Unknown Avocado Variety
Gardening Question from Connie:
My dad passed away in 2007 and no one bothered to ask what kind of avacado’s his tree produces. HELP….
Answer from Pat:
I am sorry, but the meaning of your question is unclear to me. I don’t understand what information you are requesting.
Are you asking about pollination? If your late Dad’s tree already produces fruit you don’t have a problem. Problems arise when a tree produces flowers but no fruit. Then one needs to find out what tree you have got in order to provide another tree with the opposite type of flower for pollination. Judging by the wording of your question, the tree you have is already bearing fruit so that seems as if there must be a tree with the opposite type of blossom in your neighborhood and enough bees for pollination.
Whether or not the fruit is of good quality is for you to decide. When you think the fruit is ripe and full grown, pick one and put it in a brown paper bag to ripen. (Avocado’s do not ripen on the tree.) Try the fruit when it softens. If it never softens, it was not ripe when you picked it. If it doesn’t taste oily enough once ripe, then wait for another two weeks to one month or so before picking the fruit and then testing again. Once you discover when the fruit is ripe, mark it onto your calendar. This is how to find out when to pick avocado’s from a tree of unknown variety.
Be sure to fertilize the tree beginning in February with a product recommended for fertilizing avocado trees. Follow package directions. A mature, full grown avocado tree needs at least 2 pounds actual nitrogen per tree per year. (See page 82 in the February chapter of my organic month-by-month gardening book for detailed directions.) Sprinkle the fertilizer evenly over all the ground under the tree all the way from a foot or two away from the trunk to the tips of the branches. Follow up by watering the fertilizer thoroughly into the ground.
Photo by tanjila 
First of all thank you for your very welcomed response. And I am sorry I wasn’t clear with my question. What I wanted to know was how to find out what kind of avacado tree we have in our back yard? (hass or ???)
If your avocado tree was grown from a seed it is not a named variety so there is no way to find out what kind it is since it is no specific kind. On the other hand, if this tree was originally purchased at a nursery it must be one of the common named varieties generally sold in nurseries. It is quite easy to tell these varieties apart if you are familiar with their characteristics and appearance. If you are not familiar with these varieties, the best way to find out which one you have is to compare the characteristics, appearance, and ripening dates of the fruit your tree bears with the photographs and descriptions given on the following website: http://www.avocado.org/avocado-variety-browser/.
Wow! You are doing an amazing thing! My Church’s Community Services Center is pnnilnag to have a large garden next year to help supply our Food Bank. I’m happy to hear that you are teaching people to grow their own food.. I’m hoping that many of our clients will want to learn also.You are an inspiration!
Hi i also have a avocado tree and i don’t know what type it is,but i know it’s pretty good when i moved in we had avocado till the end of April 2013, now it’s June 2013 i see the avocado growing on the tree so my question is can you tell me what type of tree it is Hass or Zuntano,….
I am helping my daughter and family landscape their backyard in Huntington Beach, CA. I need a smaller avocado tree. What do you think about the Holiday tree? I really want to taste that variety, but am having such a difficult time finding them. Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Phone Clausen Nursery (760) 724-3143, a famous nursery for citrus that also has avocado trees in Vista, and/or Bonita Creek Nursery (619-470-2005) a venerable nursery in Bonita, that also carries rare fruit tree species and large avocado trees. Perhaps they could ship or—better yet— maybe you can make an outing of it.