How Long Does It Take An Avocado To Bear Fruits? [Read This First]

How Long Does It Take An Avocado To Bear Fruits?

It takes about 10-15 years for an avocado tree to bear fruit from the seed. If you grow it from a plant, it takes approximately 3-4 years, based on the different types of avocado trees.

What is life without avocado fruit?

 It is among the largest berries with the tastiest flavor and creamy texture. Globally, it’s among the most favorite cuisines. People eat avocado in different ways like raw, spread, and even guacamole dips. Better still, they are also helpful to tackle issues like indigestion, depression; just but a few.

Moreover, an avocado tree fruiting period depends on where you bought it and the planting conditions. Read on to get your avocado-bearing fruits as soon as possible.

Also Check – How To Grow Avocado Bonsai

How to Plant an Avocado Tree

If you start feeling impatient with your avocado tree for not fruiting, most probably something is amiss with the growing conditions. One thing for sure is that an avocado plant is very particular with its requirements to thrive as expected.

Let’s see how you should produce the avocados you need.

• Soil Preparation

An avocado plant prefers to grow in sandy and coarse soil. Nonetheless, they can still do well in other types of sandy soil. The pH level is not an issue for this plant but ensures you avoid using the high saline-containing ground. Also, bear in mind that your soil has to contain adequate iron nutrients.

• Watering

Watering is also a vital thing for your avocado plant. Proper watering is ideal for all types of avocado trees, especially the young ones, immediately after planting. Most people assume that watering is the easiest thing to do in the planting process.

Well, they couldn’t be as far from the truth. Cases like overwatering, flooding, underwatering, and poor draining can cause death to your avocado. Preferably, you should water the soil wet enough to avoid crumbling. Use your hands to check how moist the ground is to prevent leaving inadequate or excess water.

• Pruning

When it comes to pruning avocado trees, always remember to prune purposefully and avoid under-or over-pruning. Better still, know that avocado trees are different, so what works for one may not work for the other. Hence, it would help if you did pruning based on case-by-case.

Furthermore, the initial shaping of avocado trees begins in the nursery, while training starts right after planting. Bear in mind that avocado trees are usually broad-spreading trees with restrained apical dominance. It would be best to picture how you want your avocado tree to appear now and in more years to come.

Hygiene is also a crucial aspect when pruning avocado trees. Firstly, you need to clean the pruning tools regularly to ensure you use them clean always. Also, always prune the sick or unhealthy trees individually from the healthy lot. This will help inhibit diseases or infections like bacterial, fungal, and sunblotch. Ensure you throw away the infected pruning responsibly.

• Placement

Typically, avocado trees thrive better under the sun. While shady areas are not as harmful, they will not produce in such areas.

Therefore when planting your avocado trees, ensure you space them out properly. Still, avoid planting close to buildings and structures that will block the sun from reaching them.

 Even though you want them to grow under adequate sun, please avoid planting them in open areas with the direct wind. Heavy winds are going to knock out and harm the foliage.

• Temperature

Even with a wide variance of avocado trees, the right temperature to grow in is general for all of them. Preferably somewhere between 70° F to 100° F is suitable.

Additionally, young trees thrive better when planted during the spring months. Anything below or above this recommended growing temperature will drop the amount of production.

• Fertilizers

The best fertilizer is a mixture of boron, zinc, molybdenum, and manganese. Preferably, turn the mixture into a spray and use it at intervals from April to August.

Moreover, fertilize about six times a year for the initial three years of growth. Subsequently, you can reduce it to 4 times for the following two years. Use about 1.5lbs fertilizer, making sure the avocado trees consumes up to 18-20lbs of fertilizer for five years.

If you want to be sure of the amount of fertilizer to use every time, this is the most accessible formula. Each year, double the amount you used and add 2lbs more.

• Pollination

Typically, having a better harvest of avocados requires using two avocado trees; but they can still grow fine on one tree. Avocado trees blossom two types of flowers, A and B. because both types are open for pollination, ensure you grow two kinds of trees for better yields.

So, if you happen to grow both types in the same garden, expect a higher production than before. This process is called cross-pollination.

