The Incredible TRUE STORY Of The American Avocado!

In this video, I share the incredible true story of the American avocado! The avocado tree is native to the Americas, but have you ever wondered why commercial growers grow different avocados in California and Florida? We explore the incredible history of avocados and why the Hass avocado dominates the market today.

There are 3 races of avocados: Mexican avocados, Guatemalan avocados, and West Indian avocados. These different avocado types hold the key to selecting the correct avocado variety if growing avocados is your goal. Pairing the right avocado trees to your location is critical for success growing avocado trees.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 California VS Florida Avocados
2:44 The 3 Avocado Races
5:38 The Story Of The Hass Avocado
8:00 Why FL & CA Grow Different Avocados
11:19 The Florida VS California Avocado Lie
13:02 Tasting Florida VS California Avocados
18:34 Adventures With Dale

My Lila Avocado Tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WekgdVJS9t0

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#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #avocado #avocados

What’s growing on gardeners have you ever wondered what the differences are between avocados that look like this often called Florida avocados and avocados that look like this often called California avocados well on today’s video I’m going to give you the truth as to what the real differences

Are between these two and it’s a story that you’ve never heard and I’m also going to tell you the incredible story as to why almost all commercial avocados in grocery stores these days look like this and at the end of the video we’ll break into them both and give them a

Taste test if you’re new to the Channel Please Subscribe and hit the Bell to receive new video notifications and check out our Amazon store and spreadshop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome custom designed toar and other gear your support is greatly

Appreciated avocados are a source of great controversy and confusion to solve the mystery of the avocado we can consult the internet but like most information on the internet we have to Wade through all of the wrong information before we reach the truth for example if you go to Google and you

Type in California versus Florida avocados you will get an article from the American Institute for cancer research that tries to break down the difference you’d think that the American Institute for cancer research would know what they’re talking about but you’d be wrong they either lazily or ignorantly oversimplify it down to fat content

Stating that the biggest nutritional differences between California and Florida avocados is the fat content and that Florida avocados have less fat than California avoc avocados absolute nonsense because there’s no such thing as California or Florida avocados in reality California and Florida avocados do not vary in fat content because you

Can grow either avocado in either state provided that your climate is mild enough in fact I just went to the grocery store where they had a sign for Florida avocados and when you actually look at the avocados that are inside the bin they are grown in the Dominican

Republic this avocado right here that I just purchased as a Florida avocado was not grown in Florida imagine buying a jersey tomato that was grown in California no one would ever stand for that but yet we do this misnomer with avocados the same thing goes with this

Avocado right here you may think this is a common California grown avocado but in fact it was grown in Mexico it is a h variety no doubt that you commonly grow in California in commercial culture but this was not grown in California so how did did we get here and why does Florida

Tend to grow avocado varieties that look like this and why does California tend to grow avocado varieties that look like this well it all boils down to climate and in order to understand that you need to understand the three different races of avocados there are three different

Races of avocados the Mexican race the Guatemalan race and the West Indian race where in this case West Indian does not refer to the country of India but rather the West Indies which is the Caribbean and Central America avocados are native to the Americas hence the Latin name Persia Americana Mexican avocados come

From the subtropical and tropical Highlands of Mexico they come from the highest latitudes and the highest elevations of all the avocados so for that reason they tend to be the most cold hearty in fact Pure Mexican avocados can for a very brief period tolerate temperatures down into the

Upper teens and that is how I’m able to grow this variety of avocado in ground in North Carolina where I live this is a pure Mexican avocado variety called Leela and it’s able to tolerate the cold weather that we have here the way you can tell if you have a Mexican avocado

Variety is by the scent of the leaves Guatemalan and West Indian varieties When you crush up the leaves don’t really have a scent but when it’s a Mexican avocado and you crush up the leaves it smells like black licorice it is a wonderful smell it smells like Anis at least that’s how I

Say it some people say n uh I’m pretty sure it’s not pronounced anus because it couldn’t be because it just smells too good Guatemalan avocados are from the tropical Highlands of Guatemala and the surrounding region because they are from a lower elevation and lower latitude than Mexican varieties they are

Significantly less cold hearty depending on the variety they can generally tolerate brief temperature dips down to about the 25 to 30° range but you will more than likely see some damage and tip burn prolonged temperatures colder than that can kill them West Indian avocados come from the tropical lowland so they

Did not evolve to tolerate any Frost or freeze for that reason they are very susceptible to frost and a hard freeze that’s prolonged can kill them but they also happen to be the most tolerant of rainfall and humidity and are the most disease resistant of all the avocado

Races most commercial avocados sold in stores today are actually hybrid crosses between these different races you see avocados don’t grow true to type when you plant an avocado pit you get a random unique tree every time for instance only one H avocado ever grew from seed and every H avocado tree on

The entire face of the earth is a clone of that tree by taking and propagating cuting and budwood over generations fruitwood and fruits have been imported from Mexico and Central America and trees have been cross-pollinating in commercial Orchards and backyards for over a century every time a fruit falls

