Queen Avocado (first one picked)

[porkchop]

Just thought I would show off my first "Queen" avocado. A regular size Hass on the left and the Queen on the right. Can you say "guacamole"

[rprimbs]

I have one of those trees but it's little. That looks great!

[BigFrond]

Huge! That's a family size avo.

[MattyB]

that's a pig

[DoomsDave]

Hmm.

That one on the left looks rather dinky compared to the average Hass I've seen (La Habra is Avocado Heaven, Home of Hass) but, the one on the right is still very nice.

[Palmlover]

How does it taste? As good as a Hass?

[JEFF IN MODESTO]

Any photos of the tree?

I've heard the older the tree the larger fruit!

Jeff

[George Sparkman]

Hi Brandon,

nice Queen avocado.

The Hass avocado in your picture looks like it came from a tree that is quite zinc deficient and therefore the fruit does not size up and is round.

[Gtlevine]

Lamb Haas

[George Sparkman]

Lamb Haas

?

[Gtlevine]

Lamb Haas is a variety of Haas with a late picking season. Several growers in my area grow them and they average the size of the Avocado shown the Queen in this post. I assume that is the fruit pictured.

[George Sparkman]

The fruit pictured is actually Queen and not Lamb Hass - Lamb Hass is known for "it's kind of block shape" at the stem end of the fruit.

Lamb Hass is also a large size variety of avocado which is picked late but has a shorter picking season then Hass.

[Moose]

Didn't BS Man about Palms plant a Queen Avocado?

[Stevetoad]

how big is the seed? normal golf ball size? that thing is a toad!

[Trava]

How hardy is Queen avocado?

[George Sparkman]

How hardy is Queen avocado?

Comparable to other Guatemalan varieties like Hass,Gwen,Reed & Pinkerton. Mature trees can handle upper 20s (f) for relatively short durations without production loss.

[BS Man about Palms]

Didn't BS Man about Palms plant a Queen Avocado?

Fuerte and a dwarf variety

[porkchop]

I haven't tried the Avo yet ... Just waiting for it to ripen up. I'll take picture of the inside once I cut it. This will be the first time I have tried the queen. Its been in the ground for about 5 years & this is the first fruit produced. I bought the tree because I heard the fruit are supposed to be excellent. I was told the only reason they aren't in production is the fruit size is too big (weight of my Queen is 2 1/4 lbs !!!) .... I'm not sure if this story is true but wanted to give it a go.

I have to post another picture of this monster .... I have a size 12 foot for comparison .....

[MattyB]

gross

[George Sparkman]

gross

Matty,

Is that German or English ?

[Gtlevine]

You are correct, large fruit like those are not as marketable. Consumers like a fruit that they use all at once and not have to refridgerate for days. The variety I referenced called Lamb Haas is virtually identical to Queen in size and the growers in my area are starting to remove them. Size 48 (7oz) is the sweet spot for mass production to consumers. I am changing out my grove to a more recent clonal stock called Dusa Merensky. It is a more robust tree with resistance to pathogens that produces high yield of the #48 size fruit. Only problem is the waiting list is a year and a half for trees, i've been waiting patiently for mine.

Gary

I haven't tried the Avo yet ... Just waiting for it to ripen up. I'll take picture of the inside once I cut it. This will be the first time I have tried the queen. Its been in the ground for about 5 years & this is the first fruit produced. I bought the tree because I heard the fruit are supposed to be excellent. I was told the only reason they aren't in production is the fruit size is too big (weight of my Queen is 2 1/4 lbs !!!) .... I'm not sure if this story is true but wanted to give it a go.

I have to post another picture of this monster .... I have a size 12 foot for comparison .....

[Jubaea]

Some of the large fruit avocado varieties won't ripen evenly making it difficult to know when to eat the fruit.

[porkchop]

gross

Are you referring to my "Fred Flinstone" foot ... I swear its the angle ... I don't have Cankles !!! (calf & ankle blend)

[George Sparkman]

You are correct, large fruit like those are not as marketable. Consumers like a fruit that they use all at once and not have to refridgerate for days. The variety I referenced called Lamb Haas is virtually identical to Queen in size and the growers in my area are starting to remove them. Size 48 (7oz) is the sweet spot for mass production to consumers. I am changing out my grove to a more recent clonal stock called Dusa Merensky. It is a more robust tree with resistance to pathogens that produces high yield of the #48 size fruit. Only problem is the waiting list is a year and a half for trees, i've been waiting patiently for mine.

