A “super” avocado tree is one that make lots of fruit, more fruit year-after-year than other trees of the same variety in a particular grove.
The most important question is why a tree is super. And secondly, can you make a copies of it? (I want one in my yard!)
But before we look at those, look at an example of a super Fuerte avocado tree that I videoed for you in South Africa:
Why super?
Why are some trees super? It can be so many factors, including the dirt in that specific location (it’s especially deep and fertile), the micro-climate, and the irrigation. But it can also be something inherent in the tree.
If it is inherent in the tree — “genetics” — then can you make a copy?
Yes. You can make copies of super trees.
Researchers have been studying this topic and making copies of super trees for many years. Avraham Ben-Ya’acov made a study of “copy trees” in Israel in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. See this comprehensive paper that he wrote with Esther Michelson: “Avocado Rootstocks.”
(Also see my recent post, “Stewarding special avocado trees, with Stefan Koehne.”)
What can super trees teach us?
Here is an important lesson that home growers of avocados can take away from observations and formal research on super trees: just as super trees exist, the opposite of super trees exist.
Does your avocado tree not make fruit? Does your avocado tree not grow well?
I’ve had some such trees in my yard. And I’ve seen them in other yards and groves. They are trees whose poor performance can’t be explained by the soil conditions or irrigation or micro-climate or competition from surrounding plants. It seems to be something inherent in the tree that is the problem.
What to do? If you have the time and curiosity and land space, you can test to figure out if the weakness lies in the rootstock or scion (or the combination of the two). And then you might be able to do some grafting to make the tree productive with a different variety or source of scion. I did this experimentation with a dud Fuerte tree in my yard some years ago and discovered that the problem was the Fuerte scion (the top part of the tree that makes fruit), and I now have a tree that is productive but with other varieties grafted on.
Otherwise, I suggest you cut your losses and remove the dud tree. If your best guess is that the tree itself has an inherent problem, especially in the rootstock, then that can’t be rectified. Plant a new tree.
Some other posts and papers you might like to read:
“Young avocado trees can’t handle competition.”
“Why no avocados on your tree?”
In research done in South Africa by Smith and Koehne, super trees were called ‘A’ and “un-super” trees were called ‘E.’ See this paper by “Production potential of Fuerte on seedling rootstocks.”
Thank you for your support of my Yard Posts so I can keep them coming and keep them without ads.
All of my Yard Posts are categorized and listed here.
Recent comments