When Does an Avocado Tree Bear Fruit?

Usually, avocado trees produce fruits from April to September, specifically from late winter to early summer. Fortunately, the yields go on for months, especially if you planted your trees in the best conditions, as mentioned above.

While the production lasts long, your geographical location will determine the actual peak production period. For instance;

• Australia experiences its production from June to late July. However, they get medium-sized avocados that ripen and fall immediately. This production does not stick to the ripe processes as other avocados.
• In California, conversely, avocados go for two months in spring to pollinate. The production carries on from late winter up to early summer.
• In Asia, especially in Indonesia, the highest production occurs from October to March but lasts through the entire year.

Do You Need Two Avocado Trees For Fruiting?

An avocado tree has special flowering features that will help you decide if a second tree is worth it. With avocado trees, the flowering and pollination is not similar to other fruit trees.

Firstly, it is right to say that the flowers of avocado trees are perfect. This is because they consist of female and male parts but are not available simultaneously during pollination.

The flowers are open just for two days. The first day has the female part available for about 2-4 hours, which accepts pollen. Conversely, the second day involves the male parts of the flower opening for a short period to discharge pollen. Therefore, an avocado flower can’t pollinate itself due to the different times of opening for the two parts.

Furthermore, the flowers come in two different types, A and B. bear in mind that the kind of flowers depends on the species of avocado you are growing. A-type flowers feature their female parts opening in the morning of the first day while male elements in the afternoon. B-type delays in opening the female parts till the afternoon of the first day, and their male positions open the following day.

Pollination occurs when the pollen discharged from one type of flower reaches the flowers from another tree as long as their female parts are open and ready to take in the pollen. Usually, bees are the primary pollinators; hence transfer the pollen from a type A tree to a type B tree.

Nonetheless, there are some climates where avocados are likely to self-pollinate from the wind. This is common in South Florida or South Texas, but it does happen in California.

In summary, your avocado tree will produce a sustainable crop if you are also growing a second avocado tree nearby. But ensure that the other three should be a variety that complements your current tree. This means that you should choose type B avocado for your type A to enable smooth pollination.

How Many Times A Year Will An Avocado Tree Bear Fruit?

A standard avocado tree will produce fruit for about 200-400 years. Even though it sounds like a long time, it’s still a short period compared to an oak that lasts for over 500 years.

To be precise, a single avocado tree will yield 200-300 fruits per year when it’s around 5 to 7 years old. Avocados flower from late winter to early spring, but frost damages the blooms and fruits, suffering the yield.

Typically, avocado trees grow well in warm, tropical climates and yield within one to two years. Even if the meat appears dark green close to the fruit skin, it has a yellowish color as it nears maturity.

Let’s take a close look at the production rate of avocado trees.

In “two-yearly bearing” or “substitute bearing” conditions, when a tree has a large production in a year, the following year is likely to have less production. Occasionally, the trees only produce once, which means a good year can have nothing next year.  

An avocado tree can grow fruits up to 50 years after they are mature to produce.

Generally, how many times per year the tree produces fruit depends on the type of tree, external factors, and the amount of care the tree gets.

How Do You Make An Avocado Tree Bear Fruits Earlier?

Though avocado trees usually yield in three to four years, they can get fruit earlier or later based on a few reasons.

The first primary reason is if you purchase an enormous tree, especially a 15-gallon size or more. This is because the vast tree will bloom more and hence likely earlier fruit.

Additionally, an ideal setting for pollination will make fruit production faster and earlier. The pollination setting involves having several other avocado trees and pollinators like honeybees near coming to the flowers. Owing to this reason, you will also notice that avocado trees of the five-gallon size will set fruit frequently at nurseries each spring.

Also, some types of avocado trees appear more advanced than Pinkerton, Carmen, Lamb, and GEM. Such types easily bear fruits in even less than two years.

Some soil conditions are alkaline and, thus, lacking in iron. But, you can solve this problem by applying iron chelate soil steeps from early to late summer. This will ensure no delay in the production of fruit.

