This one’s an honest wildcard, a volunteer seedling avocado rather than a grafted, known variety, so I genuinely don’t know what we’re going to get from it, or from any of the others like it around the property.
The Basics
Avocado, Persea americana, is native to the highlands of south-central Mexico and neighboring parts of Central America.
Origin and Habitat
Originally a highland tree, which is part of why avocados handle a wider range of climates than most of the true lowland tropical fruit we grow here.
What It Looks Like
A medium to large evergreen tree, familiar enough that it barely needs describing at this point given how common it’s become worldwide.
Uses and Flavor
No idea yet what these particular trees will produce, since avocado seedlings don’t come true from seed, the fruit could be great, mediocre, or somewhere in between, completely independent of whatever parent tree the seed came from. Seedling flesh also tends to run watery or grainy compared to grafted varieties, and the seeds themselves can end up oversized, eating into the amount of actual fruit you get.
Growing It Here
Honest update on this one: we didn’t plant these, they just appeared here and there on their own, and we decided to let them keep growing where they popped up because, hey, it’s food. We’ve made a deliberate choice not to grow avocado intentionally beyond that, for a couple of reasons. Seedling trees are a genetic lottery compared to grafted stock, and the lacewing bug, a newer pest working its way through Hawaiʻi’s avocado trees, is causing serious defoliation and stress across the island. On top of that, our neighbors already grow plenty, and avocado season around here tends to mean everyone’s up to their ears in them anyway. It’s a similar story to papaya, another crop we’ve mostly let go wild rather than actively manage. If you want the more predictable, better-eating version of a seedling gamble, grafted trees like our mango are the more reliable bet.
Pests and Diseases to Watch For
The lacewing bug is the one to know about, a relatively new avocado pest in Hawaiʻi that causes heavy defoliation and general stress on the trees. It’s part of a growing list of new pests reshaping what’s realistic to grow here, not unlike the coconut rhinoceros beetle we’re watching for on our acai and other palms, or the fruit-fly and disease pressure showing up elsewhere in the orchard.
Kenta’s Take
Half the fun of a seedling tree is not knowing what you’re going to get, but between the lacewing bug and the neighborhood already drowning in avocados every season, we’ve made peace with not chasing this one on purpose. The volunteers can do their thing, and we’ll enjoy whatever shows up.