While I like many things about the Lamb variety of avocado (one of which is how late the fruit can hang on the tree), one of its weaknesses is that it tends to make a lot of avocados one year but little the next. Alternate bearing, this is called.
So a handful of years ago, I began asking seasoned avocado growers if they had tried girdling their Lamb trees. Girdling, where you cut a shallow ring around a branch, has long been practiced on avocado trees to manipulate their flowering and fruiting. Girdling can make some avocado trees fruit every year. And some farmers girdle their thousands of Hass avocado trees every year in order to achieve this.
But the growers I asked said they never girdled their Lambs. One farmer specifically noted that he didn’t think the Lamb variety was vigorous enough to handle the stress of girdling.
In the fall of 2023, I decided to find out for myself. My Lamb tree had been planted in 2013, and over the decade it had oscillated between years with lots of fruit and years with none, and I was eager to see if I could even that out. So on November 3, I girdled a major limb.
Results
The following spring, in 2024, that limb flowered profusely and set fruit well. Today, June 27, 2025, that fruit is nearing maturity, almost ready for harvest. It looks like there’s about 100 Lambs to pick.
After seeing the response of the girdled branch throughout last summer, I decided to girdle the other half of the tree that fall, on November 3, to be precise.
The girdled limbs flowered and set fruit this spring (2025).
Going forward
Girdling is proving effective on my Lamb avocado tree to get fruit every year rather than every other year – so far. It’s only two years in a row.
I will girdle it again this fall and see if I can keep the pattern going for a third year.
The tree is at its ultimate size, given the space I’ve allocated to it. It’s about 8 feet wide and 14 feet tall. It can carry 200-250 avocados in a single year, max, at this size. So my aim is to get 100-125 avocados every year rather than up to 250 avocados one year but zero the next.
Have a look at this video of my Lamb tree and its girdles and avocados today:
See my profile of the Lamb variety of avocado tree here.
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Wow. I planted my lamb as a 15 gallon several years ago and was wondering why there was really no flowers this year. Another super informative article in so many ways.
Great info Greg,
I’ve got 3 avocado trees that are alternate producing. Sir Prize, Haas and Pinkerton, I had a good crop last year, this year the Hass has 6 fruitlets, the Pinkerton has 6. Zero on the Sir Prize.
FYI , a couple of years ago I girdled 4 branches in December…. late for girdling, no notable change in fruit growth (I was outside the girdling window)
When I did girdle, I later got a black mold/growth of fungus along the cut. 1)Will putting on Pruning paste help prevent that ?
For the Pinkerton, several years ago I had zero avocados for 3 straight years (many of the branches were damaged due to sun bark damage. I had decided to remove the tree if it did NOT produce any fruit the next year. I pruned it back about 1/3 along the damaged branches…… lo and behold, I got a decent crop the next year…. Pruning gave it a boost.
2) Does that hold true for Avocados in general ?
Great website Greg!!!
Hi Leo,
Maybe just be sure to girdle earlier in the year when the weather is warmer and drier.
I haven’t seen pruning clearly induce an avocado tree to make fruit. It’s hard to know if pruning was the causal factor in a tree producing fruit afterward or if it was just coincidence or one of many contributing factors. I’ve certainly pruned trees and seen them not produce fruit the next year.
But pruning a healthy tree can clearly have some benefits that would make a tree more likely to fruit. For example, I have a few mature trees that I prune multiple times a year so that I can keep the same irrigation regimen on them. They grow big, I cut them back, they grow big again, I cut them back. Each time I cut them back I am reducing the amount of water they can use (need). So I don’t need to increase the water I give them; instead, I decrease their canopy size so that the same amount of water satisfies them.
How does this make a tree more likely to fruit? A tree that is getting enough water for full health is in a position to flower and set fruit abundantly.
I have a very old Fuerte that was stumped and has returned to vigorous growth. Wanting to keep the tree short, I didn’t select a main leader and let multiple limbs grow, training one to grow horizontally. Despite abundant flowering, only two fruit set last year and one this year. I’m going to try girdling a big limb this October and see what happens!
Hi Greg,
Enjoyed your girdling Lamb avos video. I have a question though, I have a Fuerte that is appx 12 years old, which was a Moon Valley tree planted at about 8-10 years old, about 4 years ago. It is about 10-12 feet high, with about a 7 foot canopy. My problem is, I get very few flowers, so very little production. This year I got about 10 flowers which all dropped. Last year about the same, but I did get about 5 avocados, that made to the picking. I planted the ‘B’ Fuerte because my other two trees are A types, Hass and a Reed. My Hass and Reed are beasts that produce excellently. Would you recommend girdling on a Fuerte? I feed my trees monthly, and give gypsum, twice per year. I live in Old Sunny Hills, Fullerton, SoCal. Any advice for my Fuerte production would be so appreciated. Thank you.