Avocados are California. They are our heritage fruit. My great great grandfather grew a huge seedling avocado tree at his house near Los Angeles. When my mother was a child, she climbed in her neighbor’s Fuerte avocado tree. I have planted avocado trees over the placentas of each of my children.
This is a post about how I grow avocado trees in my yard and how you might want to. Or not. Avocado trees can survive and produce fruit without some of the exact conditions or care that I describe below. I’ve seen pretty happy looking trees with grass or concrete under them instead of the wood-chip mulch that I place under mine, for example. But I’ve seen many more happy looking avocado trees that get treated the way I treat my trees.
Climate
Almost every yard in Southern California between the mountains and the ocean can grow an avocado tree. Think Sunset zones 18 through 24 (find your Sunset zone here). You only have to decide which micro-climate in your yard is best for an avocado. Micro-climates with these characteristics are ideal: wind-sheltered, as sunny as possible, warm in winter.
Varieties
I currently grow around thirty varieties. Yet, almost every avocado found in grocery stores is a variety called Hass. Hass (rhymes with “pass”) originated in Southern California and can be grown in almost every part of this region. And if you have desire and yard space for just one avocado tree, you’ll likely be most satisfied with a Hass tree. Hass tastes great (better from your yard than the store, by the way), is very productive, and the fruit hangs on the tree ready to be picked longer than most other varieties, for at least six months (approximately January to July).
(Do not grow a Hass seed thinking that you’ll get a Hass avocado tree from it, however. Avocado seeds grow up to be different from their parents, just like people do. Buy a grafted Hass avocado tree from a nursery if you want a tree that produces Hass fruit. Read more about this in my post, “What kind of avocado tree do you get when you plant a seed?”)
If you have desire and room for two avocado trees, I’d recommend Reed to go with your Hass. Reed also tastes great, is usually as productive or even more so than Hass, and while the fruit doesn’t hang on the tree for quite as long as Hass, it is ready at a different time (approximately June through September).
Read more about my variety recommendations in these posts: “What’s the best kind of avocado to grow?” and “Avocado varieties for year-round harvest” and “Avocado variety profiles.”
Pollination
A maximum amount of fruit on an avocado tree comes when one tree is close to a tree of a different variety, especially a variety with opposite flowering behavior (called A or B). That is why, for example, I planted a Hass next to a Fuerte in my yard. (See my post, “Cross pollination of avocados, or why I planted a Hass next to a Fuerte.”)
However, do not think that you need to plant two different avocado trees in order to get fruit. The assertion that, in general, you need two avocado trees to get fruit is nonsense. You can get plenty of fruit from a single Hass or Reed avocado tree in your yard. Most other varieties also produce well without a different type of avocado tree nearby.
Soil
Avocados can be grown in sandy or clay soil. Regardless of the soil type, water must drain through the soil fast enough for avocado roots to thrive. Avocado roots have a great need for air and can’t be in saturated soil for long without suffocating so a spot in your yard that often puddles and doesn’t drain away within a few hours after a rain in winter is not appropriate for an avocado tree. (See my post, “Planting avocados in poor soil.”)
Planting
A yard space of about ten feet by ten feet is the minimum for an avocado tree to be productive. Of course, they can get over forty feet tall, but pruning can keep them much smaller while maintaining fruitfulness. (See my post, “Can you grow an avocado tree in a small yard space?”)
You can successfully plant avocado trees at any time of year in Southern California, not just the spring, as some people recommend. In fact, I find it easiest to plant in the late summer or fall. The weather quickly becomes mild and rainy, when you no longer have to pay the young tree so much attention as it gets settled in. That being said, it will be necessary to keep an eye out for any extremely cold weather and protect that baby tree if necessary.
Plant an avocado tree at the same level as the surrounding soil if your soil is sandy and at least a couple feet deep. If it is shallow or clayey, the tree would appreciate being up on a mound — anywhere from a few inches to a couple feet up is good, depending on the soil conditions.
Do not plant an avocado tree in a basin, below the level of the surrounding soil, ever. That will cause water to pool around the base of the trunk, which is not where the tree wants to grow its roots, and which can lead to rotting diseases on the trunk.
Dig a hole that is just a few inches wider than the container the tree is in. Be very gentle when you remove the rootball from the container as avocado roots are brittle. Check the sides and bottom of the root ball for circling roots. If found, gently pull them loose to straighten them out. To splay the roots out you may need to widen the planting hole.
Fill in the hole around the root ball with the dirt you removed when you dug it. There’s no need to add anything else to the planting hole, such as compost or fertilizer.
Don’t leave the tree tied to the original stake that came in the container for more than about a month. The trunk will be slow to strengthen and the ties are likely to cut into the trunk as the trunk expands. For more on planting and staking avocado trees, see my post, “How to plant and stake an avocado tree.” Over time, you might also want to shape the tree, which is often called training. For more on that, see my post, “Training young avocado trees.”
Do not place landscape fabric around the base of the tree. Landscape fabric prohibits the tree from growing roots up to the surface of the soil, as it is naturally inclined to do. But do place mulch around the base of the tree, and let whatever leaves fall lie in place.
Mulch
A coarse mulch of wood chips and twigs and leaves (tree trimmings) is ideal for avocado trees. Put down a layer about five inches deep at first, spreading about two feet out from all sides of the trunk.
Such a mulch covering the soil is loved by all avocado trees, but for those growing in loam or clay soils it may mean the difference between life and death because it allows the roots to proliferate just under the mulch where there is much air and where there are disease-suppressing enzymes and micro-organisms. Read about a study done by the University of California on the effects of mulch on avocados here.
Within two years after planting, if your tree is in tip-top shape, you should be able to scoop the mulch layer away in a spot under the tree and find many white or cream-colored roots sticking into the mulch above the actual soil.
Watering
Watering is the most important thing to get right for an avocado tree — by far. Get the watering right, and your job is almost done.
Immediately upon planting, water as much as necessary such that the soil out to about three feet from the tree’s trunk is wet down to two feet deep. If the soil is dry at planting time, this might even take up to 30 gallons. This is not a time to be stingy or hasty.
Details about how to water a newly planted avocado tree can be found here, but the main take-away is that you need to water newly planted trees very often, every day or every other day for the first couple weeks if you plant in the summer.
Avocados can be watered with drip emitters, micro-sprinklers, or any other method as long as the trees’ roots get enough water at an acceptable frequency. I have used all of these methods successfully.
Here is a short video showing how I have watered some of my avocado trees, from planting up to full size. Note that it is not the only way to water an avocado tree well, however.
How much and how often to water? You must regularly scrape the mulch away and observe and feel the soil. Sorry, but there is no substitute for getting your hands dirty. The soil at the surface should never be allowed to become totally dry. At the same time, if the soil at the top is wet (still feels like it does a few hours after watering), then it should not be watered again yet. This goes for new and old trees alike. You’ll find that new trees dry out much faster than old trees, and so new trees must be watered more often than old trees.
Give all trees enough water each time such that the soil is wet as deep as the tree has roots. This varies from yard to yard, and even within yards, but for reference I have never found roots under my avocado trees deeper than 2 feet. The only way to know how deep you’re watering — and where your tree’s roots are — is to dig and discover. You won’t significantly hurt the tree by doing this.
Nevertheless, I’ve made a table showing approximately how much and how often to water avocado trees in California which gives you a schedule to try out and adjust as needed.
For more explanation about using the table to water your avocado tree in your situation, read my post, “How much and how often to water avocado trees in California.”
