Mystery Avocado is watery and tasteless. Under-ripe? Or bad cultivar?

[TheWaterbug]

My friend has an avocado tree of unknown origin in her backyard. Here it was, in full bloom, back on April 20, 2013:





She says it was there when she bought the house ~10 years ago, and it had never fruited until just last year. This year, on Hallowe'en 2015, I stopped by her house, and it was full of fruit! I took a few and let them ripen on my counter for a week. I ate one a few days ago, and then this morning (13 days from picking) I opened another one. It looked and tasted substantially the same as the one I opened on Day 7:





It's roughly the size and shape of a medium Hass, but greener. The skin is thinner, but still barely stops a knife when I hold a half in my hand to cut slices in the shell.





This particular fruit had this odd cavity right above the seed.





The flesh is nearly fiberless, and has the right color. Texture was almost right, but slightly under-ripe. But it wasn't rubbery.


It's watery (you can see liquid on the cut surfaces) and just tastes like nothing.


Can anyone guess at the likely lineage? Based on what you can see, did I just pick it way too early?


Or is this cultivar just a waste of space?


I have Hass, Reed, and Holiday trees in my yard and my neighbor's. Should I top-work her tree later this year and make the world a better place?

[ricshaw]

Bacon seedling?

[ricshaw]

If she needs the space.....  SoCal Chain Saw Massacre!

[treefrog]

that's a nice size tree, presumably with a well developed root system.  looks to me like a prime candidate for top working with a better variety(ies).

[TheWaterbug]

So 10 days ago I picked another bunch from her tree, and yesterday they were finally softened up:





It's still a little on the watery side, and the flavor is weak, but it's significantly better than it was in early November.


How long do avocados take to fully ripen? Several of the fruit on the tree had significant brown "russet" on their skins. Is that indicative of anything?

[Kona fruit farm]

There are avocado trees everywhere on the big island and most are just junk wild trees or trees someone started from seed.  They always taste watery and usually they are stringy too.   Terrible.   If your friends tree is producing avocados like this it's probably just a seed someone planted 10 years ago.   My guess.   No evidence of a graft anywhere?

[TheWaterbug]

No evidence of a graft anywhere?

I didn't even think to look. I take a peek next time I'm there.

[kingoceanos]

It might not be ripe yet. Some avocados can stay on the tree a very long time before getting ripe enough to pick. You could ask Carlos for his opinion, he has an avocado orchard in Florida and has been trying new variety's for years now.

[LivingParadise]

That's a gorgeous tree! What a shame it would be to cut something that pretty down! I hope she keeps it, and just gives them a little more time to ripen.