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'Mama Hass,' matriarch of all Hass avocado trees, dies at age 76
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Edited | Thomas Walker Oct 22, 2003 04:55pm |
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| Category | General |
| News Date | Wednesday, October 22, 2003 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | article from The Produce News:
REST IN PEACE
‘Mamma Hass’ before she succumbed to root rot in September. See Feature Story.
‘Mamma Hass,’ matriarch of all Hass avocado trees, dies at age 76
by Rand Green
The first Hass avocado tree, which was grown from a seedling in about 1927 in a grove in suburban La Habra Heights, CA, died of root rot recently in the spot where she has stood since first beginning to grow. She was approximately 76 years old.
The “Mother Tree,” as the tree has been commonly referred to in the industry for many years, is the tree to which all other Hass avocado trees not only in California but around the world can trace their lineage.
The “Mother Tree” is survived today by an estimated 3 million trees in California alone, planted on nearly 50,000 acres and producing on the order of 350 million pounds of avocados each year.
“Mamma Hass” also has offspring in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Israel, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. In all, the matriarch of Hass avocados may have more than 100 million living descendants. Each tree can produce more than 100 pieces of fruit a year.
“The original tree was really a mistake — a lucky chance seedling,” planted by Rudolph Hass, a postman, according to the California Avocado Commission’s web site. Mr. Hass had purchased the seedling, along with others, from A.R. Rideout of Whittier, CA, with the intent of using them as rootstock to develop two acres of budded trees of the Lyon variety, an avocado he hoped would revolutionize the industry. After five years of disappointing results, Mr. Hass became discouraged and decided to level his orchard, but his children asked him to spare one tree because its fruit was special.
In contrast to the beautiful, smooth exterior of the Fuerte, then the dominant avocado variety, the tree produced an avocado that had a bumpy skin and turned nearly black as it ripened. But inside, the fruit had a unique quality.
Moreover, the tree produced well. Mr. Hass patented the new variety in 1935 and entered into an agreement with H.H. Brokaw of Whittier to grow and promote it. Mr. Hass took a 25 percent cut of the gross income from the sales of the trees, at around $5 a tree. By the time the patent expired in 1952, the same year Mr. Hass died, his royalties, according to one source, totaled about $40,000. The variety was just beginning to take off, and today the Hass crop accounts for about 90 percent of California avocado production and around $350 million a year in sales.
Before his death, Mr. Hass had sold the property on which “Mamma Hass” stood, and eventually it ended up as an ornamental tree in a homeowner’s front yard. Yet it became famous. Tour groups would regularly come by to view the tree.
When the tree began to die a number of years ago, Hank Brokaw of Brokaw Nursery in Saticoy, CA, the nephew of H.H. Brokaw, nursed it for years with fungicide, but eventually the tree succumbed to the root disease from which it had long suffered.
The tree was cut down in September, and its remains — a pile of logs — are now lying in a Ventura, CA, nursery while a decision is made about what is the most fitting use for the wood of the famous tree. Ideas being considered include making it into commemorative plaques, pens or avocado bowls.
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