The Great Avocado Ripening Experiment!

The Great Avocado Ripening Experiment

March 16th-March 20th

Question: What do you want to learn?

Do certain storage conditions help avocados ripen more quickly?
 

Hypothesis: What do you think the answer to your questions might be?

I think avocados ripen more quickly when they are stored with other fruit.

Materials: What materials will you need?

5 avocados

3 brown bags

1 banana

1 apple

1 refrigerator

Experiment: Test your question by doing an experiment:

We are going to put our five avocados in different storage conditions. We will keep a data log of their appearance, smell, and texture.

Data Table:
 

Time	Fridge	Desk	Bag	Bag & Apple	Bag & Banana
Day 1	dark green, no smell, hard and bumpy	dark green, no smell, hard and bumpy	dark green, no smell, hard and bumpy	dark green, no smell, hard and bumpy	dark green, no smell, hard and bumpy
Day 2	green, stinky, hard and bumpy	green with dark brown spots, no smell, a little softer and bumpy	dark green with brown spots, smells a bit sweet, a little softer and bumpy	green with dark brown spots, no smell, a little softer and bumpy	dark green, no smell, a little softer and bumpy
Day 3	dark green, no smell, hard like an ice cube, bumpy	dark brown with green spots, no smell, softer and bumpy	brown with dark green spots, smells sweet like salt water, softer, bumpy	a little brown, no smell, softer in some parts, bumpy	dark brown with a little red, a little smelly, softer, bumpy
Day 5	dark green, no smell, hard like an ice cube, bumpy	dark brown, a little smelly, ripe!	dark brown, a little smelly, a little too ripe!	dark brown, a little smelly, too ripe!	dark brown, a little smelly, way too ripe!

 

Results: What happened during the experiment?

The avocado in the fridge did not ripen. The avocado ripened fastest with the banana in the bag, next fastest with the apple in the bag, third fastest with the apple and bag and ripened the slowest (but still ripened) on the desk alone and without a bag.

Conclusion: Discuss your findings and answer your question:

Different fruits give off different amounts of ethylene gas as the ripen. The avocado left inside the brown paper bag ripened quickly because the bag was able to trap a lot of the ethylene gas. If an avocado is left in a a bag or other enclosed space with other fruit that also release ethylene gas, that avocado will ripen even more quickly than an avocado left in a bag alone. The avocado ripened the fastest when left with a banana in a bag because bananas give off a bit more ethylene gas than apples. The avocado left on the desk didn't have a bag to trap the ethylene gas, so it didn't ripen as fast as the others. Cold temperatures slow the release of ethylene gas, so the avocado in the refrigerator ripened the slowest.