Avocado
Avocado (Persea americana) is a high-value crop that is native to America. The tree is evergreen and it produces a fruit that is a large berry that is prized for its flesh. Avocado fruit is used for multiple purposes, even oil, which can have different characteristics depending on cultivar. There are three land races of avocado, Mexican, Guatemalan, and West Indian races, and there are hundreds of known cultivars of avocado, many that are hybrids of different races. Some cultivars are creamy and nutty, like Hass, and others are less creamy with less oil content, but with a lighter, almost watery mouthfeel. The most important cultivar worldwide is Hass, which is an avocado cultivar that originated in California. ‘Hass’ is reported to not grow well in Central and South Florida, producing small fruit with a low flesh-to-seed ratio. However, there are avocado varieties that do well in these regions and grow large fruit with higher relative yields of marketable fruit. In Central Florida, avocado has an inherent risk due to it typically being a cold-sensitive species. There are cultivars and accessions that are reported to be more cold hardy than others, but there is currently no known material that is ready for commercial production in freeze-prone Central Florida. Recently, there has been an increased interest in avocado production due to huanglongbing (citrus greening). Avocados have an interesting flowering habit where the flowers open as male and female at different times of day, and different avocados have different flowering patterns in that regard, giving rise to Type A and Type B depending on when they open as a particular sex. Interplanting Type A and Type B is reported to increase yields. The season for avocado depends heavily on cultivar, and some cultivars can take over a year to be mature. Avocado fruit are climacteric, which means they ripen after harvest. Maturity is determined by oil content, which is often indirectly measured by dry weight of the flesh. There are multiple limiting factors for avocado production in Central Florida, including the lack of packing and storage facilities, lack of ethylene gassing facilities, and the complete lack of rootstocks available to growers. Without tried-and-true consistent rootstocks, avocado production in Florida is at a major competitive disadvantage. In Florida, there is a major vector-spread disease of avocado known as Laurel Wilt Disease, which is devastating to avocado production. Root rot diseases are also a major problem with avocado production, so proper soil drainage and irrigation practices are required.
Links
Avocado Pest Management
- Pest Feeding Habits - Tropical Research and Education Center - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS
- Part of the Plant Damaged - Tropical Research and Education Center - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS
- List of Avocado Pests - Tropical Research and Education Center - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS
Avocado Diseases
- HS1358/HS1358: Recommendations for the Detection and Mitigation of Laurel Wilt Disease in Avocado and Related Tree Species in the Home Landscape
- Ask IFAS: Topic - Avocado Sunblotch Viroid (ASBVd)
Avocado Production
- CIR1034/MG213: Avocado Growing in the Florida Home Landscape
- FE1150/FE1150: An Overview of the Avocado Market in the United States
Avocado Economics
