New red leaves appear as the trees begin to bud!
March is one of my favorite times of year in the avocado grove. The trees begin to sprout beautiful new growth in tones of red and pink. As the new leaves sprout, the buds of the avocado flowers begin to appear too!
The buds grow faster than the new leaves!
As the buds grow bigger and begin to open, the trees begin to look shaggy with the spindly flowers making a splash of light lemon-lime color on the hillsides.
Instead of fall colors, we have Spring Colors in the avocado grove!
The tiny flowers begin to open, one by one.
The first flower has opened!
Like tiny stars, each flower has the potential to become an avocado! But not every flower will be pollinated, or will have the chance to develop into a fruit.
This bee has found the open flowers!
As the flowers open, the avocado trees become a busy place, with bees gathering nectar. The sound of bees buzzing in the trees is quite loud! Humming, buzzing….bees! They aren’t paying attention to people…only to the flowers!
Some trees are in full bloom while others are just beginning to open.
Some trees begin to bloom early, while others take more time. The new leaves continue to grow so they will be able to shade the new baby avocados from the warm springtime sun!
Have you heard about avocado flowers? They are female one day and male the next!
If you haven’t heard the story of avocado flowers, check out the post about Where Baby Avocados Come From! It’s a fascinating story! Flowers that can be male one day and female the next!
Low-hanging fruit!
At the same time, the new crop of avocados is mature and sizing up! It’s time to pick those beauties so that the tree will have energy to set the new fruit and allow them to begin to grow! This year’s crop is on the tree at the same time that next year’s crop is getting started.
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A box of fresh California Avocados comes to you in the mail every month!
February 7, 2015 at 1:01 pm
Last summer was the 1st time my avacodo plant flowered. I thought it died, so I brought it inside for winter. Now from 1 seed I have many shoots coming up. My question is “do I separate the shoots into different pots or transfer the whole pot into 1 huge one? I live in Washington State. Any answers to what I need to do????
February 8, 2015 at 8:05 am
Plant the seed into a pot. Well drained. The plant will be beautiful but it will never bear fruit.
April 28, 2016 at 9:14 am
Something eats or cuts off the flowers as they develop into small fruit. Any idea what and how to control?
May 1, 2016 at 7:18 am
Sometimes those little babies just fall off on their own. Have you seen pests in you trees?
April 25, 2017 at 6:22 pm
My avocado tree was started as a seed and last year I had small avacado’ s on and again this year but they all fell off.. what causes that?
May 5, 2017 at 7:32 am
Sometimes trees just aren’t strong enough to hold the fruit. Our trees drop small avocados too. We just hope that ALL of them don’t drop! It could be that your trees need nutrients (fertilizer) or perhaps the weather heated up and the tree didn’t get enough water at the right time. We have to anticipate hot weather and water the trees before the heat hits. Hope this answers your question.
May 3, 2016 at 1:30 pm
I sprouted my tree from a single seed. It’s in the yard, not potted. It’s a giant tree about 8 ft tall and finally has flowers. I didn’t see much bees but lots of ants. How would I know if any of the flowers will become fruits?
It’s been 10 yrs, I’m just happy that is flowered 😀
I’m in san francisco, ca
May 4, 2016 at 10:43 am
Yes I know the feeling. Both of mine are from seed,they are in 25gal pots one is 9 the other 10 years old. When we’ve back down to the gulf coast they are in the ground.
May 4, 2016 at 10:52 am
If you look closely at the flowers, if they have been pollinated, a tiny little green fruit the size of a BB will begin to grow. Soon it will be the size of an olive ….and then bigger! Lots of these tiny fruits will fall on the ground, but hopefully some will stay on the tree and grow for the next 8-10 months until they are mature.
June 17, 2017 at 6:40 pm
I bought a grafted avocado plant last year and kept it in a big pot inside. The plant is growing very well and started some new flower buds. but last week I noticed some black/brown spots on the leaves. should I be concerned.
July 5, 2017 at 5:22 pm
Usually the spots on the leaves are due to the plant taking up salt from the soil. Avocado trees need to have the soil leached….lots of water to wash out the accumulated salts from the water. Can you take it outside and run water through the soil? Or re-pot with new soil?
