Vol. 69 No: 3

Title:
Aspects of Delayed Harvest of ‘Hass’ Avocado (Persea Americana Mill.) Fruit in a Cool Subtropical climate. II. Fruit Size, Yield, Phenology and Whole-Tree Starch Cycling

Authors:
C. KAISER and B.N. WOLSTENHOLME

pp: 447-458

Abstract:
When avocado fruit of the late maturing ‘Hass’ were tree-stored until November (early summer) in the cool, mesic, subtropical Natal midlands, fruit size at a warmer site increased with most fruit of count 18 (211 to 235 g) in July and count 14 (266 to 305 g) in November. This compared with the majority of fruit at a cooler site averaging count 16 (236 to 265 g) in August and count 14 in November. Results also showed that late hanging did not necessarily result in lower yields of the following season's crop. In fact where fruit were left to hang late, high yields were recorded in the third consecutive year of the trial. Annual average trunk bark starch concentrations, sampled monthly, although significantly higher in July (early) harvested trees (ca. 4.8%) were not depressed much in trees harvested in August, September, October and November (ca. 4.1%). In addition, there were no significant differences in annual average trunk bark starch concentrations from August to November. The harvest by month interactions showed that although starch concentrations in July harvested trees reached the highest peaks (ca. 12%) they subsequently dropped to the lowest troughs (ca. 2%) indicating that starch was probably allocated to vegetative growth in preference to the following season's crop. These results suggest that under good management and the experimental conditions of this study, late hanging of ‘Hass’ fruit may be practised without a significant depression of tree vigour.

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