Ventura County UCCE Farm Advisor, Ben Faber shares his knowledge of avocados. Today’s topic:
There are over 900 named varieties of avocado…how do you pick one? Well, first, the selection at retail nurseries is somewhat limited, compared to what is offered by nurseries that supply commercial avocado growers. But you do have options. In general, avocado trees are big and need room. ‘Hass’ has an umbrella-shaped canopy, but ‘Reed’ is more columnar and needs less room. ‘Holiday’ is a much smaller tree than ‘Hass’ and “Littlecado’ is a somewhat smaller tree. You can also choose on the basis of when you want to pick your fruit. For example, ‘Fuerte’ is a winter fruit and ‘Reed’ is a summer fruit. That means they taste best in those periods, but they will hold on the tree for a much longer period of time. You can also choose on the basis of taste. Of course, this is very subjective, but ‘Zutano’, ‘Bacon’ and ‘Stewart’ have a lower oil content than ‘Hass’, ‘Pinkerton’ and ‘Reed’. Many consider ‘Nabal’ the best tasting fruit. It’s a summer variety and hard to find in retail nurseries, but sometimes you can order them for delivery later.
You can read more about varieties at this website: http://ucavo.ucr.edu/AvocadoVarieties/VarietyFrame.html#Anchor-47857. But remember, most of these are not available at retail nurseries.