Posts Tagged: GEM
Talkin Avocados in the San Joaquin
The meeting will include a presentation by Sam Santander (CDFA-Avocado Inspection Service), Ken Melban (CAC) and a Q/A on avocado growing in the SJV. There will be also 2 visits to GEM growers in the local area. Directions to the tour stops will be provided at the meeting.
San Joaquin Valley Avocado Meeting, December 5, 2022, 8:30 AM to ~12:30 PM
UC Lindcove Research and Extension Center, 22963 Carson Ave, Exeter, CA 93221
PLEASE RSVP to Mary Lu Arpaia, mlarpaia@ucanr.edu with Subject Line: 12/5/22 Avocado Meeting
Mary Lu Arpaia
Professor of Extension, Subtropical Horticulture
University of California
Department of Botany and Plant Sciences
Riverside, CA 92521
GEM fruit
$92 Avocado for Wholesale Trees? Avocado Trees are Selling Well.
A recent auction in South Africa was selling 'Maluma' variety of avocado for $92 a tree. That is more than the average price of avocado nursery trees in that country and a lot more than what is paid in California or Florida. That variety has suddenly gotten a huge demand because of its sales characteristics accounting for 13% of the tree sales from one nursery there.
This is a phenomenon that is going on world-wide not just for 'Maluma'. According to a CA nursery producer, the 'Maluma' sale is really a reflection of the world-wide demand for avocado trees and not necessarily this South African variety. Avocado acreage is expanding world-wide. So far 'Maluma' has a US import license, but has not been grown in CA, so we don't know its performance characteristics. That should change soon according to the nurseryman.
Related story: South Africa: Maluma Day to challenge avocado sector's “convenient position”:
http://www.freshfruitportal.com/news/2017/03/08/south-africa-avocado-auction-shows-exorbitant-demand-maluma-trees/
avocado in bloom
Avocado Pollinizers
A trial planted in Oxnard involved eight different pollinizer varieties at three different distances from 'Hass' tree rows. Yield data collected from 2002 – 2005 suggest that the presence of pollinizer varieties in close proximity enhance the total number of fruit harvested from ‘Hass'. The influence of pollinizers on yield diminishes as the distance from the pollinizer variety increases. Differences were detected between pollinizer varieties in terms of influencing ‘Hass' yield. The highest ‘Hass' yields were observed when ‘Fuerte', ‘Zutano' and ‘SirPrize' were used as the pollinizer. The lowest cumulative yield was observed when ‘Harvest', an A-Flower type was used. Small but significant differences were also detected in percent dry weight, fruit and seed length/width ratio and seed size. For a more complete description of the trial see:
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-2475.pdf
avocado fruit
There's a new avocado in town
The GEM avocado is the great-granddaughter of Hass avocado, which is currently the industry standard in California. GEM has all the excellent characteristics of Hass avocados - creamy, nutty flesh; dark, pebbly skin when ripe - and it has additional benefits for the grower, according to Mary Lu Arpaia, a UC Cooperative Extension subtropical horticulturist based at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier, Calif.
"Hass avocados are alternate bearing - they will produce a big crop one year, and a small crop the next. GEM is more consistent, so growers can make money every year," Arpaia said. "The trees are also more compact, which means growers have less costs for harvesting and tree maintenance."
GEM was part of an extensive avocado variety breeding program led since the 1950s by UC Riverside plant breeder Bob Bergh. Arpaia took over the program in 1996.
In the early 1980s, Bergh released a variety he called the Gwen. However, Gwen didn't turn black when it ripened, a disadvantage because consumers are accustomed to Hass. In the mid 80s, Bergh planted more than 60,000 avocado variety seedlings on farms across Southern California. GEM, a granddaughter of Gwen, was one.
There are GEM trees growing at the UC South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine. Fruit samples are sent to the Kearney Sensory Laboratory, where volunteers judge the fruit's outward appearance and compare the flavor with Hass.
Recently, UC Riverside signed an exclusive license agreement with Westfalia Fruit Estates, a South African company, to market GEM around the world, the university announced. In the United States, the California–based Brokaw Nursery has non-exclusive rights to the GEM avocado.
For information on GEM avocado sensory testing, see the one-minute video below.
Read a transcript of the video.
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