Robert J. Knight, Jr
Tropical Research & Education Center, University of Florida
18905 S.W. 280th Street Homestead, FL 33031 - 1344

Although the title assigned me covers "the Florida experience" I am going to have to pay some attention to California as well because in the early days some people in California made significant contributions to developments in Florida.

    a. California. In the early days of California's settlement from Mexico, avocado seedlings apparently were not brought north along with the fig, orange, grape and olive which were planted at the Franciscan missions as these were established (Wolfe et al., 1934). The first recorded avocado introduction to California was prior to 1856, when a tree from Nicaragua was observed growing near San Gabriel (Condit, 1916). Seedlings were brought from Mexico to Santa Barbara in 1871, and in 1880 seeds from Guatemala were planted in Los Angeles.

Foundation of the West India Gardens at Altadena in the early 1900s involved an effort by F. O. (Fred) Popenoe, who had spent some time earlier in his career in Central America, to introduce and acclimatize some of the subtropical fruit crops he had encountered there. He was the father of Paul and Wilson Popenoe, both of whom for parts of their illustrious careers were plant explorers who had considerable impact on horticulture in the Americas. In 1911 Fred Popenoe sent Carl Schmidt to Mexico on a plant exploration trip to the Atlixco area in Puebla State to collect and return any avocado selections that appeared to be of interest for cultivation in California. One of these turned out to have tremendous impact on horticulture, first in California and subsequently in much of the rest of the avocado-growing world. Avocado fruit grown in the area of Atlixco was marketed in Los Angeles for some years before the Mexican revolution, which began in 1910, so a good many seeds from there were undoubtedly planted in southern California in the early 1900s. (Popenoe, 1926)

Plants grown from Carl Schmidt's collections of avocado budwood got off to a good start in California, but were severely damaged by a cold spell in 1913. In the course of assessing recovery from the freeze damage, Wilson Popenoe and his father came upon a plant, Number 15 of Carl Schmidt's collection, that impressed them with its strong growth. Wilson was studying Spanish at the time, and the two of them agreed that 'Fuerte' ("strong" in Spanish) would be an appropriate name for it. 'Fuerte' stuck, becoming the avocado cultivar most widely planted about the world for many years.

The West India Gardens eventually went out of business, but Carl Schmidt's introduction Number 15 went on to have lasting impact. There was a growing interest in subtropical crops for California at that time. The California Avocado Society was organized in 1915, and the publication of its reports biennially and later as a yearbook has had a profound, lasting effect on the development of the avocado industry in California and elsewhere. Establishment of the "Calavo" trademark in 1926 accompanied by the firmly enforced decision to stamp it only on first-grade fruit from one of two specific lists, one designated for local sales only and the other for shipment and local sales, gave guidance that helped establish important markets (Hodgkin, 1926). Three years later significant competition from California was being felt in Florida (Brooks, 1929). Publication in the Society's yearbook of lists of cultivars approved for commercial production in California gave valuable guidance to growers and marketers through the years.

    b. Florida. West Indian avocados evidently were introduced to Florida during Spanish colonial days: seedlings at St. Augustine are recorded as having been killed by the severe freeze of 1835. Also, the first permanent settlers arriving in the Miami area, about 1850, found trees growing in hardwood hammocks there. By 1900 several commercial groves of West Indian seedlings were established near Miami. In the late 1890s, however, avocados were first successfully propagated by budding in Coconut Grove by George B. Cellon, making commercial nursery propagation of selected cultivars possible (Fairchild, 1945). Cellon accordingly established the first commercial avocado nursery in 1900. Among important West Indian cultivars developed and propagated commercially (by dates) in Florida are 'Pollock' (1901), 'Trapp' (1901), 'Waldin' (1917), 'Simmonds' (1921), 'Fuchs' (1926) and 'Peterson' (1928). (Wolfe et al., 1934) All of these continue to be grown commercially, three ('Pollock', 'Waldin' and 'Simmonds') as major varieties (Fla. Avocado Admin. Committee, 1995). West Indian cultivars were the only important commercial avocados grown in Florida until the late 1920s, when competition from boatloads of seedling fruit brought from Cuba made it unprofitable to produce fruit for the summer market here. In 1929 the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives was contacted in an effort to get a tariff put on avocado imports, but this failed (Brooks, 1929). Depression days intensified market pressures from Cuba, and this situation gave the newly-developed Guatemalan-West Indian hybrids (which ripen in fall and winter) their first commercial opportunity, which they continue to exploit.