January 30, 2018 at 2:53 am
Our tree seems to be fruiting in alternating years. Last season we had about 10 large avocados only. This year we have hundreds. The tree is over 2 stories when we bought the house 3 years ago. I read that altenating year fruit growth can be helped if the load of the current year (with large crop) can be thinned before end of harvesting time (March? – we are new at this so not too sure!) so that the next years crop can have better luck and hopefully the tree will balance itself out? So we’ve been harvesting since about 3 weeks into December and have given away and eaten hundreds with prob 100-200 more at the way top of tree! I love that we have so much fruit, but I rather have less fruit and have some every year! Any suggestions! By the way, I love your site! The best I’ve found so far!
January 31, 2018 at 11:37 am
I asked The Farmer about your question, and he said that farmers have tried lots of things to help alternating year production. I’d be willing to bet that you have a huge crop because of all that glorious rain we had last year. The trees really loved it, and so did the avocados. This year should be a different story unless the tree gets lots of clean water. (The rain washed the built up salts out of the soil too.) You didn’t mention where you live, so I’m just assuming you’re in southern California.
January 31, 2018 at 9:28 pm
Hi Mini!
Thank you for your reply! I live in the Central Valley, 45 minutes south of Fresno. We actually have 3 trees total. The one I am asking about is what I believe to be Fuerte, since the color, look and harvesting time is what you talk about on your site. One tree is more likely Bacon. The last tree we are not sure because it nearly died from heat exposure from fire before we moved in. It is just now getting new branches since last year and finally a small avocado this year about 2 inches in diameter. The alternating fruiting habit is only the Fuerte it seems. I believe you are right about the extra rain because the walnuts did well this year too! Thank you for asking the farmer my question!
February 3, 2018 at 7:36 am
Fuertes are known for alternate fruiting. Just comes with the variety.
January 23, 2019 at 8:00 am
Is there a spray you could reccomend to help maintain the blossoms on the trees. My father used something that contained zinc or copper. I dont want to spray the wrong thing if there is one that actually exists. Thank You, A
January 23, 2019 at 8:56 am
Hi Alan, We rarely spray the bloom, as we put the needed micronutrients into the irrigation during the year. Sometimes we need to spray in the springtime, but it’s expensive to pay for a helicopter. When we have a need to spray in the springtime, we might add some micronutrients to help the bloom. There is no particular product that we use every year.
January 23, 2019 at 10:20 am
Thank you Ms. Mimi for your timely response. I purchased citrus and avocado fertilizer today. Spring comes early in S.W. Fl..
May 3, 2019 at 8:52 pm
I have a self fertile Hass I got from Home Depot. It’s flowering now. How long does it take to go from first flower to ripe fruit on a Hass avocado? I can’t find any specifics thanks.
Danielle
May 4, 2019 at 6:49 am
Hass are flowering now and soon the new baby avocados will appear. They must grow to size and then the oil content has to be just right in order for them to soften and be edible. In California the state certifies each size/variety of avocado for oil content. This usually occurs in December, but the flavor of the Hass will be much better if you wait until April-June to eat them.
March 19, 2020 at 7:04 pm
The fruit will form after the flower is pollinated, and it takes 9-12 months to grow. You’ll be eating those avocados next March/April/May, if you like good flavor. I have several posts about how avocados ripen. You might want to read more of those posts. The flavor depends on the oil content, and the oil content will be too low in December to give you any flavor.
Mimi Holtz recently posted..Springtime and COVID19 on the Avocado Farm
March 16, 2020 at 8:22 pm
Our tree, variety unknown for sure, was planted about ten years ago. It started from a five gallon pot and is approximately 10-15′ tall now. It was burned badly by a hot summer a couple of years back but after careful trimming of dead branches it has apparently healed itself since. Before it was damaged, we got maybe a dozen total fruits from it. Since then I’ve only seen one avocado on it and that one avocado has been hanging on for about a year now, slowly gaining in size. I can’t remember ever seeing any blossoms at any time anywhere on the tree. I do feed the tree and it gets watered regularly. It lives in a six foot diameter planter filled with shredded tree bark. What should I be doing differently if anything?
March 18, 2020 at 5:57 pm
So I’m from san Antonio texas, my mother and I love to plant all kids of trees. We have a avocado tree about three years ago and just this year we are getting flowers. I hope that we get avocados. Because those bad boys are over 1$ at the store.