Fruits in July - avocados!

I have always been almost 'complaining' about our long dry season, and that is from February to May. In our not too distant past, we get our rains starting in May, however with the worldwide changes in climatic conditions, we had our official first rainy season in June, but our plants in the province got their first rains in July.  Despite the thirst for rain, some fruit trees regularly flower and fruit during the dry season. One of these is the avocado, Persea americana. 

Our avocados in the property are all volunteers, they are from seeds we throw around. We have a lot of fruit volunteers like papaya and santol, some we cut, some we keep for the birds. I know for sure that good characteristics are not maintained if they are from seeds, being already a hybrid, however we don't perform the much predictive asexual propagation. They even don't get the care like fertilization, watering or pruning. I guess if the owner learned a lot from school, performing the expected good agricultural practices to ensure quality is not necessary anymore! Or perhaps I am already tired of following what i know! Because we don't really expect to get income from these farm produce, we just let them be. And in today's parlance, that is the real 'organic' gardening, leaving the crops all by themselves, tend for themselves, fruit if they can or die if necessary! And with all these neglect, because our soil is fertile, they still produce a lot of fruits. July is the month for avocados, and we have fun!


We have maybe around 6 types of fruits in our farm. We have the oblong, long, round, purple when ripe and green when ripe. Some are fibrous, some are smooth and some have really excellent flesh. We only eat the good quality ones, those we don't like are left for the birds, the worms, and other creatures. Last year a typhoon came when they are still immature, so we only had a very few fruits share from nature. Do you know that avocados don't ripen when left attached to the tree!

This is the hot environment in February, the time for avocado flowering.

Avocados produce a lot of flowers because pollination is not assured due to different timing of the receptivity of the female with the availability of the male. So nature provides many flowers for the continuity of species.

The black spots on the leaves are due to sooty molds feeding on the remains of the aphids and mealy bugs. It is really survival of the fittest, with the avocado hopefully surviving the onslaught of infestation.

Almost all shoots are laden with flower panicles.

A very well flowering avocado tree

Mealy bugs and aphids inhabit the leaf undersides, ensuring that rains will still leave some of them 

But despite the intensive infestation, some fruits are still growing favorably, the shiny peel repels the insects.

Another variety with a rather rough skin, but this one has excellent and smooth flesh. It is still immature at this photo. Avocados will not ripen as long as they are attached to the tree!

One of the varieties of around 6 varieties we have in the farm. I brought only this variety to my house in the city, so i can't show the other varieties when ripe. Despite the big seed, the flesh is excellent. A simple way to eat ripe avocados is to remove the seed, put some honey on the flesh and spoon the flesh out directly to your mouth.  Hmmm, i just finished one!