USDA began to bring seeds of Guatemalan avocados into Florida in 1906, before which time all commercial propagation there was of West Indian seedlings of local origin. The first Guatemalan avocados that fruited created great interest because their fruit ripened during the spring months, greatly extending the season of ripening in Florida. In 1914 Wilson Popenoe, employed as a plant explorer by USDA, selected budwood from Guatemalan and Mexican avocados growing in California and brought it to Florida. In the same year O. F. Cook, another USDA plant explorer, made the first selections of budwood in Guatemala. (Wolfe et al., 1934) Wilson Popenoe later made a thorough exploration for avocados in Guatemala (Popenoe, 1919).

In the early days of the industry there was a certain amount of interchange among California and Florida growers, some of whom were members of the California Avocado Society. 'Fuerte' was tried seriously in Florida and was found to be productive and cold tolerant but not resistant to fungal disease (principally anthracnose) under Florida's humid conditions. ('Hass' later showed the same difficulty, and also bore small fruit which cracked.) 'Fuerte' aside, California nevertheless made an important contribution to the Florida industry.

Of six pure Guatemalan cultivars grown commercially at one time in Florida ('Itzamna', 'Linda', 'Nabal', 'Schmidt', 'Taylor' and 'Wagner') only one, 'Taylor', continues to be grown as a minor variety. This is apparently because the Guatemalan race's adaptation to elevated, relatively cool sites does not equip its members to thrive under Florida's sea-level growing conditions, as a pioneer Florida grower, John Beach, reported to the California Avocado Society many years ago (Beach, 1923).


No Mexican introductions achieved commercial success in Florida.

Despite the lack of commercial success of Guatemalan avocados in Florida, their contribution to the gene pool of Florida's cultivars was of enormous significance. The crossing that went on between them and the older West Indian cultivars was, with a couple of exceptions ('Nirody' and 'Trappson'), accomplished without hand pollination.

That hybridization was significant to the industry. Guatemalan-West Indian hybrid cultivars over the last 60 years have become the backbone of Florida's industry. This resulted from a combination of economic and ecological factors. At the very time that competition from Cuba took the profit out of growing West Indian (summer) avocados in Florida during the Great Depression, cultivars belonging to this new hybrid group were found to fill a market "window" (autumn and winter) when there was not competition from the Caribbean. These hybrid cultivars have continued to be of major importance until today, although West Indian cultivars resumed market importance when trade with Cuba was interrupted in the early 1960s. One important member of this Florida group of hybrids, 'Lula'--named for George Cellon's wife-- originated from a seed of the original 'Taft' tree brought from California and planted at the Cellon nursery in 1915 (Fairchild, 1945). It was originally reported to be a Mexican-Guatemalan hybrid because the seed of 'Taft' it grew from had come from California (Wolfe et al., 1934). This contention has not been confirmed by modern methods of analysis, and Lula's morphology suggests that it may be a Guatemalan-West Indian hybrid. The seedling first fruited in 1919, and its commercial propagation began in 1921. It remains a "major variety" to this day despite a couple of disadvantages: susceptibility to scab disease (Sphaceloma persicae) and a large seed.

'Collinson' is another of the older Guatemalan-West Indian hybrids in Florida, having originated from a seed of 'Collins' planted at the USDA Plant Introduction Garden at Miami in 1915. The tree first fruited in 1920, was propagated commercially in 1922, and remains a minor commercial variety today although it has obvious defects such as extreme sensitivity to chilling injury, low productivity where there is not adequate cross-pollination and germination of the seed within the fruit if fruit remains on the tree after maturity. 'Tonnage' along with 'Lula' and 'Collinson' is one of the older hybrid cultivars, having been selected in 1921 and propagated commercially in 1930.

The most important group by far of Guatemalan-West Indian hybrids is made up of the numbered Booth cultivars. These owe their origin to seeds of Guatemalan trees that were growing in an experimental planting of mixed cultivars and selections belonging to W. J. and Isabelle Krome, proprietors of the Coral Reef Nurseries located in south Dade County, between Miami and Homestead. These cultivars stem from a collaboration between Mr. and Mrs. Krome and Will Booth, who in 1920 planted seeds of Guatemalan cultivars from the Krome experimental planting and grew them to fruiting age (W. H. Krome, pers. comm.). The tree designated 'Booth 2' first fruited in 1927, and others in the series entered production at about the same age. Booth seedlings 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8 were propagated commercially in 1935 (Wolfe et al., 1949). At the present time, 'Booth 5', 'Booth 7' and 'Booth 8' are listed as major commercial varieties, 'Booth 1' and 'Booth 3' as minor commercial varieties (Fla. Avocado Admin. Committee 1995).

