Why Would an Avocado Not Get Ripe? Home Guides

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Avocado trees (Persea species and hybrids) are prized for the edible fruits with creamy, rich flesh they produce and multiple available forms where they grow as evergreen trees in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10 to 11. It can be frustrating to care for an avocado tree carefully throughout the entire year and watch plenty of fruit begin to develop only to seemingly take a very long time to ripen or pick fruits that fail to soften. Properly timing the avocado fruit harvest allows you to enjoy appropriately tender, flavorful and oil-rich fruits.

Fruit on the Tree Unlike many other tree fruits, avocados do not ripen on the tree and must be picked before they can develop a desirable texture. Properly timing the picking is important, as the only reason that an avocado will not ripen is if it is harvested prematurely or stored improperly, in cool conditions. If an avocado is picked too soon, it has a low oil content and will never ripen sufficiently, remaining inedible and rubbery, with poor flavor. The longer the fruit stays attached to the tree, the higher the oil content that will develop.

Check for Ripeness A simple test for ripeness can help to guide harvesting decisions. To conduct this test, pick a couple of fruits when you suspect that the avocados are nearly ripe. Leave these avocados to rest at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, for about two weeks. Pick a few avocados each week, repeating the test as needed. Once the avocados you pick begin to develop a softer texture (within two weeks or so), giving way somewhat when you gently press the skin with a finger, assume that other avocados on the tree area ready for harvest.

Harvesting Different Cultivars Different avocado cultivars mature at different times and have different mature rind colors. For example, fruits on a "Hass" avocado (Persea x "Hass") develop a black rind when they are mature, which occurs across a long season extending from late winter through fall. Fruits on a "Bacon" avocado tree (Persea americana var. drymifolia) have green skin and ripen sometime in November through March. Making note of when avocados on a specific tree begin to ripen each year makes it easier to gauge when you would begin to check for ripeness in subsequent years, although weather and site factors can cause slight variations in best harvest timing.

Do Not Wait Too Long Waiting too long to pick avocado fruits is just as problematic as picking fruits too soon. If fruits are left hanging on the tree for too long, the oil in the avocado forces the fruit to develop a rancid flavor or a pasty or "dry" texture.

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