New avocado diversity

Interesting article for those of us in Fallbrook and the avo growing region. New avocado varieties discovered in Central America.

The researchers extracted and analyzed DNA from 47 native avocado landraces, 32 of which came from Nicaragua. They then compared the DNA from the various landraces with previously published genetic data from more than 200 other avocado lineages.The findings, published in the journal Plants People Planet, showed that the avocados sampled in the lowlands of Nicaragua were genetically tied to avocados found further south, including populations along the coast of Colombia, rather than north in Mexico.

This revealed that many local landraces in that part of Central America are planted from fruits originally grown in South America.

Mr. Wann believes the trove of avocado diversity preserved in Central America’s lowlands could help protect commercial avocados from the fate of other clonal crops such as bananas, which have been devastated by fungal pathogens in the past.I have lived in the avo region and grown avocados for much of my life. Once upon a time I wrote for California Grower magazine and traveled around the world doing avo research.

We lived on an old avo ranch on Fuerte drive as a kid in La Mesa. 

Later I had a bacon zutano ranch in Rainbow before my present ranch which was filled with fuertes when I bought it. 

I cut them down to build a horse pasture and save money on water.

I only have a few trees left.

My favorite avos were always Reeds and Fuertes but Hass eventually took over the market, easy to ship and pack. Now it is practically the only fruit out there and ripe for a biological pathogen, like the cavendish banana.

The problem in the old days was the phytophera cinnamoni fungus, or root rot. You couldn't step into a yard in Fallbrook back then without stepping into a pan of white power to kill the fungus. People were very strict.

Trees were planted on steep hillsides as they needed drainage to hold the disease off. 

I think that a lot of that was alleviated with the new g7 rootstocks that were fungus resistant. I honestly haven't kept in touch with the market. 

When I visited groves in Israel I was dumbfounded that they grew on flat earth. Their problem was not drainage it was keeping nutrient levels up, their land drained too well.

I remember lots of other varieties of avos in my youth, queens, dukes, gwens, pinkertons. One of my favorites were the little black topa topas that you could sometimes find on old rootstocks. They had paper thin skin, which you could eat right through, looked like a superball. Loved the little young fuertes that looked like a small rounded cucumber, so delicious.

I hope that the new discoveries are planted and that we find wonderful new additions to our table.