{"id":12737,"date":"2022-05-05T08:19:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T15:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/?p=12737"},"modified":"2024-09-10T06:54:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T13:54:12","slug":"the-gem-avocado-tree-a-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/the-gem-avocado-tree-a-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"The GEM avocado tree: a profile"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI believe that 15 years from now we\u2019ll be standing here and we\u2019ll be talking GEM. We won\u2019t be talking Hass. People will go, \u2018What is Hass?\u2019\u201d said Mary Lu Arpaia<\/a> to a room of California avocado growers in 2017. Arpaia knows avocado varieties. She has been the director of the University of California\u2019s avocado breeding program for a quarter century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is propitious about GEM? And more to the point for this post, is a GEM avocado tree as suitable for our yards as it might be for a commercial farm?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To answer this, we\u2019ll look at GEM\u2019s fruit characteristics, harvest season, the tree\u2019s shape, bearing habit, and its tolerances and vulnerabilities. I\u2019ll also survey the variety\u2019s development, which occurred within the University of California\u2019s breeding program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fruit characteristics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fruit first. GEM is pretty, especially when immature or unripe. Here is an unripe and immature GEM avocado on a tree in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the fruit matures, the peel gains a black background but the bumps — lenticels — remain yellow-green for some time. The fruit looks like a starry night, similar to the old Nimlioh variety from Guatemala. I find GEM\u2019s speckled appearance attractive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GEM avocados, unripe to fully ripe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

GEM avocados average in size slightly larger than Hass, and their shape is less pyriform and more like a fat egg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once cut open, you find a seed that is slightly larger than the seed of Hass and pointier too. And there often remains a fuzz of pulp coating the seed on GEM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Compared to Hass, the skin of GEM is smoother, thicker, and grittier. It is also sometimes a touch more fragile and less pliable, which means that it doesn\u2019t peel quite as well as Hass although I would still characterize GEM as a good peeler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The taste of GEM? Excellent, top notch in every way. And to me, nearly indistinguishable from Hass. I doubt that I could pick out which is which in a blind taste test. The texture of GEM is sometimes slightly denser, and the flesh cracks a bit (like its mother, Gwen). And the color of GEM\u2019s flesh is sometimes slightly paler. Otherwise, I can rarely detect anything peculiar in the flavor of GEM compared to Hass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My four-minute video profile of the GEM avocado fruit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n