When are Avocados Ripe?

If you’re growing an avocado tree in the back of your home, you’ve probably been wondering when avocados are ripe enough to pick. Avocados should be mature enough to ripen once they are picked. So don’t go picking your avocados quite just yet!

Avocados in October

While the majority of the United States is beginning to cool off going into the fall months, places like Southern California have some of its warmest weather of the year during this time. September and October are California’s hottest months, so avocado trees should have efficient water to stay healthy until the weather cools off.

The baby avocados set in April and May should be big enough by now that you’re probably tempted to start picking them. However, we’re here to tell you that you should hold off because they aren’t mature enough and won’t soften. Avocados get their flavor from the oil, which makes the fruit soften once you pick it from the tree.

You’ll have hard and rubbery fruit if you pick your avocados now. All that time you spent watering, fertilizing, and giving your avocados tender-loving care will be wasted. You want perfectly ripe and ready-to-eat avocados, so you should wait until they are mature enough and have the right amount of oil content. Once December passes, your avocados will be beautifully softened and full of flavor.

Trees Need More Water When It’s Hot

When avocado trees don’t get enough water when it’s hot, the roots will pull salts from their soil into the tree, and the leaves will begin to turn brown. To ensure this doesn’t happen, make sure your tree gets enough water. When the weather gets hotter, your avocado trees should be watered more often.

As your avocados become bigger, the branches of the trees will sometimes fall off. If this happens, this means your avocados don’t have enough oil, so your avocados won’t soften. Once your avocados are mature enough to pick, you can prune back your avocado tree. During October, there are beautiful avocados hanging on trees.

In October, there are also a lot of spiders, which help keep nature in its beautiful balance in the avocado world. October is typically the month when the last of the avocados are being harvested and the new crop for the next year is starting to size up. During the hotter months, you just need to keep the irrigation in good shape and wait for your avocados to have plenty of oil content for their harvest.