In the fall and winter, it’s common to see brown tips on avocado leaves. This comes from the build up of chloride that has entered the tree through irrigation water. If a tree’s leaves show about twenty percent tip burn or less, it’s no big deal, the tree will still produce fine. More than that and it’s a concern. The main solution is to water with more volume each time you water so that some of the chloride is leached below the level of the roots in the soil. See my post, “Avocado leaves turning brown? Here’s why and what to do.”
Are avocados worth all of the water required, by the way? I answer a resounding, Yes! They’re still far cheaper and of far higher taste quality than any you can buy. I show the math in my post, “Do avocado trees need a lot of water?”
Fertilization
Keep a layer at least two inches thick of wood chips under the tree at all times. This protects and feeds the worms and microbial creatures in the soil below, which in turn protect and feed the tree’s roots. With this mulch, it’s very possible that you will not need any additional fertilizer.
I have friends who apply fertilizers to their avocado trees in place of or in addition to mulch, and some of their trees look great and are very productive. But I’ve never applied fertilizers to any of my trees because they’ve never told me they’ve needed anything more than some compost and a mulch of wood chips.
(Read more about this topic in my post, “Fertilizing avocado trees.”)
Pruning
There are only a few good reasons to prune an avocado tree. One is to remove branches that are very low and interfere with sprinklers from distributing water out to near the tree’s canopy edge. Another is to keep a tree balanced so that it doesn’t topple in strong winds. You might want to keep an avocado tree down to a particular size as well.
Pruning of small branches can be done at any time of year, but it’s safest to prune thick branches — thicker than your finger — around February so that foliage quickly grows during spring to shade and protect any branches that get newly exposed to the sun by such pruning. Avocado bark sunburns easily. Paint any bark that is exposed, especially during summer. (See this post about how to paint avocado branches to protect them: “Avocado trees get sunburned — what to do?”) (Also, for details see my post, “Pruning avocado trees.”)
Pests, diseases, weather stresses
Kill gophers in the area or they will kill a new avocado tree and harm an older avocado tree. Gophers killed one of my young trees last year and have attacked almost all of my other avocado trees at one time or another. It’s a constant battle, but the best weapon I’ve found is the Cinch trap. (My post, “The best gopher trap: it’s a Cinch”)
If you’re finding holes in your leaves in May and June, the culprit is likely earwigs, rose fuller beetles, or June bugs. No matter which, you need to hunt them after sunset. It’s very easy. Read how in my post, “Who is eating holes in your avocado leaves?”
Light winter frosts might do damage to a few leaves or twigs and summer heat waves may scorch a few leaves, but if an avocado tree is in prime health it can come through most extremes in Southern California weather with zero practical harm, extreme events like the July 6, 2018 record heat notwithstanding. Also, be aware that avocado trees going through their first winter are much more susceptible to cold damage than older trees. Consider being prepared to protect your baby avocado tree from unusual cold. (See this post for details: “Protecting avocado trees from cold.”)
(For dealing with heat, see this post: “Protecting avocado trees from heat.”)
If you don’t know what an avocado tree’s leaves are telling you, have a look at this post to help interpret: “Reading avocado leaves.”
Harvesting
If you pick an avocado from a tree when it’s not ready, you might think you don’t like that variety when it’s really your fault for picking it at the wrong time. Use a reference chart to get an idea of when a particular variety might be ready to harvest. I have some reference charts in my post called, “When to pick avocados,” such as this one:
Also, get to know how an avocado tree makes its fruit: it grows flowers in the winter and spring, and then some of those flowers become fruit; some avocado varieties (such as Fuerte) grow their fruit rapidly and the fruit is ready to pick that winter, but others (such as Holiday) mature their fruit slowly and are not ready to be picked until the second summer.
And when will you begin to eat avocados from a tree you plant today? Probably three to four years. (See my post “How long until an avocado tree fruits?”)
I can’t imagine a yard in Southern California without an avocado tree. They’re evergreen and beautiful, the fruit is unparalleled — it’s like being able to grow butter — and let’s not forget that the bark is smooth so the branches are perfect for climbing.
Video
I made a video, also titled “Growing avocados in Southern California”, showing a few of my avocado trees, the way I water them, how I stake a newly planted one, and how I mulch them. Figured it might be helpful to see these things in action, so to speak. It’s not an award winner, but I put it up on YouTube anyway.
Further reading
Would you like some deeper reading about growing avocados in California? Though it’s written for commercial farmers, it’s definitely deep: see Gary Bender’s “Avocado Production in California”. Here is “Book 1” and here is “Book 2.”
Also, be sure to check out the website Avocadosource.com. You could spend a lifetime reading all of the wonderful materials on that site.
All of my Yard Posts are listed HERE
Another informative post!
I especially like the last picture:)
I need to visit some of these avocado farms in California. what can I do?
Hi Lawrence,
I would contact the California Avocado Commission or the California Avocado Society.
When I moved into my house in the San Fernando Valley the avocado tree which I assume is pretty old was producing 2 to 300 fruits a year for the first few years then a drought hit. The tree was only being watered by the sprinklers intil then I have to admit I’ve been sporadic about watering it but a lot of branches have died it does have mulch and it hasn’t had an avocado in several years any ideas? By the way the avocados on this tree were fantastic could be sold at Gelson‘s?
Hi Julianne,
A couple things could be preventing your avocado tree from producing like it used to, but I’d put my money on the watering.
An avocado tree needs to be well watered for at least two years straight in order for it to be able to produce a real crop. The first year it grows leaves and branches. The second year it flowers on those new branches and the flowers start to grow into fruit. At the end of the second year or sometime in the third year the fruit will be finally ready for harvest. However, if at any time during those two to three years the tree doesn’t get the water it needs the whole process can be interrupted and ruined and you’re back to year one.
You might like to check out my post “How much and how often to water avocado trees in California.”
Hello, I have a a big pot with 3 Avocado trees I planted from seeds, the first seed I planted about 10 years ago and the other 2 seeds I threw in about 5 yrs ago, the tree is about 5 ft tall and to this day it has not flowered at all. Any ideas what could be wrong. I live in California.
Hi Cynthia,
It could be that nothing is wrong except that the trees need more time to mature. Seedling avocados often take 5-10 years to fruit although some can fruit earlier. See more in my post “How long until an avocado tree fruits.”
Greg,
I live in Mission Hills, just above downtown San Diego. One thing that I recently discovered is the soil probe. I had a very healthy avocado tree slowly die even though I watered it regularly and kept the top soil wet. I mulched it and it died quicker. Naturally I thought that I must have over watered it, even though the soil is very sandy. Finally I gave up and bought a new tree to replace the barely alive first tree. When I dug up the dead tree I was amazed to find the soil below about six inches dry as a bone. Watering the top of the soil had no effect on the tree’s deep roots.
I planted the new tree in the same sandy soil, mulched it, and started watering it for an hour every day with a slow drip from a garden hose. The tree is doing fine. However, when I pounded the soil probe down to about 18 inches, then pulled it out to check the soil’s moisture, I found the soil to be only slightly moist. On hot days the branches would wilt. I then increased the watering to a couple of hours every day with the slow drip and the soil is moister and the tree is happier.
The point I am making is that it is really hard to over-water in San Diego’s sandy soil. No matter how much water I put on top of the ground it gets absorbed almost immediately. The only way to get water to the roots is with the slow drip for a few hours.
