Even between years, the best date to harvest avocados from the “Bacon” tree varies depending on weather. The best way to determine if fruits are ready for harvest and consumption is to pick a few full-grown avocados each week or so beginning when you suspect the fruit is nearing ripeness.
Here’s how to “read” what’s under the nub:
If the color you’re seeing is very pale, the avocado isn’t quite ripe enough to use right away. If it’s light to medium green, the avocado is ripe. If it’s brown under the nub, the avocado is most likely past its prime., and more items.
The fruits on a “Bacon” avocado tree (Persea Americana var. Drymifolia) have green skin and ripen sometime from November to March. When avocados on a specific tree begin to ripen each year, it makes it easier to measure when it would start to check ripeness in later years.
Is Bacon a good avocado to grow in Florida?
When compared to Hass, fruit quality is not good, lower oil content than Hass, and even though Bacon trees are sold at Big Box stores to home owners, it is considered a second rate Avocado for California. Fruit matures September – October in So Florida, no big deal, a lot of good So. Florida fruit around at the time.
Do bacon avocado trees produce bacon?
Today, if a farmer plants a Bacon tree it is almost exclusively to be used as a pollenizer for Hass, not to produce Bacon fruit to sell. But home gardeners continue to plant Bacon avocado trees for the fruit and as pollenizers, and for other good reasons.
How often do bacon avocado trees bloom?
While your “Bacon” avocado tree usually blooms at the same time every year, a very old tree may produce blossoms several times in a year. Under ideal conditions, avocado trees may grow to an extremely ripe old age.
Can you plant a bacon avocado tree in winter?
You might consider planting a Bacon avocado tree in your yard if you want avocados to pick in winter. If you already have a spring or summer variety like Hass or Lamb, then a Bacon tree would add a few months of fruit to the beginning of your avocado year. But you probably wouldn’t want to plant a Bacon as your only avocado tree.
When are avocados ready for harvest?
Knowing when avocados are mature and ready for harvest is important, as these fruits only start to ripen once they are removed from the tree. Avocado fruits that are removed before they reach maturity fail to soften and remain rubbery and inedible, while fruits left on the tree too long have too much oil and become rancid.
Different avocado cultivars ripen at different times and have different ripe peel colors. When the fruits in a Hass avocado ripen, they develop a black rind, and this occurs over a long season that runs from late winter through fall.