Gary

I haven't tried the Avo yet ... Just waiting for it to ripen up. I'll take picture of the inside once I cut it. This will be the first time I have tried the queen. Its been in the ground for about 5 years & this is the first fruit produced. I bought the tree because I heard the fruit are supposed to be excellent. I was told the only reason they aren't in production is the fruit size is too big (weight of my Queen is 2 1/4 lbs !!!) .... I'm not sure if this story is true but wanted to give it a go.

I have to post another picture of this monster .... I have a size 12 foot for comparison .....

When Lamb Hass came on the market growers were hoping to be able to sell it as Hass but when it was segregated from Hass the Lamb Hass prices tanked and did not get much more then thin skin varieties which at times is only 20% of the Hass money. 48 (8oz) Hass fruit pays the best money and larger fruit 40 & 32 does not pay more some times less.The main advantage of Hass is it's much longer shelflife and far higher production compared to other varieties.

[MattyB]

I'm excited to try the new Dusa Merensky variety next year. I've gotta figure out how I'm gonna pay for the water though. Avocados take a decent amount of water I'm learning as they get larger.

[MattyB]

Hey Gary and George,

Do you stake your avocado trees and train a main leader? Or do you just let them sprawl and limb them up later as needed? I'm not looking for a pretty tree, as we all know, avos are just green monsters, but structurally I'm wonder about how they'll do because of the many horozontal and sagging branches it seems to love to put out. Right now, I'm about 4 years into my Hass and Fuerte and I staked them up to about 5' initially, but have let them just do their thing after that, which is a big sprawling, drooping mess. Any advice with form is appreciated.

[George Sparkman]

Hi Matty,

Dusa Merensky has been around for a number of years now. It is Hass on Dusa Merensky root stock, so the fruit is Hass but the root stock has proven to be quite resistant to Phytophthora cinnamomi & Phytophthora citricola and therefore performs quite well compared to other root stock since it can use more energy to produce and less to fight off crap. I had my avocado starter trees staked to about 4 feet and never did anything after that (well after 25-30 feet height some top pruning). And lots of water and more water.

[MattyB]

OK cool. I've got them in a good spot so they can just go crazy.

Regarding water: I think the ground was drying out from Winter/Spring right as this years fruit was forming and I watched our Hass go from an incredible fruit set to just average, as it dropped a lot of small fruit, over the course of a couple of weeks. I mulched and added a couple more drip emitters and the fruit drop stopped and it looks happy now. I'm sure some of it was natural thinning out, but my instinct told me that the tree really wanted some more water. Hopefully as the years go by the leaf litter will build up and help.

[Moose]

Sorry - I don't have a #12 Fred Flintstone hoof for a size comparison. My Barney Rubble feet are staying in my shoes, LOL

This cultivar is Polllock. They average about 2 lbs. per fruit. I have had some 4 pounders on my tree but that is not typical. Big avocados sell well here in Florida locally. Not sure if the Pollock ships that well. Not sure if this cultivar would do well in California.

Standard hard hat for size comparison. Tiles are 16" X 16".

[BS Man about Palms]

Looks tasty moose

[porkchop]

Moose ... how do the "Pollocks" taste? I'm thinking of planting a few varieties with different harvest times to get avos most of the year .... hopefully ..... Have to control the squirrels !!! They ate all my macadamia nuts ....

[MattyB]

I like how you can just leave avos on the tree and pick them as needed. Our harvest season lasted at least 3 months this year.

[Al in Kona]

Anybody have experience with the avocado variety called "Holiday"? I have a small tree growing well but it tends to have drooping branches. Would this more dwarf variety benefit by staking it to have a more or less central leader/growing point? My tree is too young to fruit yet but possibly next year. I've heard it has a good quality fruit, does anyone here know? Anything else I should know about this variety?

[George Sparkman]

Hi Al,

it is a dwarf Zutano variety that produces early fruit in California.

The fruit is tasty and the trees are compact but due require maintenance pruning.

They can be quite untidy with branches growing in different directions and even crossing each other.

Pruning back to a point where there is a branch pointing upward seems to help them keep off the ground which is not good for the fruit development.

Staking helps but is not the cure since the staked branches seem to be weaker and get into trouble when loaded with fruit.

[porkchop]

Well I cut it open and here is what it looked like

The taste was good but not excellent. I think Hass has better flavor .... It made a huge bowl of guac though ....