The Accidental History of the Hass Avocado

The Hass Avocado, the one we enjoy in guacamole, sliced, or put on just about anything, is the avocado we most commonly see in the grocery store. But this best-selling variety of avocado may never have happened if it weren’t for some lucky advice.

Mr. Rudolph Hass, a postman in California at the end of the 1920s, happened to buy seeds from A. R. Rideout, an innovator of avocados at the time. Hass wanted to develop 1.5 acres of land he owned to grow avocados. He had used all his money to purchase the land, since he only made 25 cents an hour as a postman, and couldn’t afford to buy trees. Hass began planting seeds in his yard in La Habra Heights, California, that he had purchased from Rideout.

Rideout helped Hass since he had no experience in growing avocados. He instructed Hass to plant three seeds together, pull the weakest, and graft the strongest with cuttings from existing Fuerte avocado trees already on the property. Because of this, it is unknown what seed made the original Hass Avocado tree.

Hass employed the help of a professional grafter to do the delicate task of grafting the cuttings of the Fuerte trees to the strongest trees from each of the holes Hass had planted. The first time, all but three of the trees took hold of the graft. The following year they tried again, and two of those three trees took hold…