How avocado flowers turn into fruits?

Avocado trees produce an incredible number of very tiny flowers. Large trees often bear one million flowers or more. However, only a small percentage of these flowers will set fruit from 100 to as many as 900.

Avocado flowers have both female and male organs. They function as males or females for a short time before closing up and reopening later, when they function as the opposite sex. After the second opening sequence has completed, they close permanently.

Avocado flowers have both male and female organs in each one flower

Different avocado cultivars show different pollination patterns, they are categorized based on that into two groups A and B, Cultivars in group A function as female flowers in the morning, before reopening and releasing pollen in the afternoon of the next day. Cultivars in Group B acts the opposite way.

Can a tree self-pollinate?

It is likely that a tree will pollinate itself as there are times when both male and female flowers on one tree are open at the same time plus pollinating insects that visited the tree in the morning usually come back again in the afternoon therefore there are more chances that flowers get pollinated, although production increases significantly when both types of avocado cultivars are present in an area.

Honeybees help in pollination

While honeybees aren’t a fan of avocado flower nectar, they do visit the flowers routinely. In doing so, they transfer pollen from the male flowers of one tree to the female flowers of another, or in the case of only one avocado tree in the area they normally visit the tree multiple times in a day therefore they carry the pollen as an example from male flowers in the morning and come back in the afternoon when the female flowers are open and thereby achieving pollination and hopefully fruit set.

Honeybees aren’t the only insects that participate in avocado tree pollination, but they are among the most helpful, It is worth mentioning that if there are enough avocado flowers in an area and you have a hive you get to taste the avocado honey which is a very distinct honey with buttery flavor.

Hope you enjoyed reading this post, Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!