Avocados

 

We have 14 different varieties of avocado growing on our property.  We have 19 trees total.  The goal was to try to produce avocados that would give us a year round supply.  We’re close, although while is a period where we get a break from ripe avocados, there is at least one tree if not more with avocados on it at any given time.

Above is a picture of the avocados that are currently fruiting.  Sometimes when we get an avocado, we are told it is one thing, but when it fruits, it is clearly not what we thought we bought.  We have a few of those trees on our property and have done our best to figure out exactly what kind of avocado they are.  You can grow an avocado from a seed, and a lot of people do just that.  But here’s the rub, the only way you will know what kind of avocado you will actually get is by grafting a known avocado scion (a branch that is about to start budding into leads) on to a root stock.  You have to match the diameter of the scion exactly to the root stock.  Avocados cross pollinate which means they can get pollinated by bees or the wind from avocados in the area, so you don’t know what kind of avocado you will get.

So from left to right, the avocados above are:

1. Kahalu’u
2. Linda (these get HUGE aka dieter avocado due to low oil content)
3. Malama (easy to tell because it gets really dark purple)
4. Murashige
5. Pinkerton
6. ? we were told this is a Kahaluu, but it looks nothing like our kahaluu.  we believe it’s a Nishikawa.
7. ? Again, we were told it’s a Malama, but it doesn’t have the classic purple until it’s completely ripe.  We believe it’s a cross between a Malama and a Sharwil
8. San Miguel (MY FAVORITE!!!!)
9. Sharwil
10. ? (this was here when we moved in, we think it’s a mini shawil, it has a tiny tiny seed)

Our spring/summer avocados which aren’t shown in the picture are Yamagata, green/gold, Ota, and Fujikawa.  We have one other variety that was grafted by a co-worker’s husband from a tree in their neighbor’s yard.  He named it after the neighbor whose name we can’t remember.

All of our our avocados are creamy and buttery.  If we had a tree produce stringy, watery ones, it would be cut down, and use it for mulch.  My absolute favorite avocado is the San Miguel.  While I said all our avocados are buttery, this one is the so creamy it melts in your mouth.  We have 3 of these trees.

We had one avocado tree growing when we bought the property.  So the remaining 18 were planted by my husband in the last 13 years.  All are producing at this point.  From graft it takes about 3 – 5 years to start producing fruit.

Avocados are one of the healthiest foods for you.  In a single 3.5 ounce (100 gram) serving you will find:

• Vitamin K: 26% of the RDA.
• Folate: 20% of the RDA.
• Vitamin C: 17% of the RDA.
• Potassium: 14% of the RDA.
• Vitamin B5: 14% of the RDA.
• Vitamin B6: 13% of the RDA.
• Vitamin E: 10% of the RDA.
• Then it contains small amounts of Magnesium, Manganese, Copper, Iron, Zinc, Phosphorous, Vitamin A, B1 (Thiamine), B2 (Riboflavin) and B3 (Niacin).

This serving size has 160 calories, 2 grams of protein and 15 grams of healthy fats. Although it contains 9 grams of carbs, 7 of those are fiber so there are only 2 “net” carbs, so it’s considered a low-carb food.  Avocados do not contain any cholesterol or sodium and are low in saturated fats.

 

 

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