Ultimately, poor weather like cold or heavy rain in pollination may inhibit pollinators from coming to your trees. In such times, it would be best to handle it by yourself using a paintbrush and cross-pollinate your trees. So, you won’t miss out on the highly awaited fruits.

How Do I Know My Avocado Will Bear Fruit?

Usually, it takes time for avocado trees to mature enough until they can set fruit. However, if they start producing fruits, they will constantly do so for as long as they are healthy.

 Incredibly, there are easy-to-tell signs that show your avocado tree is ready to bear fruit. Such signs include;

• From January to March, check out for tiny, greenish-yellow flowers growing on your avocado tree branches. These flowers will open and close in two days and are a good sign that your tree is preparing to bear fruit.
• Be on the lookout for bee business around the tree flowers. During the first day, an open avocado flower is female and accepts pollen. On the second day, the open flower is male and discharges the pollen. Bees give a good indication that pollination is taking place, which enables avocado production.
• Take note of the temperature in the period of January to March. A range of 65 to 75 degrees F is perfect for the production of avocado fruit after the flowering cycle.
• Observe the flowers closely to see if they are starting to swell. Avocados yield from these blossoms and constantly grow until maturity, which takes six months or more, based on your growing type.

How Long Does An Avocado Fruit Take To Ripen?

Can’t wait to devour a bowl of guacamole?

 Knowing when the perfect harvest time for your avocado depends on the type and the region you are growing it. For instance, ‘Haas’ avocados are the most common type, and they are usually ready for harvest in February but can even go up to September.

Moreover, the harvest time varies significantly based on the weather, fertilization, and even the fruiting sequence of the tree. Usually, the home gardener will start picking avocados when some of the mature fruits drop.

But, this is not a reliable way to tell if an avocado is ripe. Nonetheless, the prolonged flowering of the fruit results in diverse stages of maturity on the tree every time. This does not prevent you from picking the largest fruit first. During avocado harvesting, start gathering the most significant first as they are the most mature and likely to ripen in one to two weeks when placed at room temperature.

Conversely, avocados are distinct since they do not ripen on the tree. Therefore, if you don’t want to eat a bunch any time soon, it would be best to leave them hanging on the tree. Ripe avocados have evenly soft flesh, which makes the best sign of readiness.

Avoid looking at the skin to determine readiness. Different types have different skin colors, from yellowish-green, black, and even reddish-purple. The fruit of the Hass variety begins to mature as a smooth, brilliant green, and slowly the skin changes to pebbly and purple-black. That color change is not a definite indication of a ripe avocado, but it is a hint.

Leaving the fruit dangling on the tree for a more extended period is an excellent way to heighten the oil content and taste. Typically, the flavor of the fruit is soft to buttery yellow and plain to nut-like.

Allowing it to stay too long will make the oils sour. There’s a “dry weight” test that large-scale avocado farmers use to measure the fruit’s oil content, hence providing the best time to harvest.

Furthermore, low oil content means the fruit is unripe and making it stay rubbery instead of soft. After knowing when and how to harvest your avocado fruit, you must be wondering how long you need to wait for more to start enjoying them.

An avocado ripens after 7-8 days. Better still, you can catalyze the process by putting it in a sealed plastic bag and storing it at room temperature. Usually, avocados are green after picking, but they will turn brownish after staying indoors to show ripe.

There are two methods to calculate the length to get a ripe avocado. One is by counting the period they take to fully mature, while the other is by estimating how long they take to ripen once picked.

Key points include;

• Plant and eat: It takes avocados 12 to 18 years to grow and mature. Consequently, they are ready to eat. So the avocados available in the markets are around 12 to 18 years old.
• Harvest and ripe: After harvesting the avocados, it takes keeping them at room temperature for about 7 to 10 days to mature. You can delay the process by putting the avocados in the refrigerator or speed it by storing the avocados with other ripe fruits in a plastic sealed bag.

Parting Shot

Patience! Above all the right conditions to grow an avocado tree, patience is the utmost key to ensure you reap what you sow. Be among the few gardeners that reach the finish line of avocado growing. That way, rest assured of fresh, large, creamy, and tasty berries for many years to come.