The California Avocado Society will be putting on a seminar about pollination of avocados on February 10 in Oxnard, Ventura County. It is from 9 AM to 11 AM and can be attended in person or via Zoom.
Inaki Hormaza is one of the world’s top experts on avocado pollination. Hormaza is based at the Institute of Subtropical and Mediterranean Horticulture in Spain, where the climate has much in common with California. His presentation: “Optimizing pollination of avocados.”
Hamutahl Cohen is a University of California Cooperative Extension advisor based in Ventura, and she will present on “Identifying non-bee pollinators in Ventura and what practices promote them.” In other words, there are many flies and other insects besides bees that pollinate avocado flowers. What are they? And how can we encourage them to proliferate in our yards and on our farms?
Marllon Soares is a researcher at UC Riverside. He will present about his studies on “Artificial pollination.” This is where pollen is gathered from avocado flowers and then applied to other avocado flowers by hand or drone or other device.
Interesting and practical stuff!
See the California Avocado Society’s page here for more information about the seminar.
Also see these posts that I’ve written related to the above topics:
“What are the best avocado pollination conditions?”
Hi Greg
Not only are my avos fruiting but I have one with marble size fruit. The other trees nearby are just starting to flower/fruit. I have no idea what variety I have as I bought an old avocado ranch that had had the water turned off and I rescued a few trees. I assume Hass variety as they have the classic alligator skin but I don’t think I’ll ever know for sure. If you have ideas on how I can identify my trees please let me know.
Thanks
George
Having allowed broccoli to flower and get really big and flower some more, all fall and winter a swarm of bees has spent the day drinking nectar. Bermuda buttercup, considered a weed, has been blooming, too, and is a perennial favorite. Fuerte and Pinkerton avocado flowers, now opening, may be only an “impulse buy” in the bee checkout lane but nectar sales are good. GEM is just starting to flower and Hass is still thinking about it.
Randy,
With that prose you have brought the pollination world to life!
Hi everyone, i have mexicola im beginning to worry about.
Approximately 3 years old in the ground for 2.5 years.
Very well draining sandy soil.
About 12 feet tall.
Last November I noticed small bloom buds growing and by late December they had pretty much covered the tree. I think the end of every limb has a large cluster of flower buds.
Since this flowering process has started the younger leaves below every cluster is wilting and a much lighter shade of green.
It actually looks like it is dying of thirst. I wish I could post a picture.
On person told me it is over watered but like I said it is in sandy well draining soil.
Another told me it was normal because the flowering process takes so much energy the nearby leaves suffer.
My drip irrigation is coiled under the tree in about a 3 foot circle. Does it need to be spread out more as the tree grows to accommodate the drip line?
Any idea or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
David in the Central Valley of California
I am also dealing with a similar issue. It occurred in past years, but not to this extent. My tree is about four years old, has blossomed and even given fruit before, and it has usually gone through a shedding cycle during bloom each year (I get persea mites which might exacerbate the issue). However, this year my tree has shed *all* of its leaves, but is flowering profusely. Is that cause for concern? Will new leaves soon follow?
Hi David and Sean,
This is kind of normal. An avocado tree does always lose some of its old leaves at the same time that it blooms, but the degree to which this happens varies based on variety and other factors.
One major factor is how much it blooms. If the bloom is heavy, the leaf drop is usually also heavy — even if the tree is in perfect health.
And the reason for the heavy bloom in a given year depends on many factors, such as how much fruit it set the previous year, as well as the fall and winter weather.
Here are a couple posts you should check out:
“Reading avocado leaves”
“California avocado superbloom 2023”
“California avocado superbloom 2023: update”
Hello,
I have had difficulty getting my Fuerte avocados to set fruit (no problem with Sharwill, Bacon, Reed, Lamb Hass and Hass) . It seems my fuerte blooms earlier than my current type a avocados (In fact it blooms earlier than all my avocados). Is there a type of avocado cultivar that would bloom at the same time as the fuerte avocado bloom?
I live inland in the Elfin Forest area.
Hi Tom,
Pinkerton often blooms early alongside Fuerte. Carmen does also. Those are two A types that you might try. But don’t count on them making your Fuerte produce; they might help but it isn’t a sure thing.
I have a Fuerte that spent about seven years not producing so I grafted A-type varieties into the tree (including Pinkerton), and the A types made fruit but the Fuerte didn’t change much. Some Fuertes just mysteriously don’t fruit much whereas others do.
See my profile of Fuerte for more on this issue.
Thank you Greg!
I will see if I can find one of these varieties next time I am at the nursery!