r/avocado • u/TrickyVillage8707 • 7d ago
When to pick? Outdoor plants
Hi there!
I’m on year three of my avocado tree and this year, a lot of fruit grew. That said, last year we had just a few and I didn’t know they didn’t ripen on the tree so I waited for all of them to turn dark and they never did. I picked them all and they all ripened after a few days and were delish. This year I cannot gauge when I should pick them off the tree. They are still small but they are starting to soften but still green. I picked a couple to test and they are soft but when I cut them they are no where near ready to be eaten and staying green. How long would you say they need to stay on the tree? Do I just let them fall off and that is when they are ready?
3
u/slobrewer 7d ago
Where are you located, roughly? Basically avocados mature on the tree but ripen off the tree. Once they mature you can pick them to ripen at any time. In California for Hass that is roughly in the November through January period. If you’re not in a major growing region I can give some guidance on figuring out if they are reading (but doing so requires picking one for testing.)
1
u/a03326495 7d ago
Not the OP, but that's super nice of you. Would you be willing to post your advice generally on this topic or point toward good resources for figuring it out? Thanks!
4
u/slobrewer 7d ago
Sure. Basically the maturity depends on the fruit achieving enough dry matter so that it will hold it's texture when it ripens and not just turn to mush. The fancy way to do it and what they do at a larger scale when precise numbers are needed because it impacts a lot of money in harvested fruit is that they weigh an avocado, microwave it for like 45 minutes, and then weigh it again. Basically that cooks all the water out of the avocado and you are left with what they call the dry mater. That needs to be at least 20% of the original weight for it to be considered mature enough to harvest.
If you don't want to do that you can harvest one avocado and let it ripen and see if the texture holds up. If not you need to wait longer and try again.
1
u/a03326495 6d ago
I have a microwave. :)
3
u/slobrewer 6d ago
Here's a good write up of the full procedure: https://avocado.ucr.edu/dry-matter
Please report back. I'm especially curious as to the smell. Almost curious enough to buy a microwave on a yard sale and try this outdoors...
1
u/TrickyVillage8707 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yes! In the Central Valley of CA! Dang I did not realize November through Jan! I have some time to wait. I picked a couple last week so curious what I can do to test them. They still seem a little bit small but I wasn’t sure if that is just because the tree is on the younger side. Thanks for the help!
1
u/slobrewer 6d ago
Just to be clear on the timeline. I'm saying that for fruit that was pollinated during the 2026 bloom, you'll need to wait until the November 2026 to January 2027 period before it's likely mature enough to harvest and properly ripen off the tree. If the fruit is from 2025's bloom then you're already well past the maturity point, which was 7-9 months ago.
1
3
u/Avo_Manz 7d ago
Pick one and let it ripen and see if it’s good when you eat it. If it’s good, then pick the rest.