Post by Catsmate on Jun 29, 2021 13:54:35 GMT
A quickie from my notes.
Messrs Hass, Rideout and Caulkins, and The Great Avocado Mystery of 1926
I'm sure many of you have eaten an avocado, probably a slightly 'knobbly' purple one. The history of humans eating the fruit (actually a berry) goes back at least twelve thousand years but the vast majority (>85%) of current avocados are of one variety, known as the Hass avocado. The curious things is that we don't know where that variety came from.
The story starts in 1925 when one Rudolph Gustav Hass, an American 'mail carrier' (postman) and amateur horticulturist, decided to supplement is income by growing the suddenly popular (and valuable) fruits. He purchased a small plot of land with existing avocado trees (mainly the then popular variety called 'Fuerte') and sought advice from a professional grafter named Caulkins, who advised Hass to buy avocado seeds from a nursery owned by an A. R. Rideout, grow his own seedlings and then have them grafted with the Fuerte variety.
Hass purchased about a hundred seeds; one of which grew quickly but two grafting attempts failed and Hass was going to cut the now-useless tree down until advice from Caulkins, that the young tree was viable (that he should "just leave it alone and see what happens"), stopped him. In a few years, in 1932, the tree bore fruits, which Hass tried on his children, who loved them.
Within a year the Hass avocado was selling for a dollar each (the Post Office was paying Hass 25 cents per hour) and in 1935 Hass patented the variety and started selling cuttings for grating.
No-one knows where the variety evolved; the initial seed may have been a cross-pollination, or it may have just been a rare evolutionary leap forward, but all Hass avocados today are grown from grafted seedlings derived from that one tree.
Game use.
Ah, such a delicate chain of events. So easily disrupted.
Did the odd seed originate from a Hass avocado brought back in time and dropped?
Or might the minor act of a time traveller alter this chainof events and drastically reduce the popularity (and value) of avocados as a crop?
Comments?
Messrs Hass, Rideout and Caulkins, and The Great Avocado Mystery of 1926
I'm sure many of you have eaten an avocado, probably a slightly 'knobbly' purple one. The history of humans eating the fruit (actually a berry) goes back at least twelve thousand years but the vast majority (>85%) of current avocados are of one variety, known as the Hass avocado. The curious things is that we don't know where that variety came from.
The story starts in 1925 when one Rudolph Gustav Hass, an American 'mail carrier' (postman) and amateur horticulturist, decided to supplement is income by growing the suddenly popular (and valuable) fruits. He purchased a small plot of land with existing avocado trees (mainly the then popular variety called 'Fuerte') and sought advice from a professional grafter named Caulkins, who advised Hass to buy avocado seeds from a nursery owned by an A. R. Rideout, grow his own seedlings and then have them grafted with the Fuerte variety.
- Rideout collected seeds from wherever he could, including restaurant scraps, and grew seedlings for sale.
Hass purchased about a hundred seeds; one of which grew quickly but two grafting attempts failed and Hass was going to cut the now-useless tree down until advice from Caulkins, that the young tree was viable (that he should "just leave it alone and see what happens"), stopped him. In a few years, in 1932, the tree bore fruits, which Hass tried on his children, who loved them.
- The Hass cultivar bears larger fruit with a higher oil content and better taste, produces fruit year round (and every year, unlike many varieties) and the fruit last longer before spoiling than others. The trees are also straighter and take up less land for cultivation.
Within a year the Hass avocado was selling for a dollar each (the Post Office was paying Hass 25 cents per hour) and in 1935 Hass patented the variety and started selling cuttings for grating.
No-one knows where the variety evolved; the initial seed may have been a cross-pollination, or it may have just been a rare evolutionary leap forward, but all Hass avocados today are grown from grafted seedlings derived from that one tree.
Game use.
Ah, such a delicate chain of events. So easily disrupted.
Did the odd seed originate from a Hass avocado brought back in time and dropped?
Or might the minor act of a time traveller alter this chainof events and drastically reduce the popularity (and value) of avocados as a crop?
Comments?