The new tree has been in the ground a few weeks and is growing nicely. I’ll let you know if I kill this one too.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for sharing this. I can relate. I used to live in Hillcrest, on a canyon with very sandy soil, and I also watered my avocados there too little at first. I was afraid of root rot, not fully understanding how and why root rot affects avocado trees. It took me a couple years before I realized what you wrote: “It is really hard to over-water in San Diego’s sandy soil.” I thoroughly agree.
Any suggestions on how to treat persea mites. My fuerte is getting pretty infected in past 5 months.
It’s 8 feet away from a lamb hass that is not yet infected. Both are about shoulder high.
Hi Susan,
Have a look at this post: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/reading-avocado-leaves/
I want to know if you can honestly grow avocado trees in Hemet California. The winter lows average 30° to 35°. And then you can get up to 105°, even to 110° in the summertime.
It would be nice to have a specific strategy for this particular area, which is an 18 on the heat map
Hi Rob,
I haven’t been to Hemet for years (since my great grandpa lived there) so I can’t talk about avocado trees I’ve seen there recently with my own two eyes, but I do read that people have been growing avocado trees in Hemet for a long time. Check out this report from the California Avocado Society Yearbook in 1959 about growing avocados in Hemet: http://www.avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_43_1959/CAS_1959_PG_31-32.pdf
In terms of strategy, as you mentioned, you are on the extreme side of winter cold and summer heat for avocados. This is similar to my area (Ramona). So my experience is that you’d want to plant a new tree in March if possible in order to give it a lot of time to grow before summer heat and before its first winter. (This isn’t necessary, but it is ideal.) You might also want to plant a larger tree since they can withstand more damage than smaller trees. And then you’ll need to possibly protect the tree at times in its first year or two from heat waves and cold snaps.
Check out these posts to help with those:
https://gregalder.com/yardposts/protecting-avocado-trees-from-cold/
https://gregalder.com/yardposts/protecting-avocado-trees-from-heat/
Remarkable and encouraging.
Is any avocado that bears within 13 months period?
Hi Sheikh,
Do you mean a variety that bears within 13 months from planting? Or do you mean a variety whose fruit matures within 13 months from flowering?
Thank you very much for the information, excellent!!!
Have you grown a Sharwil? I have one planted on a mound in my canyon yard near Balboa Park. It is about 2 1/2 feet tall by 2 feet and seems to be healthy. I wanted to know if you have any idea how soon these bear. I have a three year old Holiday nearby that has flowered the last 2 years and had some marble size fruit on it last year but all fell off.
I do have a Sharwil. It’s a couple years old but it hasn’t set fruit yet mostly because it’s been repeatedly attacked by gophers, the poor little guy. I have a friend not too far from you in La Mesa with a Sharwil, though, that bears lots of fruit. I’d expect yours, at the size you described, to maybe set one or two fruits this coming spring, but no more than that. More likely, you’ll get your first fruit growing on it in 2019.
I happen to also have a Holiday that is close to my Sharwil, and I noticed this last spring that there was time in April where they were both flowering — which goes to say that if your Sharwil flowers this spring I’d expect it to help your Holiday set and finally hold some fruit. (Sharwil is a B-type and Holiday is an A-type.)
That being said, I’ve never known Holidays to be very productive. Holidays are runt trees that creep along the ground, which is interesting for an avocado but can be frustrating if you want an actual tree with a lot of fruit. If you end up dissatisfied with the Holiday, can I recommend a Pinkerton? It will also pollenize your Sharwil and is very productive.
Greg- what’s your experience with the sharwil? I’ve read in some places it’s kind of a dwarf and in other places that it’s a massive sprawling tree. Any advice? Also, small recommendation, when you respond to our questions I don’t receive an email notification that you’ve done so with a link back to this post. Any chance you can turn that feature on?
Hi Vincent,
Thanks for the request about getting an email notification with a link when I reply to a comment. I’ve been trying to get around to setting up such a feature. Your request makes me bump it up on the list of to-do’s. I’ll get that set up this week, hopefully.
Please don’t hesitate to offer other suggestions that will make the site easier to use.
Sharwil avocado trees: I’ve only observed two mature Sharwil avocado trees with my own eyes here in California, one in Orange County and one in San Diego County. Neither is a large tree for an avocado. I’d call them medium. They are not “dwarf” like Holiday, that’s for sure. They are also not big like a Hass or Fuerte or tall like a Bacon. They are just in between.
My own personal Sharwil trees are too young to say anything about their mature forms, but I will say that their vigor, their speed of growth, is moderate. Not a weed on fire like my Nimlioh, and not a droopy bush like my Pinkerton.
Greg,
Thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge. Your writings are enjoyable and easy to read/understand.
Having just read your description of planting sweet potato vines beside one or more of your trees I have a somewhat (~) related question:
QUESTION: In March I planted 40 containers/pots with a number of different potato varies. I now wish to re-use that potato grow potting soil by mixing it with my property’s clay soil to transplanted one, maybe more, avocado trees that is/are currently in huge terra cotta pots. Any cautionary thoughts…as in, do potatoes, Yukon, Reds, Purples, fingerlings, etc. excrete anything harmful into their surrounding soil that might affect the avocado roots?
Thank You for your time,
Jock Begg
Corona del Mar
PS I currently have two Hass and a Carmen Hass. The Carmen is our winner, in that, it flowers and produces all year long. My nurseryman, Gary of Laguna Hills Nursery, explained that it’s from Mexico and has truly proven to be our favorite. Oh! And all three trees have been hillside planted in large holes filled with a mixture of native clay soil and new Laguna Hills Nursery bagged soil; which I used for the potatoes. And, as the holes were back filled we spread thin layers of Grow Power Organic fertilizer after filling in every six inches of mixed soil height.
Hi Jock,
Thanks so much for the compliments and helpful comments.
There’s no evidence of potatoes having any negative effects on avocados in my experience. In addition to sweet potatoes and lots of other plants, I’ve grown Irish potatoes under my avocados for years, and in different yards with different soils. They’ve always coexisted fine. In fact, I’ve got some Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes both growing happily beneath my Hass and Sir-Prize avocado trees right now.
Cool to hear your accolades for Carmen Hass. I don’t have that variety, but I’ve always been curious about it.
Interesting planting technique for your trees. Sounds like it’s working out just fine. Would love to see pictures of the trees and know how you’re irrigating them.
Hi Greg,
Great information, thank you for sharing. I was particularly glad to see that you have had success planting avocados in the fall because I would like to plant a few trees now – most information online says to wait until early spring. I live in Altadena and while we get the occasional freeze, I am thinking of planting now. What do you think?
Also, in terms of varieties, I have a Hass and am thinking about adding a Sir Prize as a B pollinator. Was also going to add a Reed and/or Lamb Hass in increase the month of the year that I have available fruit. Was also considering Gem in a smaller spot.
I will likely add a Sir Prize and 1 or 2 others. Would love your input.
Fall is my favorite time to plant avocados. In fact, I just bought a couple new trees this last week. The only thing to remember is that if there is a rare freeze this winter, do be prepared to give a little protection to the small trees.
B types that have been shown in University of California studies to enhance yields in Hass include Sir-Prize. I have a Sir-Prize next to a Hass in my yard. I think it’s a good choice.
I love my Reed and Lamb trees. I’d say go for them. They extend the Hass and Sir-Prize season, which start in late fall and winter. At my house, there’s some overlap of eating Hass and Reed and Lamb in spring, but then it’s just Reed and Lamb for the rest of the summer into fall. If I had to choose Reed or Lamb, I’d choose Reed.
I don’t have a GEM, unfortunately.
