From the Fields - Arby Kitzman

By Arby Kitzman, San Luis Obispo County avocado grower

We had a little freeze last week, so most of the wind machines were going like crazy up and down our little valley. The freeze appears local, but I hear the volume for the 2024 California avocado crop might be down. I know my yields are down.

Last year, when things should be really opening and setting fruit, we had some miserable, cold weather, and blooms didn’t open. Several of my neighbors and I have talked about how we have a very poor fruit set this season. The cooler weather does affect the sizing of the fruit. Usually, by June or July, our fruit achieves its largest size. For example, in Temecula where it is much warmer, the fruit that they pick are the optimum sizes, so 48s, or the number of avocados needed for a 25-pound carton, whereas our smaller sizing is 60s (avocados per carton).

The state of California announced maturity release dates for Hass avocados, including Jan. 16, for smaller Hass avocados for the 2023-24 season. We can harvest any time from the release date until October or November. Our harvest may happen in June or July, which has been the best window for us the past few years.

Mexico is the real driver for the market. It imports so much fruit, and the price is controlled by the amount of fruit that it brings into the United States. The past few years, our best pricing has been June and July, when Mexico’s volume of fruit starts to drop off.

While we have lots of salt water around here, fresh water is still very scarce for the small amount of water that we use in our very shallow aquifer. Most of the wells in our valley are only a hundred feet or less, and the demand keeps rising, which affects water quality. Avocados are very salt intolerant, so when water quality starts to degrade, a lot of things happen, such as our fruit doesn’t size up as much.