Since the mid-30s when the Booth seedlings were selected, other cultivars have been named and added to the commercial list, some of major importance. Most show characteristics of both races although one at least, ('Tower 2') is probably of pure West Indian origin. Without much question interracial hybrids rather than the two original parental races have been involved in the open-pollinations that produced some of these seedlings, so it is difficult to determine whether a specific cultivar of this later group derives from the primary cross or from the backcrossing of a hybrid.

In 1942 the Avocado Variety Committee of the Florida State Horticultural Society published a report following the example of the California Avocado Society in publishing three lists, the first of cultivars in commercial production, plantings not being extended ('Pollock', 'Simmonds', 'Trapp', 'Peterson', 'Winslowson', 'Collinson', 'Linda', 'Wagner', 'Schmidt', and 'Itzamna'); the second of cultivars in commercial production, plantings being extended ('Fuchs', 'Waldin', 'Booth 8', 'Booth 7', 'Hickson', 'Lula', 'Taylor', and 'Nabal'); the third of seedlings of promise meriting more extensive trial. This last group was broken up into two subgroups, "Varieties being tried extensively" ('Booth 1', 'Booth 3', 'Bonita', 'Hall', 'Harris', 'Herman' and 'Tonnage'), and "Seedling varieties now being give limited trial" ('Booth 7-B', Booth 10', 'Booth 11', 'Byars', 'Choquette', 'Edmonds', 'Frank', and 'Lindgren'). (Krome, 1942)

It is interesting to note that some 53 years after these evaluations, we still find 'Pollock', 'Simmonds', 'Booth 8', 'Booth 7', 'Hall', and 'Lula' carried as "major varieties", while 'Peterson', 'Collinson', 'Fuchs', 'Hickson', 'Taylor', 'Booth 1' and 'Booth 3' are still being marketed as "minor varieties" (Fla. Avo. Admin. Committee, 1995). Subsequent reports from the Avocado Variety Committee have provided useful information over a period of years.

Cultivars of major commercial importance among avocados propagated since 1935 include 'Dr. Dupuis #2' (patented 1962; Krome 1967), 'Nadir' (Krome 1959), 'Nesbitt' (registered 1954), 'Tower 2', 'Black Prince', 'Choquette', 'Hall', and 'Monroe'. Currently in Florida the tendency is to plant large-fruited cultivars to take advantage of the demand for such fruit among Hispanic ethnic groups, to whom fruit of this type is familiar (C. W. Campbell, pers. comm.). This reverses the earlier trend toward selecting smaller-fruited kinds in response to competition from California (Brooks, 1929).


Exportation of Germplasm
California and Florida have both made important contributions to avocado culture in the rest of the world. Cultivars that achieved their first major development in California, notably 'Fuerte' and later 'Hass', have been exported to achieve commercial dominance in those parts of the world having Mediterranean-type climates similar to those of the avocado-growing regions of California. It is less known, perhaps, that cultivars developed in Florida have been exported with similar success to tropical and warm-subtropical lowlands about the world with climates similar to that of south Florida.

Early in the 20th century P. J. Wester took improved West Indian cultivars to the Philippines to add to those already being grown there. Later, Guatemalan-West Indian cultivars were taken to Cuba, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands where their ability to extend the marketing season was appreciated and exploited. 'Lula' grown in the French Caribbean has been marketed in France for many years. In the 1970s and later USAID projects directed toward agricultural development resulted in the shipment of scions and seed of Florida cultivars (and others deemed worth trial) to several equatorial African and South American countries (Table 1). Other distributions of avocado germplasm have continued to be made from USDA's Miami station to numerous warm parts of the world.

At the present time orchards of Florida cultivars ('Booth 7', 'Booth 8', 'Choquette', 'Hall', 'Monroe', 'Peterson', 'Pollock', 'Simmonds', 'Taylor', 'Tonnage') can be found in all the Central American countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras. Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama) and in South American (Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela). The fruit from these plantings is consumed within the countries for the most part. In the Dominican Republic several Florida cultivars are planted extensively for export to the USA. (C. W. Campbell, pers. comm.) 'Booth 7' and 'Booth 8', along with 'Lula', 'Hall' and 'Choquette' have been planted in coastal plain situations in Mexico although their fruit is not preferred by the people who live there (Malo, 1970). A number of Florida cultivars are recommended for planting in São Paulo State, Brazil, as are 'Fuerte' and 'Linda' (Wiltbank, 1977).

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© MMIV - Volume 1 Number 3 Whole Number 3 Tropical Visions July 2004