Hi-Thanks so much for this post. Now more than ever we are loving our fruit trees. We have a Hass that is doing beautifully and supplies us with enough avocados to share. We want a Reed based on this post but I can’t find one 🙁 Any suggestions on where to purchase in Southern Ca, we live in South Orange County and don’t mind driving? Or do you have another variety or two that you recommend? Our space is about 20×15 so maybe could fit two?
Thanks so much!
I saw some small Reed trees for sale at subtopica in fall brook a few days ago.
Hi Natalie,
My fruit trees are more valuable than gold right now. I just dropped some fruit off for friends today, and I feel really lucky to be able to share.
As Walter said, Subtropica in Fallbrook consistently has Reeds: https://www.subtropicanurseries.com/
Also try Maddock in Fallbrook: http://www.maddockranchnursery.com/avocados.html
And try Clausen in Vista: https://clausennursery.com/avocado-trees
For more options, see my post “Where to buy an avocado tree”: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/where-to-buy-an-avocado-tree/
Other good complements to Hass are Lamb or Fuerte. You could definitely fit two trees in that 20×15 space if you plant them within a couple feet of each other and prune properly.
One other thing. I have heard that micro sprayers are the way to go as they saturate all the soil rather than dripping in a few spots. I do wonder about your system which appears to be spraying the trunk of the tree. I have always read that this should be avoided. Your thoughts?
That’s a great observation, and a really important question that I should’ve addressed in the post. I may have to edit it in up there.
On many of my trees I have a small wood stake that blocks the sprinkler from hitting the trunk, but on my young trees especially, I just let the sprinkler water hit the trunk.
I block the sprinkler from hitting the trunks of many of my trees mostly because it’s a waste of water: there are few roots right there under the trunk.
But I don’t worry about water hitting the trunks of some of my trees for a couple reasons. One, I water as infrequently as possible, and the moisture at the base of the trunk dries out before I irrigate again — so I figure it’s unlikely that the trees will get crown rot. I also figure this because my soil is sandy and drains rapidly. I’ve heard from experienced commercial growers that if your soil is heavy then you need to be much more careful about preventing water hitting the trunk.
So, if I were giving advice, I’d say don’t spray the trunk. But the truth is that in my particular situation I know that I can get away with it.
Last thing (I promise), what is the preferred size tree for planting and how much difference will in make in the period I have to wait before getting fruit set? I bought the Hass as a 15 gal three years ago from Garden View Nursery, and I think this year will be the first year I get fruit (fingers crossed). What would the wait be on a 5 gal plant?
Thanks again!
Don’t hold back, Ian. That’s what I’m here for. I actually have already written a post to answer one of your questions. It’s called “How long until an avocado tree fruits?” Click the link in the “Harvesting” section above. The short answer, however, is three or four years for a five-gallon tree, but often sooner for a fifteen-gallon tree.
I personally prefer five-gallon trees over fifteen-gallon trees even though a fifteen-gallon tree will almost certainly bear earlier. My main reasons for preferring five-gallon trees are that they’re far cheaper, easier to plant, and quicker to train into standing on their own without stakes. Having said that, there’s certainly nothing wrong with buying a fifteen-gallon avocado tree.
Good luck on getting your first Hass fruit!
I have a fairly large backyard for Southern California (Mission Viejo) and planted four 15 gallon varieties this past spring- Hass in one corner, and Reed/Sir Prize/Sharwil in the other. My Hass is all by itself but the other 3 are all within 10 or so feet of each other in a triangle. Did I plant these 3 too close together?
I plan on keeping them pruned to a max of 15 or so feet (actually that was what I sold my wife on so she would let me plant them in the first place). The reason I ask is because I just picked up a Nimlioh Avocado tree today and could probably fit it in my backyard within 10 or so feet from my Hass but don’t want to make the same mistake. If not I’ll work on convincing the wifey to get rid of some of the front yard and plant another couple trees out front with more room for them to grow. I guess I have the bug to grow avocados, probably because I’m a transplant from Connecticut where you have to spend $20 at the grocery store to make guacamole a couple times a year.
Also, I was watering these trees manually with a slow trickle from my hose…it would take an entire night after work. I recently installed drip irrigation around each tree, spiraling out to about 4-5 feet with 14-16 emitters @ .9 gallons/emitter/hour. Based on your previous posts, drip is not the best and you recommend micro sprinklers? Should I replace the drip or see how it works? I run the drip for 60 minutes approx. 1-2 times a week based on the weather and it seems to be saturating the ground well and the trees seem to be doing fine…
Ten feet is definitely not too close. I have a Hass and Sir-Prize that are 7.5 feet apart, and they’re both about 17 feet tall. (I’ll be bringing them back to 15 feet tall in March.) The only challenge might be to get inside the triangle once the trees are big. It might be a hassle to adjust irrigation or pick fruit in there. But that shouldn’t be considered a real problem: avocado branches are flexible and the leaves are soft.
I’d go ahead and put the Nimlioh by the Hass. You can definitely keep them pruned to 15 feet, and it always increases production to have that A/B combination.
Make sure your drip emitters are wetting the same places that you were previously wetting with the hose. (Or just wet the whole area under the canopies every couple weeks in addition to running the drip lines.) Avocados do most of their root growth when the weather is warm — spring through summer and into fall — so your trees have grown most of their roots over the summer in the places where your hose was applying the water. If you now start giving them water with the drip emitters in a different place, they’ll be unable to access it.
The best time to change irrigation methods or wetting patterns is in the middle of winter because the rains saturate all of the surrounding soil, so there is little to no stress on the tree as its roots grow in the spring and proliferate within the new wetting pattern.
It’s hard for me to say you shouldn’t continue with your drip lines because I know it’s possible to grow avocados on drip, especially young avocado trees. I know this for sure because I’ve done it, as have many others. Moreover, my set up in the past was almost exactly as you described yours. So I’d say you’re safe continuing with your drip set-up, and particularly if your soil is on the loam or clay side rather than the light and sandy side.
Having said that, I’d switch over to sprinklers eventually — if not this winter, then next winter. As your trees get older, they’ll almost certainly do better on sprinklers. Mine have. Every other avocado tree in Southern California I’ve seen or heard of has.
(If anyone reading this has a mature avocado tree in Southern California that is doing well on exclusively drip irrigation, I’d love to see the tree and learn more about how you’re accomplishing this.)
Thanks for the info and reply Greg, I’ll follow your advice.
Can you expand further on your mulch process? I am getting a 5 or 15 gallon Haas tree (haven’t decided yet). Do I lay down a mulch in the planting hole before I put my tree in? Or is the mulch only on top at a 3-5 foot width?
I am in Long Beach, CA and our soil is heavy clay.
I hope the question is clear. Thank you for any insight.
Crystal clear. Glad you asked the question before you planted. Only put the dirt from the hole back into the hole — no mulch. The mulch goes on top after you’ve planted, and as you said, it goes from the trunk out to a couple feet to either side of the trunk. (No biggie if it’s touching the trunk, just don’t pile the mulch up next to the trunk.)
If you have heavy clay, you would do well to test for drainage before planting. Dig a hole about one foot deep and one foot wide, then fill it with water. Time how long it takes for the water to disappear. In my soil, it only takes thirty minutes. That’s on the fast side. If it takes more than around eight hours for yours to drain out, then an avocado might be unhappy there.
If that’s the case, then try to mound up the soil a foot or two high and about five feet wide, and plant the tree into that mound. Such a mound, especially when covered with a thick layer of wood-chip mulch, improves the drainage right in that area and helps the avocado roots to breathe as they so desperately need.
