Sunday, May 01, 2022

Avocados that flower and fruit twice a year

The Malaysian climate is so uniform that every day is like every other day. The temperature and humidity are the same throughout the year. The day length in December and July differs by less than 30 minutes. There is no distinct annual dry season. Without seasons, we cannot tell by our senses which month of the year we are in. Trees cannot tell either.  There is no annual predictable flowering season in Malaysia. My avocado trees in Kuala Lumpur flower periodically but there is no way to predict when flowering will occur. The period between flowering events may be as short as 2 months or as long as three years. I also know of trees that never flowered in 15 years. Each tree expresses its own pattern of behaviour.  

After decades of research I now have clones that flower once or twice a year. The most exciting is a clone that I call Av5.  It has produced 7 crops between October 2018 and April 2022 i.e. two crops a year. The interval between crops has varied between two and seven months.

Flowering times of one tree of clone AV5

Oct 2018      first flowering, at age 3 years

Jan 2019      interval 3 months

Aug 2020    interval 7 m

Feb 2021     interval 6 m

Sep 2021     interval 7 m

Feb 2022     interval 5 m

Apr 2022     interval 2 m

I now think that by growing clones like Av5, that flower at close intervals of time, Malaysia can produce avocados commercially throughout the year with different trees producing at different times.