Do The Avocado Trees Add Value?

[CANative]

I prefer the Fuertes avocados. I think they have a higher oil content, their almost like butter in their texture and the skin stays green instead of black like the Haas. Our place in Cucamonga had three Fuertes that pre-dated by a couple of decades the "advent:" of the Haas in the 30's. My great grandmother named each tree after her three granddaughters. There was Kathryn (the eldest and my mother) the biggest of the three, Mary (the middle sister and mid size tree, and little Cornelia (the youngest by at least 15 years and the smallest tree). Outrageously good avocados. We lived on them for about 6 months between getting out of the Navy and finding work. Homemade tortillas, our avocados, onions and tomatilos that a tenant farmer grew on our land.

The University of Riverside planted about 30 experimental avocado trees on our land but they never produced particularly good fruit. Plenty of avocados but really mediocre.

It looks like only Cornelia is still on the land long after we sold it to a commercial investor for industrial land.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

My mother used to say her cheapskate cousin wouldn't share his avocados with his siblings. He had the best trees in the town.

 

[Blueprint]

Plenty of avo competition from outside the USA.

http://www.missionpro.com/avocadosourcing.html

I am an avocado freak and they always come from from mexico.

 

[Blueprint]

Plenty of avo competition from outside the USA.

http://www.missionpro.com/avocadosourcing.html

I am an avocado freak and the best come from mexico.

 

[CANative]

Course grain bread, like nut and seed bread, toasted, mayo, and avocado with a little kosher salt is great for breakfast.

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

It's not like you can pick them yourself and throw them in the back of your F150 and deliver them to the produce manager at Safeway.

We picked the grapefruit off our tree last year, put in the back of my Tacoma, and donated it to a food pantry back yard fruit collection event.
Hate to see it go to waste.

Dad says they are sweet, I say super zour.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

You got that right. My father has 2 acres of Haas avos. It is enough for him to maintain the watering and other light maintenance. A service does the major work, including picking and packing them and then selling the avos. Some years have been decent, some terrible, with costs way over gross income.

Hobby farm. I have appraised some homes in Escondido and Valley Center with 5 acres of avos. The rubber meets the road when they report to the IRS what their net income is. You can depreciate avo trees for tax purposes.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Course grain bread, like nut and seed bread, toasted, mayo, and avocado with a little kosher salt is great for breakfast

sounds good except just leave off the mayo for me...and no mustard either...

 

[Peter LeQuire]

Course grain bread, like nut and seed bread, toasted, mayo, and avocado with a little kosher salt is great for breakfast.

I've done the same thing, with insignificant variation, and find it delicious. I do envy those folk who live near the area where this berry is grown. I lived in the Valley area of Texas for a couple of years. We had a very old house in an area of groves: there was a very large grapefruit tree in the back yard with a bench seat built around it. I much enjoyed early morning with a cup of coffee and a knife, eating a fruit within a minute of it being picked.

As Grandpa Jones would say, "Yum, yum."

 

[Scott Cullen]

Hobby farm. I have appraised some homes in Escondido and Valley Center with 5 acres of avos. The rubber meets the road when they report to the IRS what their net income is. You can depreciate avo trees for tax purposes.

If the HBU is as one (14 ac) or two 7 (ac) largish SF house lots (OP said that the adjacent SF neighborhood is consolodating improved lots to do that), then a question would be if the market will pay more for a lot that accomodates a new McMansion 6 car garage, stable and acres of amenity orchard. Instant ambiance, no waiting. This sort of buyer doesn't care about the income of a working farm or that costs >> income, maybe gets an ag land tax break, has the help do the work (they won't shoe their own horses or clean the pool themselves either). They may not even care if the trees are productive.

Are the srcub land ~ grove/orchard comps for largish mini-estates that would accomodate acres of unbuilt amenity land or are they for subdivision to numerous small lots that will not accommodate extra amenity acreage? In the latter case the trees are a cost because the do have to be bulldozed. IOW are they really comps?

The big landscape water hog btw is turf grass. Trees may actually reduce local heat island effect.