Good luck with your new tree!
Thank you for all the information that you have put out for avocados!!! So helpful. I would like to plant an avocado tree in my backyard in West Los Angeles. I looked EVERYWHERE and can not find a Gwen Avocado. I know that they do exist but can not find it. Four Wind Growers seems to sell it, when available, but it seems to me that they are very young. I am older and can not wait for the tree to fruit in 7 days. Any recommendations?
Atkins Nursery in Fallbrook grows Gwen. If you’re in a hurry, you might consider a 15-gallon size instead of 5-gallon. But the good news is that Gwen is precocious in general, so it will fruit faster than many other varieties. Hope you get your Gwen and it fruits fast for you!
Greg, I found your blog this week and really enjoy your posts. I just moved into my home in Corona, CA and I am planting a lamb hass today. My soil is pure clay. Seems like when I water there is no drainage. I’m worried about keeping the tree alive in this kind of soil. Any tips? I’m planting on a hill. I read your article about making sure the tree is at or above ground level. I purchased wood chips to put under the tree like you recommend in the article. I wanted to see if you have any further tips for someone who is planting in a crazy amount of clay. My dad said my soil is more clay-like than any he has seen.
Hi Brian,
I’m glad you asked this question before planting. I’m going to quote what I wrote above and then elaborate: “If [the soil] is clayey, the tree would appreciate being up on a slight mound — anywhere from a few inches to a foot up is good, with a mound width of 3-5 feet.”
If you can gather some soil from elsewhere in your yard or elsewhere entirely, just build a mound that is about a foot high. In other words, you’re not going to put your tree INTO your ground; you’re actually putting it on top of your ground, and then mounding soil all around it. In the end, you’ll have a mound of a foot tall and about five feet wide, ideally.
And then you’ll cover that with wood-chip mulch. A couple inches is a minimum, but more than six inches is best because you’ll find that they seem to disappear. Six inches today will become two inches by June. I’ve put down twelve inches before and had it vanish into two inches within a year.
One more thing: Break up the surface of your ground before you add the mound of soil so that there’s some mixing of the layers of added soil and ground soil. Tree roots don’t seem to like abrupt changes in soil texture.
Finally, you’re going to have to water carefully. If you water too often, the bottom roots will rot in the soggy conditions down low. At the same time, if you don’t water often enough during the first couple of months, then the roots in the potting soil will dry out and the tree will suffer. It’s a tight rope you’ll have to walk during this first year, but after that it will become much easier. The secret is to get your hands dirty and feel the moisture in the soil where you find the tree’s roots, and do that test often. That test is fail proof.
Read this post if you haven’t yet: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/how-to-water-a-newly-planted-avocado-tree/
You can do it! Lamb Hass are tasty, and you’ll have loads of avocados from that tree every summer and fall.
Thanks so much for your quick response. I followed your directions and will hope for the best. Love the blog! Keep it up.
Hey Greg, I planted my new tree over the weekend aaaaaaaaand there’s a frost warning in Corona until Wednesday. Should I cover the tree? Do you think it will be ok?
It can’t hurt to put something over the new tree. I usually use a beach umbrella. But I wouldn’t worry unless your yard is in a cold, low frost pocket. This doesn’t seem like a cold spell that is cold enough to do damage. Frost is predicted at my house too. Still, fingers crossed!
UPDATE: I got suckered by this one! (https://gregalder.com/yardposts/the-sucker-frost/)
I have planted three young avocado trees and have been agonizing about – among other things – the fact that the tips of the leaves were brown. Your post was a HUGE help and the information learned has put my fears at ease. Thank you!
I keep reading that avocado trees need to be kept out of the wind. I live in Banning, Ca and it gets. Dry windy here. I do not have an area to plant one that will keep it protected. Am I wasting my time planting one? Will it not survive or produce in a high wind area?
Hi Karale,
Do any of your neighbors have an avocado tree? I’d keep an eye out around town, and if you spot one then notice how and where it’s growing. Also, ask them what variety it is. Copy whatever is working for them.
About wind in particular, avocados don’t appreciate strong, dry wind, as I see in my own yard whenever the Santa Anas burn through. But you might be able to work with your situation. Anything to buffer the wind a little will help: another tree, a fence, your house. Also, lone trees are a lot more vulnerable than groups. Planting two or three avocado trees close together might be worth a try (4-7 feet apart).
Hi, thanks for all this great info! I have an avocado tree, I’m in so cal…it’s had avocados on it for about a year. In the past he trees I’ve had have fallen off when they are ripe…how come these ones are still on the tree??
Any idea which variety it is? Some varieties grow on the tree for about a year and a half before they’re ready to be picked.
I’m really not sure they have a pretty shiny smooth skin and are just green. No brown or black.
If you haven’t read it already, you should find this post I wrote useful, “When to pick avocados”: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/when-to-pick-avocados/
Also, I will try to identify the variety you have if you send photos.
Hi Greg- planting a lamb and a reed in San Francisco on a north/south lot. No freezing. Mostly mid 60s, but frequent temp swings. Good sun. Clay soil. Building mounds.
Three options-
the back of the lot is south facing and gets full sun. Some afternoon shade from a neighboring tree to west is likely.
The side fence lines are AM sun/pm shade or AM shade/pm sun.
Thoughts?
Hi Ant,
My thoughts are that the advantage of AM sun is less vulnerability to freezing since cold nights effectively end at sunrise whereas AM shade can exacerbate cold damage by extending the hours of cold.
The advantage of PM sun is likely higher fruit production since PM sun is stronger and San Francisco sun is generally on the weaker side.
I’m slightly inclined towards more AM sun though since it’s safer and Reed and Lamb are both highly productive varieties (down south anyway).
I totally enjoyed reading your well thought out, easy to understand and very informative article on avocado trees!
Thank you for sharing it!
Dear Greg:
We just planted our first Hass avocado and happened upon your advice posts. Thank heavens we did! Now we can fix our mistakes before it is too late. Our soil has a lot of clay, but you seem to suggest that rather than dig up the tree, we should do a drainage test in a hole nearby first. I do have one question.
Other websites suggest building a shade structure to keep the trunk from burning. Do you suggest that as well? The young tree is about 3 feet high. Thank you,
Barbara
Hi Barbara,
It can never hurt to do a drainage test. It’s helpful to know how fast the soil in that part of your yard drains so you can water appropriately. I’m assuming your tree is planted level — not on a mound. I’d say the best thing you could do for your tree from now on is never water it when the soil where the tree’s roots are is still very moist. Secondly, add a mulch layer of at least a couple inches.
If the trunk is not shaded by low branches, especially on its south and west sides, then it’s a good idea to either shade it or paint it with white latex. I’ve always used the paint option and never had a problem with sunburned trunks on new trees.
I hope your Hass does great!
Did (would) you let your young avocado trees hold fruit? People remove fruit from young fruit trees the first couple of years to supposedly allow a stronger root system to develop, and I was wondering if you do this with your fruit trees and for avocado trees specifically?
Hi Matt,
If a newly planted five-gallon tree is holding one fruit, it’s been my experience that you can safely leave it and the tree will develop fine. But I once saw a friend’s Reed tree of that size holding three fruits and it did not grow much that first year. My guess is that it would have grown more without the fruit. (And you do want young trees to gain canopy size because they need the thicker branches to hold a real crop as soon as possible.)
So I’d say leave one fruit, but not more than one with a five-gallon tree in its first year in the ground. With a fifteen-gallon tree, I’d still only allow two in that first year.
