In plant evolution terms, avocados shouldn't even exist

That’s why I can’t stand YouTube tutorials. I don’t want to listen to you talk about what you’re going to do for five minutes, and then wave your hands over the materials for another five. Just DO THE THING already!

Ahem. As to the article, “90% of our avocados are grown in California”. And since I left California, I’ve never had an avocado that tasted quite right. I wonder if they freeze them in transport or something.

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At Food City in Phoenix the tiny avocados always tasted perfect. And I shit you not, sometimes they were ten for a buck.

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I dream of one day having an avocado tree. Pretty much totally the wrong climate for them here in Melbourne, Australia, though :disappointed:

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Avocados make me sneeze!

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Ah, so you’re one of those. That’s ok, I still like you. More cilantro for me!

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Granted, it’s capsicum rather than avocado, but this is the second fruit that’s grown from seeds I harvested from one I got from my local supermarket.

I know, it’s a giant, right?

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Even avocado plants that are propagated commercially can vary widely in the amount of fruit they produce when mature. Some growers over-plant their orchards initially, then cull the low-producing trees in a few years when they get to fruiting age, and can tell which are which. I had a Master’s student many years ago who did a project on trying to select the optimal subset of trees to remove.

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For extra jaguarosity, it appears that jaguars are also fond of avocados. In fact, according to an entire literature of Creationist arguiments, this feline fondness proves that even obligate carnivores could have survived on a vegetarian diet in the Prelapsarian Garden of Eden.

Also black bears, raccoons, skunks, coyotes, foxes and domestic dogs. Borchert et al. speculate that mountain lions might spread them but they didn’t observe this.

Our cats are especially fond of sweetcorn. Unfortunately no journal will publish my paper proving that Zea mays saccharata co-evolved with felids, because censorship.

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"What makes the avocado even stranger as an evolutionary dancer without a partner is that the pit is actually toxic. We don’t have the liver or the enzyme systems to detoxify our bodies from something like the avocado seed,” Barlow says.

A quick Google search turns up dozens and dozens of articles (like this one) about the nutritional value of using the avocado seed. Most recommend pulverizing it and using it in smoothies or brewing tea from it. Lots and lots of people seem to be happily eating avocado seeds and disproving its supposed toxicity.

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Yeah, I end up with (mostly unwanted) tomato and pepper plants all over the place where they were previously planted in my garden because of missed fallen fruit, and a lot of my fruit and vegetable plants are grown from saved seeds of last year’s crop. But it often doesn’t work for fruit trees - if you planted an apple or pear seed, for example, you’d likely end up with a tree that produced inedible fruit, and definitely completely unlike its parent, because it also doesn’t “grow true.” If you planted a lot of apple seeds, the fruit would only collectively be good for making cider. (The Johnny Appleseed story often leaves out the bit that the apples from his seeds were only used for making alcohol.) One tree in an orchard might produce fruit worth eating; if you wanted quantities of edible apples you’d use that one for grafts and use the others just for rootstock. When you buy apple or avocado trees, the fruit-producing parts are grafts.

And it seems like even grafted trees can produce fruits of varying taste and quality as well. I’ve had a few avocado trees, but I’ve got a Bacon that produces a good number of fruit that taste many times better than anything else I’ve ever had, and anyone I share the fruit with rave about them similarly.

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I do love a good avocado BLT :slight_smile:

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I feel your pain. I can’t grow an avocado tree in Christchurch, NZ either. Up north though there’s a whole avocado industry. We can grow awesome stone fruit and raspberries down here though because of the freezing winters so it’s not all bad.

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Jealous! A perfectly-ripe white peach is one of the best things in the world. That said, I’ve never thought about trying to grow peach trees, so maybe I’ll give it a go in the not-too-distant future.

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I will vouch for the fact that they will grow and fruit in Hastings, if you are prepared to wait for a few decades.

The Bacon is excellent with bacon.

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Should not exist?
That’s the way I feel about the entire universe, pretty much.

“I refute ye thusly.” hurls avocado at you

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Good, you get the stuff that tastes like hydrazine. I’ll get the good food :wink:

“Pre-post-literates” I call them. . .

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You’re assuming there will be a point

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