Subject: Avocadoes Anyone?

From: [email-masked] (Glenn Olsen)
Date: 22 Aug 1996 15:30:14 GMT

We have about 20 avocado trees on our place in Riverside, CA 
that were planted by the original owner about 30 years ago.  I 
am looking for references/advice on pruning, fertilizing, pests 
etc.  Also, what is the best way to store the fruit?

Thanks,

Glenn

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From: [email-masked] (DGholston)
Date: 22 Aug 1996 16:32:59 -0400

Check out the California Rare Fruit Growers Avocado Fruit Fact at
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/avocado.html. CRFG is not a commercial
organization, but an international organization of interested hobbyist and
home growers of subtropical and other unusual fruits and vegetables.

Don Gholston

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From: [email-masked] (Michael H. Woodill)
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1996 03:31:57 GMT

[email-masked] (Glenn Olsen) wrote:

:We have about 20 avocado trees on our place in Riverside, CA 
:that were planted by the original owner about 30 years ago.  I 
:am looking for references/advice on pruning, fertilizing, pests 
:etc.  Also, what is the best way to store the fruit?
:
:Thanks,
:
:Glenn
:
(Sorry about the long reply.  The subject tends to make me prate on.)

You might want to check with the California Avocado Society, don't have the
address handy, check with your farm and home adviser.

In general, you don't want to prune much.  Just dead wood and crossing branches.
Protect the sun sensitive trunk and scaffold with the tree canopy, i.e. you want
a "fat" tree.  Not a bad idea to disinfect your boots/shoes to prevent
transmission of root rot.  We keep rubber boots and heavy plastic overshoes
around.  No equipment in the grove that hasn't been disinfected.  Fertilizing is
pretty much a matter of pounds of N per inch of tree diameter.  With twenty
trees aerial application in May/June of foliar zinc is not practical, so use a 
supplementary ground application or a ground sprayer with a sequestered zinc and
wetting agent solution.

Pest?  Mites, thrips and other odds and ends.  Never use a broad spectrum
material like Malathion.  You knock out the pests and the predators and the pest
populations come back like gang busters.  For a small home place plot like you
describe, I'd probably not go to clean culture (no weeds).  I'd experiment
around with a cover crop and use predator/prey ratios in the canopy and cover
crop to tell me when to mow the cover to drive the predators into the trees.

Never cultivate, particularly inside the drip line.  Avos have mucho surface
roots and don't like it.  Irrigate heavily when you irrigate and let the
tensionmeters tell you when to do it again.  Regular surface irrigation builds
up high salts in the surface layer and leads to marginal leaf necrosis and drop.

Oh gosh...lots of stuff to know.  And I haven't even mentioned alternate bearing
and flower types.  Check with UC Riverside.  Maybe they can refer you to a class
for home growers.  They  used to give them all the time in Santa Barbara in
co-op extension.

Fruit handling depends upon oil content at harvest.  Also, different varieties
mature/react differently.  Try to have an old timer i.d. your varieties.  An old
timer up here was once asked how many avo varieties there were.  He said, "Oh
maybe 1200 or so and my bees make new ones every day."

Guacamole, home made chips and Bohemia beer on the patio is about as close to
heaven as you can get.
--
M.H. Woodill       [email-masked]
Kestrel Systems
Santa Barbara CA