Okay glad I asked. Come to think of it, I think it was maybe a 3.5 gallon tree, a little Cado. I planted it in the winter, and it flowered a bunch this spring. It looks like it currently has at least 10 (probably more) little avocados developing, all the size of half a sunflower seed. I imagine that most of them will fall off, but I will (reluctantly) remove them.
When will it be okay to let them grow? Don’t want to stunt the growth, but on the other hand, it is a little cado, so I am not expecting a huge tree.
You can probably leave them alone and all but maybe one will drop by summer. At that point, if it’s still holding more than one then remove all or leave one. It’s sad but more than half of the BB-sized fruitlets usually drop on their own.
O.K., I am emotionally preparing myself for the big drop.
Would it be okay to let next year’s fruit develop (for guacamole in 2020)?
Almost surely, provided the tree gains in canopy size this year. Guacamole 2020!
Hey Greg – I don’t know if you remember me but I planted an avocado tree in my backyard a few months ago. The tree is pretty tall and has been tied to a post this whole time. When I untie the tree from the post, it’s so tall that it curves all the way down forming almost a U shape. Should I let it fall down to the U shape and grow naturally or do I need to make sure it stays upright? I don’t want the branch to break but I have also read here that you shouldn’t leave it on its original post for too long. What are your thoughts?
Hi Brian,
Yes, I remember you. I’m glad your tree made it through that crazy late February cold spell. One of my newly planted trees didn’t.
Tie the tree between two stakes so it can sway just a bit. This swaying strengthens the trunk.
If it’s very tall or very weak, you may need to tie it in two spots on the trunk (for a total of four ties because you’ll have one on each side at both spots).
Usually the tree will be able to stand on its own after a year, but not always.
I’ll write a more detailed post on staking avocados soon. It will help so much to see photos.
Greg, I had a sharwil that all of a sudden lost all of its leaves in late winter. It declined further to where many of the branches started to turn black and dead looking. I bit the bullet and dug up and destroyed the tree. I had the soil from the hole and area the tree was planted and tested it with the county agriculture department. I just got the letter today that the soil has phytophthora root rot. I am super disappointed to say the least. I have 3 other trees that have been in the ground for about a year now (hass, sir prize, and reed). My hass is the furthest away from the sharwil and doing great, it just flowered and is starting to set a whole lot of little fruitlets right now with new leaf growth. My sir prize is flourishing as well except it didn’t flower this year yet. My reed is looking pretty bad and it was the closest to the sharwil. I’m afraid it got the root rot infection because my kids love to play in that area of the yard. My question is what do I do now that I know my soil has the root rot fungus? Is there anyway to get rid of it entirely? I don’t want to spread it to my healthy trees and I really want to plant more avocado varieties to replace the dead ones. Do I need to dig out as much of what I think is the contaminated soil, discard it and replace it with new soil? I have done some research and some articles say that all soil has the fungus and you just have to deal with it by planting on a mound and irrigating correctly, is this correct? I don’t want to give up growing different varieties of avocado because I have that root rot stuff in my soil but am very discouraged to plant something in its place… The trees were doing fine up until late winter when we finally got a bunch of rain all at once up here in Orange County. Thanks a lot for your help…
Such a bummer, Eric. Sorry to hear this.
I’ve also been told by a U.C. farm advisor for avocados that pretty much all of our soils can be assumed to have the fungus. And there’s no eliminating it. But it can be managed as long as the soil’s drainage is decent.
Have you dug a hole and tested the drainage in the Sharwil’s (and Reed’s) spot? The rule of thumb is that if water is still in the hole the next day, don’t plant an avocado. On the other hand, excellent drainage is like what I have in most of my yard, where water doesn’t last even 30 minutes. Almost always though, the same yard will have spots with faster and slower drainage.
I once visited an avocado orchard where there were 80-year old Fuerte trees that looked perfectly healthy, and then there were a couple of rows of new Hass trees down in a low spot — but not far away — that were sickly yellow and rotting.
Assuming your drainage is fast enough, then I’d plant again but on a slight mound, up to a two-foot mound if your soil is a clay type, and irrigate very carefully, mulch up to a foot thick, and be very vigilant about gophers. Gophers damage roots, and apparently, damaged roots are attractive to the Phytophthora cinnamomi fungus. I once had a Sharwil (it so happens) that kept getting damaged by gophers and it started to show root rot symptoms in both the roots and foliage. I eventually removed the tree.
There are other things that farmers do to combat root rot, like using resistant rootstocks and chemical injections, but these aren’t really accessible to us home gardeners.
Finally, great reading on root rot management is Chapter 4 of Book 2 in Gary Bender’s “Avocado Production in California”: http://ucanr.edu/sites/alternativefruits/files/166825.pdf
Please let me know what you end up doing, discovering, and how it plays out.
I’ll try the water test tomorrow. I wont give up on planting another avocado variety there. I will plant on a mound and make sure there is excellent drainage before I do anything. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for the informative response…
My avocados are turning brown while still very small. I don’t know the variety.
Hi Greg, I too have issues with root rot. Some trees are dying and others are hanging in there. My question is with regard to two things that help with root rot: planting on a mound and mulching. If I continue to mulch outside the trunk, the mound eventually gets filled in and the mulch builds up above the truck/soil line and over time the mulch decomposes and the trunk ends up in a soil hole rather than on a mound. All my avocados that were above ground level initially are now below ground level after years of mulching…is this a concern? Thanks for all the great info!
Hi Ryan,
Glad you mentioned this observation. My older trees that were planted on mounds are no longer on mounds through just the process you described. I no longer add mulch anywhere near the trunk. It all goes at the canopy edge for such trees.
I’ve seen no problems with these trees. I also have an orange tree that is decades old and the soil/mulch level near its trunk has crept up over the years until the graft union is now half buried, but the tree shows no concern and I believe it’s because it has happened so slowly and with mulch rather than soil, just as happens in nature.
The only problem I could foresee with such a situation is if irrigation water is hitting the trunk, particularly if the irrigation is frequent. So I’d avoid that.
This is such a great document, you are so appreciated for sharing your insight! Well done! Warmest wishes from an avocado amateur trying not to kill his first tree!
Thank you, Jonathan. You can do it!
We live in Twentynine Palms California at an elevation of about 1500 feet and we just planted a HASS cold climate avacado tree and hope it will survive.
Appreciate any tips.
E
Hi Ed,
It seems that in Twentynine Palms your challenge will be in protecting the avocado tree from heat and cold. Since you already planted it, I won’t bother saying anything about choosing a planting site.
But through this summer I’d put some shade over it on afternoons over 100, or definitely afternoons over 105. My Hass have always had their leaves burnt by temps over 105 even when mature. See my post, “Heat tolerance of avocado varieties”: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/heat-tolerance-of-avocado-varieties/
Once winter rolls around, you’ll want to protect the tree on nights that get to or below about 30. I’ll write a post before winter about ways to protect young avocados from cold.
Wow! What a great resource. Thank you for the trove of information; so helpful.
I am in Lake Elsinore and this weekend planted two 15 gallon Gem avocados. Both are about 6 feet tall and one already has 8 raisin-sized avocados on it. Reading some of your other posts, is it correct that you’d recommend removing some of these before they get too big to help strengthen the tree? I realize we are strategizing for the long game here…. I bought the Gem because it seems they do well kept small, which is what I am after. I don’t plan/want to let these get much over 8-10’ tall and would like to encourage lateral growth if I can.
