temperature is warm enough.
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Brent Powellon March 21, 2021 at 9:13 am
Hi,
I went back to the tree where I got the avocados and discovered that one is blooming and one is not. Just like my trees. Some odd variant of bloom cycle. In attempting to play bee, should I be able to see pollen sticking to the stigma, or is it just a contact thing.Reply
Greg Alderon March 29, 2021 at 7:58 am
Hi Brent,
I doubt you’d be able to see individual pollen grains on the stigma. Avocado pollen grains are said to be about 45 microns in size while I read that our naked eyes can’t see individual objects that small. You can see clumps of pollen grains though.Reply
Alex Kon May 5, 2021 at 12:10 am
My Fuerte started blooming in late October 2020. It was followed by Haas and Reed which are all within 8 to 15 ft from each other. Both Further and Reed were planned about 2y before. I’m in Encinitas, CA.
I’ve left a some comments above about that.
So I fussed over it, tried hand pollinating with a soft brush. Some fruit set in November and December on Fuerte. But it all eventually dropped.
Both Haas, Reed, and Wurtz produce oceans of flowers and baby avocados, but they all kept dropping till the end of April.
There’ve been lots of bees all over over all of my trees since March. It had 0 effort on the fruit set until the end of April when the temperature stabilized to well over 70 during the day with longer days with sun radiation over 800 and UV index at 7 to 8.
After that, all trees set lots of fruit many are off the pea+ size.I’m betting it’s all about the high enouph metabolic rates for sufficient duration.
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Alex Kon May 5, 2021 at 12:39 am
The key was that’s the lows went up above 50 every night. I got a weather station next to the trees. The trend is pretty clear. It evidently is the same for all varieties I have.
My Kona Sharvil is too small to bloom yet. I wonder how it would behave when it sets flowers.
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Greg Alderon May 8, 2021 at 9:10 am
Hi Alex,
Your observations are well aligned with those of many other smart and seasoned avocado people. For example, Bob Bergh said, “The major climatic factor affecting avocado yields in [California] appears to be temperature during the blooming period. A difference of even a degree or two can have a major effect on fruit set. Ordinarily, the higher the temperature mean, the more favorable the set prognosis. This explains why most of our set is usually toward the end of the blooming period.”This comes from a paper called “Reasons for Low Avocado Yields,” which you can read here: http://avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_51_1967/CAS_1967_PG_161-172.pdf
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Alex Kon May 8, 2021 at 12:40 pm
Fantastic. Thanks for the references.
This explains
why my Wurtz set the least fruit. It bloomed profusely but almost all at once in late March through April. Only a few flowers were left to bloomed in late April / early May, and only those set fruit. In contrast, Fuerte opened a few flowers at a times since October. Same with Haas. Reed flowered last on both this and last year branches. It got most fruits. It still got tons of flower buds.This seems to call for a conclusion that for the varieties listed above the fruit production in S. California is related to how extended is the blooming season and how much of the bloom falls on the end of blooming season.
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Greg Alderon May 10, 2021 at 7:38 am
Hi Alex,
I’ve seen some evidence for that conclusion but some evidence against it. For example, a few later bloomers in my yard that set lots of fruit consistently are Gwen, Lamb, and Reed. Reed is by far the latest, and it always sets lots of fruit even in years when it doesn’t have many flowers. However, my Fuerte has an extended bloom that lasts deep into May (it still has many flowers opening today), and yet it sets fruit very poorly. So I think there are still some other factors that contribute.
Alex Kon May 10, 2021 at 9:27 am
Yeah, there are tons of factors that are difficult to control for. Given that, it’s very hard to design a well controlled experiment. Often times, and being armature researchers (speaking for myself), all we can do is do the case studies and collect evidence.
Your Fuerte behavior can be explained by the daily lows. I’m 3 miles inland from the shore. My nightly lows, according to my weather station, were above 50 for the last month, and above 52 for the last three weeks. That’s when all the fruit that I have on my Fuerte got set. You are pretty far inland and your nightly lows must still be in the 40s. I.e., the fruit on specifically Fuerte is not likely to set. I say all that based on my one time observation of my single tree. I.e., not statistically significant. But it’s a bit of information in the citizen scientists piggybank. 😉 I wonder if there’s an intrepid avocado research somewhere out there who’d like to base his Ph.D. thesis on the data aggregated from the citizen scientists. 😉Reply
Sabrina Reon August 22, 2021 at 11:53 pm
Hi Greg, my partner and I relocated to Australia (Brisbane area) and we bought a property with an avocado tree already established. We are not sure what type it is.
I have followed your post and noticed in the morning the flower is male and in the afternoon (like 5 pm) its female
We don’t have many bees here and the previous owner told us he only got 4 avos last year despite the flowers( notice he was not a keen gardener)
Question, How do i pick the polline and more important how do I store it during the day so that I can try to pollinate the female flowers in the afternoon? there are a lot of flowers so i don’t mind sacrificing some flowers considering the previous owner only managed o get 4 last year.
thank you!
SabrinaReply
Greg Alderon August 31, 2021 at 9:55 pm
Hi Sabrina,
One way to do it is to pick off some male flowers in the late morning, put them in a plastic container in the fridge, and then take them out for pollination in the afternoon.It sounds like your tree is a B type. If that’s the case, then you will find that the best pollination conditions are when nights are especially warm.
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Janet Lewison March 20, 2022 at 6:26 pm
This is so interesting! Where do bees fit in on the pollenation?
We have a fabulous Hass Avocado tree that has born us many avocadoes but last year, only about 5 avocados. We were puzzled.
Thank youReply
Mark McCainon March 22, 2022 at 12:19 pm
Hi Greg,
I used your hand pollination advice for an indoor “Day” avocado here in Maine. A few fruits are now beginning, and meanwhile, a dozen more flower clusters are forming. To kept the avocado’s energy focused where I want it, should I snip off these flower buds? Thank you for your knowledgeable postings written with a smile!Reply
julia wigarton April 26, 2022 at 8:14 am
This is a hugely helpful article. Thanks so much Greg! I live on the border between France and Italy, on the Mediterranean. I have four avocado trees, thousand of flowers an NO FRUIT. So I am looking forward to see if this gives me a result. I should perhaps add that all my neighbours have no problems with theirs.
In theory I have a Bacon, Two Fuerte and a Hass – but one can never be sure they have been correctly labelled. If I sent you a few images might you be able to identify them – or know anyone who could?
Thanks againReply
Ivor Davison October 10, 2022 at 9:31 pm
Thanks for your great article on growing avocados.
I live about an hour out of Melbourne Australia (Lat 37deg S) on a golf course adjacent to the beach. I remember as a teenager a couple of avocado trees growing in N facing gardens in suburban Melbourne bearing a lot of fruit.
I planted an avocado from seed 8 years ago in a sheltered N facing garden – not sure if a Fuerte or a Hass. It’s now 5M tall & covered in flowers since early spring. It did flower last year but all were lost in a savage windstorm that brought down over sixty 35M tall Cypress pines.
The flowers all appear to be male at 3PM but I still hand pollinated & my plan is see if any female flowers appear in the mornings. It’s unlikely there’s any other avocados planted nearby but I plan to put a few others in.
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Greg Alderon October 18, 2022 at 2:42 pm
Happy to hear your tree is showing promise this spring, Ivor. Sounds like it’s showing A-type flowering behavior. Let us know if you get fruitset. Best of luck.
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