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Mirror, Mirror, on the wall… What is the best early-season avocado of them all?
Hint: It’s definitely Dupuis 😃
And if you want to know why, this grow guide will cover everything that you need to know about Dupuis Avocado:
Table of Contents
- Dupuis Avocado Tree Characteristics
- Dupuis Avocado Flavor Profile
- Dupuis Avocado Season (And When To Pick)
- Dupuis Avocado History
- Dupuis Avocado Tree For Sale
- Conclusion
Dupuis Avocado Tree Characteristics
The Dupuis Avocado Tree is a Flowering Type A Avocado. In other words, the female flowers open in the morning and male flowers in the afternoon. In order to maximize Dupuis’ fruit production, the tree should be planted near a Flowering Type B Avocado with a similar fruiting season.
This includes avocado cultivars such as:
Given the presence of a nearby pollinator tree, coupled with minimal cooler temperatures (below 50°F), Dupuis’s fruit production consistently ranges from fair to average. That said, Dupuis has a longer-than-normal juvenile period prior to consistently producing a decent amount of fruit.
Additionally, especially in cooler areas, Dupuis has been observed to also exhibit alternate bearer tendencies.
The avocados themselves are medium-sized fruits that typically weigh between 1 and 1.5 lbs. However, weirdly enough, I have noticed that later season fruit can sometimes be substantially smaller (0.5 – 1 lb range). Regardless, Dupuis possesses a medium-sized seed resulting in an excellent flesh-to-seed ratio.
Here is a HUGE Dupuis:
Dupuis is a pure West Indian Avocado, which means that it is very susceptible to wind and cold damage.
Similar to other West Indian Avocados such as the Simmonds, Pollock, Russell, and Catalina, Dupuis should only be planted in areas that rarely experience freezing temperatures. This makes Dupuis a great option for those in USDA Hardiness Zones 10B and above.
Finally, the Dupuis Avocado Tree has a moderately vigorous and upright growth habit.
Dupuis Avocado Flavor Profile
The Dupuis Avocado has shiny, green, and pliable skin that peels very easily.
Cutting into the fruit will reveal a golden yellow flesh that is incredibly smooth and possesses a butter-like texture.
As one would expect from a pure West Indian Avocado, Dupuis’ oil content is very low (single-digit %), which doesn’t make Dupuis a great candidate for guacamole. However, despite the low oil content, Dupuis has very little to no moisture present relative to other West Indian Avocados such as the Simmonds or Choquette.
From a flavor perspective, Dupuis is an incredibly delicious and high-quality early-season avocado. In fact, I personally believe that Dupuis is the best early-season avocado that one can grow in Florida (it’s my avocado of choice until August).
The best way I can describe Dupuis’ flavor is that it’s just an incredibly rich avocado flavor. It’s definitely not a mild or muted flavor by any stretch of the word.
And for the person who believes that an avocado’s flavor is all in the oil, I would encourage you to try a Dupuis Avocado and compare it to a high-oil avocado such as the Bacon. I promise that you may be pleasantly surprised 😃
Finally, because the fruit does hold up well, Dupuis is also a great avocado to add to salads and chili (my favorite).
Dupuis Avocado Season (And When To Pick)
Dupuis Avocados are considered an early season avocado (June – July).
Furthermore, what I particularly appreciate about Dupuis is that all the fruit does not mature at the same time. As a result, one can expect to have a long season to harvest the fruit.
With that being said, the best time to pick Dupuis Avocados are when they are mature on the tree. From a color perspective, Dupuis changes very little during the maturation process. As a result, I usually check if the fruit is 1) full size and then 2) see if I can gently remove the fruit from the tree.
When in doubt, I have developed a repeatable process that has worked great for me:
- Starting June 1, pull a single fruit off the tree and allow it ripen for 3 – 8 days (at room temperature)
- Delicately create small indents all around the fruit using your fingers.
- If you detect a mixture of hard and soft spots, the fruit is not yet ripe.
- Conversely, uniform softness (not super soft) throughout the fruit indicates that it is ready for consumption.
- Delicately create small indents all around the fruit using your fingers.
- Taste the fruit – is the taste or consistency off ?
- If the fruit tastes great, the rest of the avocados on our tree are ready to be harvested
- If the fruit tastes sour/foul/rancid, wait another month and repeat the process with another single fruit
- Fruit that are picked too early will often become black/inedible.
After confirming that the avocados on our tree are mature, we can begin developing our ‘avocado pipeline.’ This involves picking some fruit to ripen on the counter for more immediate use while also placing others in the refrigerator to be used later. By adopting this approach, we can ensure a continuous supply of ripe avocados.
Dupuis Avocado History
The Dupuis Avocado was first propagated by Dr. John Dupuis in Miami, Florida, in 1963. Dupuis was subsequently patented in 1965 under Plant Patent 2528.
Interestingly enough, Dupuis used to be a prominent commercial avocado. However, as newer avocado cultivars with better commercial production yields were discovered, such as the Simmonds, Dupuis slowly lost its status as the preferred commercial variety to plant.
Dupuis Avocado also goes by the name Dr. Dupuis #2.
Dupuis Avocado Tree For Sale
Unfortunately, Dupuis Avocado Trees are not common in the nursery trade due to their susceptibility to cold damage. I can’t even remember the last time I saw one at any of my local nurseries.
Which is a shame, because at the risk of repeating myself, I personally believe that Dupuis is the best early-season avocado that one can grow in Florida. Beyond being delicious, Dupuis also has excellent disease resistance and definitely produces enough fruit for the average homeowner.
So if you are interested in Dupuis, but can’t find one at your local nursery, your next best option is checking out Lara Farms Miami (not sponsored). They are one of the only legit places online where you are getting exactly what you are paying for.
Lara Farms has over 30 varieties of avocados available. They do ship!
Conclusion
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If you have any questions regarding anything mentioned in this grow guide, please comment them below! This way, others can also benefit from the answer to the same question. For any other questions or growing tips that you think may be helpful, feel free to use the contact form and drop me a line.
Thank you for reading! 🙂
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