Although I didn’t specifically set out to do a drainage test, I do recall as I was prepping the ground for digging, that a hole roughly 15” x 15’ I had filled was drained in about 3.5 hours. As you mentioned in another post, I too have never seen pools of water remaining in my yard for a considerable time even after the biggest of storms have rolled through.
In digging the holes I did encounter some large rocks and clay deposits. I made sure to remove those and hope that was the right choice. I currently have a mulched area 36” in diameter around each tree. However, beyond that 36” the rest of the area is rock on top of fabric. I’m wondering if I went to small on the mulch area now that I’ve read some more? Would you suggest a wider area? I can certainly pull back rock and fabric if need be and go as wide as 5’ diameter if needed.
I’m extremely uncertain about what to do long-term for watering. I’d like to have these trees on an automated system as much as possible with the hope that I can adjust the schedule seasonally as needed. I do think I can free up one of my current irrigation valves such that I can rededicated to these trees alone. Do you have any suggestions to help with that decision and if you think the DIG micro sprinklers could be used in that application? I plan to follow your advice in getting my hands dirty to check the water content in the soil as my guide to watering.
Thanks in advance for any time spent in responding.
Hi Kevin,
Glad to hear you find the site helpful. I wouldn’t bother removing the fruitlets as you’ll find that most drop on their own soon. If any hold and weigh down the tree to one side, you might remove some of those. For a 15-gallon tree, I’d allow each to hold no more than a couple fruits in total this first year.
In keeping these trees to ten feet max in the long run, you’ll just want to be careful about exposing branches to sunburn when you prune since Lake Elsinore is on the hot side (like where I am in Ramona). Immediately paint any exposed branches unless it’s winter.
Your soil sounds good for avocados. A three-foot diameter area should be enough through this summer, but I’d remove fabric and rock to widen it by the late fall in anticipation of winter rains. The trees will be happy if they can extend their root system there under mulch rather than fabric and rock.
You can definitely automate the watering. But for the next couple weeks you might as well hand water. Follow my schedule for a spring-planted tree in this post: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/how-to-water-a-newly-planted-avocado-tree/
Then be vigilant when our first heat wave hits. It’s possible that the trees could need water every day for that spell.
Through the summer you can likely water every 4-7 days, but get your hands dirty to feel the moisture often if possible.
There are many good irrigation options, but the DIG micro-sprinklers are very convenient since you can use them from now into the mature years of the trees. Start with the 90- or 180- degree insert. That should work well for the first few years.
Having a dedicated valve will make your watering job much easier. But it’s not necessary. I irrigate some of my avocados on the same valve as some citrus trees, which isn’t quite as efficient as it could be (the citrus trees sometimes get more water than they need). But it works.
I have a post specifically about watering avocado trees in the works. I’ll make sure to get it published within the next month, before summer. Best of luck!
Thanks you Greg, this was super helpful.
Just last sunday my tree was full of healthy looking leaves and lots of fruit. I watered it and sprinkled some commercial fertilizer. With the heatwave we had the past few days i didn’t go out to check until today, and it looked horrible. All the fruits have dried out and the leaves are all dry. Any idea what could have caused such a think in just 1 week?
Hi Stephen,
Your avocado tree is not alone. My trees also got burned to greater and lesser degrees by that record-setting heatwave we just went through in Southern California. The bottom line is that avocado trees are not suited to that kind of intense heat, which is why they’re not grown in the desert. Luckily, our trees might recover now that the temperatures are almost down to normal again.
For what to do now, see the end of this post: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/avocado-trees-get-sunburned-what-to-do/
Also, see the video at the end of that post where I show some of my sunburned trees. And this week’s post (on Friday) will be all about that heatwave and its damage and how we can best get our plants through such an event in the future, as well as how to manage their recovery.
Can you plant and avocado tree where an existing tree one stood?
Hi Peter,
In general, yes you can. Was it an avocado or a different type of tree? Did it die or was it removed while healthy? Was it a big tree that had its stump ground down?
Hi Greg. I am relandscaping and would live to add an avocado tree. How far from a block wall should it be? Thanks!
Hi Pat,
It depends how tall the block wall is, among other concerns, but I know of excellent, old avocado trees growing only about five feet from short block walls (five feet tall or less).
As long as the tree has space to spread out its canopy away from the wall or it can grow up and over the block wall, then it should do fine.
Hi there!
We have a tree that we inherited when we bought our house a few months ago and we no nothing about it’s history including the type of avocado it is or it’s age. We’re also struggling with a lace bug infestation causing premature leaf drop and dead branches. On top of all of that, the base of the tree is in a about a 12-24 inch radius of soil which is then surrounded by concrete.
I noticed you said in your post that it’s still possible for avocado trees to grow with concrete around them which is wonderful to hear! But how do I compensate for the lack of soil space it has? Is there anything special or different I should be doing in terms of watering, fertilizing, etc?
Hi Brittany,
What a challenge! I’ve seen avocado trees doing well with concrete or asphalt under much of their canopy (see a photo of one in this post: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/how-much-and-how-often-to-water-avocado-trees-in-california/), but I can’t recall having seen one doing well with only a foot or two space for their trunk like yours. In fact, I recently visited an old avocado tree that had been doing fine a couple years ago. Recently, the owners covered all soil under the canopy with large river rocks and concrete. The tree is now half dead.
In your case, I would do my best to figure out where the tree is getting its water in the summer. For example, is there an irrigated lawn nearby that its roots might be reaching into, or a flower bed, etc.?
If the tree looks healthy, then don’t mess with whatever other plants are growing and being watered near it. Keep up the same routine as you inherited, especially until a couple inches of rain fall this winter. At that point, you could safely fiddle with things if you want.
But in general, if the tree is more than about five years old (trunk diameter as wide or wider than your shoe?), it has probably gotten used to its conditions and is getting its water sufficiently during summer, and don’t do anything different until it tells you it’s under stress. Also, don’t bother fertilizing until it tells you it needs fertilization.
Let me know if it ever seems stressed and we can try to determine why and how to help it at that point.
I want to grow citrus and avocado tree’s but I live in Carmel California, the Zone is 17. Is it still possible to grow avocados when you say 18 as the minimum climate zone?
Thank you for your time…
Hi Kimberly,
I’m almost certain that you can grow some kinds of citrus and avocado trees in your yard in Carmel. The lower limit on avocados in general is not Sunset zone 18; it’s just that for Southern California, from zone 18 on up we can grow almost any kind of avocado we want.
I’ve seen beautiful, large, productive avocado trees in places that get chillier in winter such as Coalinga and San Jose. But these were not Hass trees, which are on the cold-tender side. The one in San Jose for example was a Fuerte, which handles cold a little better than Hass.
A lot might depend on the lay of your land and its particular microclimate. Most likely, the determining factor will be winter cold. So if you are on a slope from which cold air drains away, then you’re odds are better.
I’ve read about a couple of commercial groves of Hass and Gwen avocados not too far from you near Gonzales and Soledad. So I’d say it’s really worth a try.
You should just plant a couple trees in the spring so they get as big as possible before their first winter, then plan to protect them if there’s a freeze during their first and second winters. By the time they’re three or four years old, they’re a lot tougher and resilient when they do get nipped by winter cold.
I have a really small yard. Can avocado trees be planted in containers and produce? If so what size planter do you recommend and is any special feeding required in pots?
Hi Barbie,
It is possible to get avocado trees to produce in containers. I’ve seen it done. I’ve done it myself once, but not long term. I’ve never seen it done long term.