To the ground unnoticed and the seed germinates a new avocado ver iety is born because there are constantly new avocado varieties being born over time the commercial industry has changed their cultivars of choice today about 95% of all avocados sold in grocery stores in the US and 80% of the

Worldwide Market are the H avocado or a h like avocado and that is pronounced H not hos and it’s spelled HSS not Haas that is because it’s named after Rudolph H who grew the first H avocado tree but it wasn’t always this way Generations ago the most popular cultivar of avocado grown commercially

Was the Fuerte avocado in the early 1900s a long duration hard freeze swept through California and damaged or killed many avocado trees one tree planted in the garden of a man named Alexander LeBlanc sailed through the freeze relatively unharmed and that tree was named Fuerte which is Spanish for strong

That variety was then propagated and it became one of the first commercial avocados in California now Forte is a green skinned avocado the skin does not change color when ripe which is actually typical of most avocados back in the day you actually had to feel the avocado to

Tell when it was properly ripened now H avocado skin turns black when ripe and at the time believe it or not this was an undesirable trait the public was used to Green skinned avocados and black fruit was associated with rotten fruit however Rudolph H and his partner Harold

Brohall promoted this fruit as a black skinned alternative to Forte and they had an advantage because FTE was such a notorious alternate Bearer there were years where FTE produced poorly h a very consistent Bearer over time displaced Forte during those bad Seasons thanks to its consistent bearing habit over time H

Grew in popularity grossers liked it because of its thicker skin better durability and longer shelf life than Forte while consumers grew to prefer the black skin that would turn ripe as a visual cue and also they liked the nuttier flavor by the 1950s H became the dominant cultiv art in the United States

And today it makes up about 95% of the US market and 80% of the worldwide Market in fact so trained is the consumer to expect the avocado skin to turn black that today green skinned avocados which make up the majority of varieties are generally not even considered for wide marketing so why all

The confusion between so-called Florida and California avocados well because the different races of avocados evolved in very different climates they thrive in very different conditions and the climates of Florida and California are very different so therefore the commercial cultivars preferred in each location are very different because

Consumers are so conditioned to the H avocado they have grown to demand the high oil content creamy texture and nutty flavor that hases known for well Mexican and Guatemalan avocados tend to have a high oil content but both races evolved in the tropical and subtropical Highlands where humidity and dup points

Are generally lower for that reason California’s low summer dup points produce very good quality Mexican and Guatemalan avocados but Florida’s high D points do not Mexican avocados can grow well in north and Central Florida where it’s cooler because they flower so early in the winter and they ripen their crop

The exact same calendar year but they’re not appropriate for commercial markets because their skin is paper thin and their shelf life is terrible you’re never going to find any Mexican races of avocados in any kind of widespread commercial grocery store because they’re just not suitable for grocery chains

Guatemalan avocados are best suited for commercial production they tend to have thicker shells and better shelf life but they also take over a year to ripen on the tree Northern Florida is too cold for Guatemalan type Orchards and Southern Florida is too humid because the fruit hangs for so long on those

Varieties that they tend to rot in the humid High dupoint wet climates for this reason California has one of the only climates in the United States that is suitable for widespread Guatemalan type avocado production H is a Guatemalan type avocado while it is Genetically speaking a Mexican Guatemalan hybrid the

Genes expressed are of Guatemalan they have a Guatemalan type shell very low cold hardiness similar to a Guatemalan variety and they are susceptible to frost and they have no Anis smell in the leaves so these types of fruits just don’t grow reliably in Florida yes you can grow them in backyard culture but

You’re going to get a poor harvest because all of the fungal diseases are going to rot a lot of the fruit so you’ll likely never make a profit growing Guatemalan type avocados in Florida commercially because of Florida’s challenge climate the only location you can reliably have avocado Orchards will be South Florida where

Frost and freezes are rare and because of the extreme humidity and rainfall in the Summers the only race of avocados that have evolved to reliably deal with those conditions is the West Indian race of avocados because they came from the tropical Caribbean so basically Florida Commercial Growers are basically forced

Into growing West Indian type avocados or avocado varieties that Express the West Indian Je beans West Indian avocados like you see right here are very large they tend to weigh about 1 to 3 lb each and they have a higher water content a h avocado depending on when

It’s harvested usually has an oil content of 18 to 22% whereas West Indian varieties tend to have somewhere around an 8 to 12% oil content now that being said there is still no such thing as a California or Florida avocado they’re just umbrella terms that you lump a whole bunch of different unique

Varieties into for example the H avocado is going to be by far the most popular variety that you will find in a grocery store but there are other similar varieties that could be mixed in like a gem or a Sur prise or a Fuerte or a Gwen

Or something else like that in fact if you’ve ever seen the large H avocados that are sometimes sold in grocery stores a lot of time they’re a lamb Hass avocado they’re very similar you wouldn’t really know it unless you were some kind of professional grower or a

Fruit geek like me and if you’re watching this from California and you go to those Farm Market stands when it’s Avocado Season your favorite avocado variety is probably a reed this West Indian variety of avocado that I’m holding could be any number of varieties

