- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An unusual weather pattern over the last year has led to an abundance of small-sized avocados on Southern California trees, reported National Public Radio. The radio news service sought an explanation from Gary Bender, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in San Diego County.
Bender said in his 29 years on the job he has not seen such tiny avocados as those being picked this year.
Typically, several months after pollination, high temperatures in July cause a significant amount of developing fruit to drop to the orchard floor. That didn't happen in the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
If guacamole seems extra expensive come Super Bowl Sunday, it's because of the dry windy weather during the past several days, reported Craig Fiegener of NBC News in Los Angeles. Fiegener reported from UC Riverside and spoke to UC Cooperative Extension subtropical horticulture specialist Peggy Mauk.
Wind is no friend to the avocado industry. Prolonged and dry wind will damage trees and fruit. Citrus trees face the same threat, Mauk said.
"The plant starts making choices where the water needs to go, and the fruit, they're...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
"Native-born" Hass avocados have become the most popular variety in California, but Sacramento News and Review writer Alistair Bland said the state's farmers may be unnecessarily limiting their horizons.
Avocados originated in south-central Mexico and archaeologists in Peru have found domesticated avocado seeds buried with Incan mummies dating back to 750 B.C., according to the California Avocado Commission. The mother tree of all Hass avocados was born in a La Habra Heights, Calif., backyard.
Bland laments the homogenization of the California industry...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The avocado seed moth, Stenoma catenifer, could wreak havoc on California's avocados should the pest make its way to the state, according to UC Riverside entomologist Mark Hoddle.
Hoddle is in Peru until July to study pests of avocados in the South American country, according to a UC Riverside press release written by Iqbal Pittalwala. The avocado seed moth is native to Peru, and is particularly destructive in avocado-growing areas in the Chanchamayo region of the Junin District – a warm, humid jungle zone, the release said.
"As part of the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The creamy, healthy complement to spicy, crunchy nachos - avocados - may be in short supply this spring, according to a Los Angeles Times story that has been picked up all over the nation. California farmers expect to harvest the smallest avocado crop since 1990 and possibly even as far back as 1980, the story said, and prices will creep higher.
"Holy guacamole," joked LA Times reporter Jerry Hirsch in promoting the story on his Twitter account.
For the article, Hirsch spoke to UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Ben Faber to get his take on California's...
