Our Avocado Trees

On the property where we live there are 2 HUGE avocado trees. I was never really into avocados, but these are delicious!

I've been taking notes on the growth cycle of these trees, as it is a bit different to the fruit trees I'm used to. First of all, the avocados on this tree aren't ripe until January/February. It doesn't drop it's leaves until February/March and it starts blooming for the next season in February. So they go thru a stressful cycle, they drop fruit, drop leaves, bloom and get new leaves all within a 8 week time period!

Last years harvest was amazing. At all hours of the day you could hear the ker-plunk sound of them dropping to the ground or splash when they drop into the stream that runs behind the building. On one day I picked up over 80 avocados!

This was over 140 lbs of avocados!

This is what was still on the tree after picking up the ones in the picture above.

And these are not little puppies:

And this wasn't one of the biggest ones. They are about 2+ x's larger than a Hass Avocado!

Everyone in the building had their fill of avocados, I took a trunk load to the office, shared with friends, I mashed some up and froze bags full of it. Then I mashed some up and made guacamole and froze it, I made avocado soup and avocado bread.

We had so much, it was almost too much.

Then last February, just as the trees were stating to bloom, we had a really bad wind and rain storm and it knocked tons and tons of blossoms off the tree. The entire back wall and the stair well was plastered with avocado blossoms. I continued to watch the tree and there was noticeably less fruit on the tree. I knew we would not have the harvest we had last year.

In November I went out on our back lanai and saw a guy, a stranger, standing under our trees. I asked him what he was doing there and he said that he was looking at the avocados and wanted to pick some. I told him that he can't just come and pick our avocados. His logic was that because the tree was visible from the road, branches were reaching over our fence and it was hanging over the stream it was ok for him to pick.

I corrected him, told him the fence is there for our protection, to keep people from coming on the property that do not belong and that it doesn't define our property line. I also told him that he was trespassing and if he doesn't go I'll call someone that will explain it to him again (my friends in blue).

Don't get me wrong - I don't mind sharing what we have, especially when we have so much - but it is ours to give, not his to take.

Anyway, I kept watching the tree and I don't know if he snuck back and picked what was on the other side of the fence or the few that were there just fell into the stream.  Today, looking up at the branches - I can't see a single avocado left hanging. Needless to say this years harvest was about 5 Avocados.

The good thing is that it's that time of year again, where the trees start to blossom.

The bad thing is that it's cold (what we consider to be cold that is) and windy. Let's hope that the blossoms make it thru and the trees will bless us with another amazing harvest next year.

Aloha Hui Hou!