It could be a hall a Monroe a Simmons a Chet a Donnie a pollock a Catalina I don’t really know my West Indian avocados very well but there’s no such thing as a Florida avocado or a California avocado it’s a misnomer and a catchall umbrella term many many times

Your Florida and California avocados aren’t even from Florida or California like I showed you in this video they’re actually imported from other countries and that right there is my crash course on avocados and a short history of the avocado industry in the United States and worldwide since I purchased my

Future Homestead property in Florida I have been intensely researching avocado varieties and I won’t lie it’s a little depressing to know I won’t be able to reliably grow my favorite Guatemalan types there but I’m sure I will find something I will love now let’s break into both of these avocados and record

The difference all right let’s cut into both of these avocados and we’re going to start with the H avocado and we’ve all had these a million times before I’m sure but if you don’t know the best way to cut into an avocado you want to remove the little stem end and then you

Want to cut down directly until you hit the pit then you want to run your knife around in a circle and then you are going to twist and then it should come out cleanly we’ve all seen H avocados before and we know that they are a smaller

Avocado variety that has a small to medium siiz pit relative to the Flesh of the avocado uh it will always have pretty much no fiber no strings to it so let’s taste this it Scoops out of the shell very easily it is just it’s so good even for

A grocery store avocado sometimes they can be h Hit or Miss they get dinged up in shipment but this one is very good it is Rich it is creamy you can tell it has a high oil content and it has that nutty somewhat peppery flavor

That we’re used to on the H however you can tell it’s a grocery store avocado fruit because it almost has like a background leafy green almost chlorophyll taste to it I generally think you get that in a lot of grocery store fruits because they always pick them immature so they don’t get damaged

In shipment and you just can’t get that taste out of there you don’t get that on your homegrown garden vegetables and fruits still very good though now we’re going to cut into this monster West Indian quote unquote Florida avocado and I’ve never had an avocado this big in my

Life but the first thing I’m noticing is when I cut into it uh some water actually starts running down the side and we’re going to twist this wow look at that monster fruit right there and here is an incredible closeup of both avocados you can can see the difference

In them wow really something amazing really impressive and I can’t wait to actually taste test them side by side so now let’s give this unknown West Indian variety a taste and it feels very similar in terms of the ripeness of the has so there should be an Apples to

Apples comparison the texture seems about the same wow it definitely is a bit different this West Indian variety almost has a sweetness to it it tastes sweet it almost has a little bit of a cashew taste to it okay okay I’m really getting the difference when I do it side by side like

This the half style avocado definitely has more oil in it and it has more of a The Nutty flavor is more like a walnut flavor where it’s a little bit more roasty if you can imagine that whereas this avocado The Nutty flavor is more like a cashew flavor where it is almost

Sweet cashews are much sweeter and they have less of that astringency roasty flavor than a walnut m i I really honestly thought that I was going to vastly prefer the H avocado to these West Indian types because these have the reputation of being lower and fat and more

Watery the texture is almost identical the flavor is really 90% similar it’s just this flavor is a little more roasty whereas this flavor is a little more sweet this is absolutely fantastic now I will say that the H variety would definitely make a better guacamole the H

Is not sweet at all and it has that that more earthy roasty texture I think if this was going to be mashed in a guacamole it would almost be too sweet uh but in terms of side by side if you were putting it in a salad or on a

Sandwich or just eating it straight out of the shell this one is every bit as good as the H in fact in some ways it is more complex because it has that sweetness flavor that the H uh definitely does not have and it is clear that this variety does have a little bit

Higher of a water content but it is definitely not watery this side-by-side comparison has completely changed my preconceived notions of these West Indian types they are really good in preparation for this video I went to a grocery store and I purchased multiple different varieties of West Indian

Avocados you can clearly see this one is a brown skinned and this one is a green skinned most are going to be green skinned they’re a little bit harder to find but let me tell you for eating right out of the shell these are absolutely fantastic and I’m thrilled

That I have several more that are sitting on my countertop because I’m going to be eating these all week so if you’ve never had a West Indian avocado before and you’ve been scared away because people say they aren’t as good as a h for fresh eating these are just

Every bit as good as a h and I haven’t eaten yet today so yes I’m going to eat this entire avocado this is going to be my lunch so everybody I sure hope you found this video helpful if you did please make sure to hit that like button

Subscribe to the channel and please ring that notification Bell so you’re notified when I release more videos like these if you’re curious about any of the products that I use in real life in my garden they are all linked Down Below in my Amazon storefront in the video description so expand the video

Description click on the Amazon link and you’ll see everything I use in real life and while you’re there check out my spread shop for custom merch if you want to support the channel thank you all so much for watching I hope to see you all

Again on the next video and if you have any questions about these avocados please ask them in the comment section [Applause] Below wellow that was quite the way to wake up for the morning huh buddy did you enjoy that howl did you enjoy the how I’m howing through a paper towel tube you want your breakfast are you hungry oh he’s hungry he’s vocal this morning