i moved into a new home in January. it came with two fairly large Hass avocado trees. they are side by side in the garden. one has fruit on it from last fall. maybe 40 avocados. it has not flowered this year at all. when i pick the avocados they take about 3 weeks to ripen or the kind of shrivel up and don't ripen at all. why no new flowers and why don't they ripen?

the other one had no fruit at all when we first saw it late last year. now it has abundantly flowered and has hundreds of small avocados developing. no other avocados anywhere in the area.

Hi Carl,

Avocados don't ripen well on the tree but they shouldn't take 3 weeks to ripen once picked.

Are you sure they are both hass? Maybe the one with fruit is working on a different schedule. The fruits don't seem very large to be ready to pick. Lamb Hass and Reed both ripen in the summer.

If they are anything like our old lemon trees, we had to remove all the fruit for it to bloom and produce again. A friend told us that leaving fruit on the tree could hamper future fruit development, so one day I picked all of the lemons....boy did I have lemons! I froze all the ones I couldn't use right away. But the tree began flowering soon after and produced a LOT.

Just thinking....we also used to fertilize the tree a couple of times a year. Maybe someone else here could guide you in the direction of how and when to do that.

i was told by the seller they are both Hass. i don't know. the tree with the medium size fruit has had it since november when we first looked at the house. the fruit has not gotten any larger. both trees have lots of new leaves. i have fed them. we are in the process of building watering basins around all our fruit trees which are all on a hillside. after the basins i will be putting a few inches of mulch around each tree.




side note about our lemon tree. it is full of small lemons and is putting out a few more flowers weeks after the heavy bloom.

When you spread the mulch, keep the mulch away from the trunk of the tree, I would leave a large ring around it by up to a foot because I'm overly cautious. Some trees (avocado and lemon included) cannot handle the mulch, and disease can spread up the trunk. Dogwoods are similar that way, that was my learning curve.

thank you.

My experience with avocados is that eventually the fruit falls on its own - and the deer love them. Here is a list of commonly grown avocados and when they ripen:

https://www.fourwindsgrowers.c...

I wouldn't pick the fruit from the tree just yet; it could be a late bloomer. It would be a shame to lose all that fruit because of impatience. As this is your first year at your new home, you should watch and take note. Next year you will know what to expect.

Daisy

Daisy- Do you know when the Haas should flower?

Early winter into late spring, depending upon variety. I grew Rio Grande as it flowers in the early spring and is ripe in November. My friends tried to grow Bacon (because that's what the Big Box store sold) but most years, the fruit froze off before it ripened. I had to mail order mine - no one sold it locally even though it's the only one that would live in my area in California.

So I guess we just don't know how long the avocados have been on the tree. Could've been since before January and it missed flowering this spring?

It may be on schedule to bloom next winter.

Sorry, just realized Carl, that you said the fruit was on the tree since fall, I was focusing on January. I'm guessing the homeowner didn't pull it since the house was for sale and they were busy elsewhere. Up to you whether to remove fruit now since it's May, but it should be removed this coming fall so your tree has time to recoup and flower next year. Your preparation now should pay off next year.

Here is the answer to all your questions from University of California Cooperative Extension. There is a tree in the neighbors yard that has small ones on a very large tree. They ripen more quickly in a brown paper bag and are just fantastic fresh off the tree. http://ceventura.ucanr.edu/Com...