How to Cultivate Avocado - TvAgro By Juan Gonzalo Angel
Channel: TvAgro Channel
Date: 2017-10-11

Twitter @juangangel
The avocado (Persea americana) is a tree long thought to have originated in South Central Mexico,[2] classified as a member of the flowering plant family Lauraceae.[3] Recent archaeological research produced evidence that the avocado was present in Peru as long as 8,000 to 15,000 years ago.[4] Avocado (also alligator pear) refers to the tree's fruit, which is botanically a large berry containing a single large seed.[5]

Avocados are commercially valuable and are cultivated in tropical and Mediterranean climates throughout the world.[3] They have a green-skinned, fleshy body that may be pear-shaped, egg-shaped, or spherical. Commercially, they ripen after harvesting. Avocado trees are partially self-pollinating and are often propagated through grafting to maintain a predictable quality and quantity of the fruit.
Persea americana, or the avocado, is possibly thought to have originated in the Tehuacan Valley[6] in the state of Puebla, Mexico,[7] although fossil evidence suggests similar species were much more widespread millions of years ago. However, there is evidence for three possible separate domestications of the avocado, resulting in the currently recognized Mexican (aoacatl), Guatemalan (quilaoacatl), and West Indian (tlacacolaocatl) landraces.[8][9] The Mexican and Guatemalan landraces originated in the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala, respectively, while the West Indian landrace is a lowland variety that ranges from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador to Peru,[8] achieving a wide range through human agency before the arrival of the Europeans.[9] The three separate landraces were most likely to have already intermingled[a] in pre-Columbian America and were described in the Florentine Codex.[9]

Archaeologists recently discovered the remains of the avocado plant in what is now Peru, carbon dated from 8,000 to 15,000 years ago in the Mesolithic period. This evidence was found in an earth mound intended to be a ceremonial structure called Huaca Prieta, 600 kilometers north of Lima, Peru. The earliest residents were living in temporary camps in an ancient wetland eating avocados, chilies, mollusks, sharks, birds, and sea lions.[10] The oldest discovery of an avocado pit comes from Coxcatlan Cave, dating from around 9,000 to 10,000 years ago.[6][9] Other caves in the Tehuacan Valley from around the same time period also show early evidence for the presence of avocado.[6] There is evidence for avocado use at Norte Chico civilization sites in Peru by at least 3,200 years ago and at Caballo Muerto in Peru from around 3,800 to 4,500 years ago.[6]

The native, undomesticated variety is known as a criollo, and is small, with dark black skin, and contains a large seed.[11] It probably coevolved with extinct megafauna.[12] The avocado tree also has a long history of cultivation in Central and South America, likely beginning as early as 5,000 BC.[7] A water jar shaped like an avocado, dating to AD 900, was discovered in the pre-Incan city of Chan Chan

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado

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