If I had to grow one in a container, I’d try to move up in container sizes every couple years until maybe a half-wine barrel size ultimately. And I’d be sure that my potting mix was extremely low in salts; avocados do not like salts, especially chloride. That is the special feeding required.
If you have a really small yard, and you have a dirt patch to plant in, you could put the tree in the ground and keep it pruned small. Some varieties are particularly amenable to this. You can grow a great avocado tree in the ground and keep it pruned to eight feet tall and even less than eight feet wide. Do this with a Reed or Lamb variety, and you can still easily get 30 or more avocados each year on the tree.
I’m not speaking hypothetically here. I do this with some of my avocado trees (keep them pruned small), and I’ve seen others do it in small yards, and commercial farmers even do it a lot now because it is so easy to maintain and harvest from small trees.
Hi Greg,
Would you be able to identify the variety of Avocado tree I have in I sent you picture?
Thanks.
Hi Brian,
Do you have photos of the fruit or just the tree and leaves?
Hi Greg
I discovered your web a few days ago and it has answered all my questions but one.
Firstly I do not live in California but in Thailand and I have 18 avo trees in which are all growing well
Here I never have frost
The same as the States it is winter and this morning was the coldest day of the year and it was 77 F and then went to 86 F
In the summer it is daily between 80 to 104 and here I have to protect my trees against the heat with shade 80% net.
I have several varieties
Lamb Hass,Hass,Petersen Pinkerton Russel, Booth
The soil is clay but his I break up add rice husks,cow or chicken dung, coconut husks.
I dig holes three feet deep and the also plant the trees about 18 inches higher than the surrounding land and have had no problem with root rot so far.
Can send you pictures if you are interested
My question is I have been informed by Dr Ernst of Allesbeste nursery an South Africa that the trees will have difficulty flowering and then being pollinated due to the heat.
Do you beleive this is true or not
I am now going to collect to Nabal from Westfalia who are the registered owners of Gwen trees while in South Africa and maybe two Gwen also to plant here and see what happens
I have a borehole with unlimited water which has very little chemicals in and have irrigation for the whole garden
Your comments please if any
Greg: I have a 25yr old Fuerte in No. San Diego county/coastal. Last year it produced 110 fruit, this year 20 most likely from poor pollination. Since January 2019 I see a lot of leaf burn, mostly tip and some a little further up. I think its from our cold Dec/Jan but am concerned. Also Dec-Feb we’ve seen a lot of rainfall so I don’t suspect excess salts. Now Feb 10 I do see the tree is full of many clusters of buds which I’m not sure if theyt’ll become new leaves or is it the start of fruit production. Any comments on the burn would be appreciated. Is it too late to fertilize with buds on the tree. Thank you very much.
Hi Joe,
The bummer is that the leaf burn we see on our trees right now comes from the excess salts and irrigation practices of months ago. The salts accumulate in the tree over the summer and even if we get good rains like we are this year, the leaching effect of the rain won’t be seen in the foliage and performance of the tree until later this year (or even next year).
In other words, you probably don’t need to worry about the tree. Last year was exceptionally harsh since we had a very hot summer that followed on the heels of a winter with very little rain. Expect to see an improvement in the foliage only later in the spring when it grows new leaves.
My Fuerte is also starting to push out flower buds right now although none have opened yet. I’ve seen Fuertes in warmer spots with flowers already open here in early February.
Fertilizer timing depends a lot on which kind you’re using. Chemical fertilizers are vulnerable to being leached through the soil profile here in winter with our rains. Organic fertilizers are much less vulnerable to that. Now is a great time to apply composts or other mulches since the rains will leach some salts but most of the nutrients will remain.
Gregg: Thank you so much for your prompt and valuable reply. Very much appreciared. I’ll continue to follow your blog/posts/articles. Thank you again.
Joe
Ps; I registered and hope I’m on your mailing list?
Hi Greg, going through your old post right now. Very informative Q&A. Since my soil is thick and clayish, I may have to plant the avocado tree on a mound. What kind of soil would be good for the mound? In my yard, I don’t want to take soil anywhere in my yard to build the mound. And how would you deal with the interface between the ground and the new soil for the mound? Should I soften up the native soil on the ground for the bit and then put new soil on top of it?
Hi James,
With these heavy rains, do you have any ponding in your yard? Have you dug a hole and tested the time it takes water to drain out? It’s good to know what kind of drainage time you’re dealing with before you go forward with planting the avocado tree so you can do your best by it.
A sandy loam soil would be ideal to use to make your mound. I would mix the new topsoil with your native soil a bit at the interface so there’s not a sharp change in soil type. Mix an interface of approximately six inches to a foot, and then build the mound of new soil above that.
thanks Greg. Can I send you an email with a few pictures of my yard. I took several pictures of the spot in my yard I want to plant and want your take on it.
Love this site and appreciate your local expertise! We have 3 beautiful young trees. A Hass has 2 stout suckers. I know I need to cut them off. At the soil-line? Dig down a bit and remove where they start? Thanks a lot Greg!
Hi Dorothy,
Thanks! Either way can work. If you cut at the soil line, they’ll probably sprout again, but you can just snap those new sprouts off by hand. After doing this a couple times, they’ll likely stop sprouting.
If you dig down a little to cut lower, they’ll probably resprout less.
Thanks, Greg! I’ll take care of that tomorrow.
I also read your corn article. Hubby wants some corn so I’ll be planting some seedlings, also.
Thanks for all the great (and fast) advice.
Hi Greg,
I have a Duarte avocado tree in my yard that will not bloom. It has been in around 10 years (neglected for several of those years) after much care the past several years it has yet to bloom. It is very healthy looking with a lot of new growth. Do you have any tips on getting it to bloom? I live in the La Habra Heights area. (I also have a second fuerte planted last year and a Hass planted this year, the Hass bloomed right out of the nursery). Thank you for any advice you can give me.
Sincerely
Denise
Hi Denise,
I’m not familiar with a variety called Duarte. Is that the variety name? Or is it an avocado tree that you got from Duarte Nursery?
Regardless, here are a couple ideas for why it has yet to bloom: One, if it is not a grafted tree it can take around ten years before it blooms (avocado trees grown from seeds take a varying number of years before they bloom). Two, if an avocado tree is not watered well then it will spend its springs growing new leaves at the expense of growing flowers; this is a cycle that can be repeated forever unless the tree gets sufficient water consistently for at least a year and maybe two.
Either of these ideas seem like possible descriptions of your tree?
Greg it is a fuerte avocado. I purchased it from Home Depot as a grafted tree. I have increased watering it this year, and it is growing foliage like crazy! I’m going to keep watering more often, and cross my fingers. Thank you for the quick response. D
Got it: Fuerte. Fuertes are variable and unpredictable in their blooming and fruitset behavior — more so than any other avocado variety I know — which is why I don’t recommend people plant it as their only avocado tree even though to my taste buds it is the premier avocado to eat. Here are my thoughts on the best avocado variety to plant in a yard: “What’s the best kind of avocado to grow.”
Luckily, you’ve got your Hass and that second Fuerte. I’ll be curious to learn how your two Fuertes behave differently, if they do.
Here’s a memorable quote about the Fuerte’s variable and unpredictable fruiting behavior from J. Eliot Coit in 1968: “A few [Fuerte trees in a grove] are excellent bearers, some medium, but too many bear little or nothing although they grow side by side and appear equally healthy.”
Here in 2019, to the best of my knowledge, smart people still haven’t figured out how to get the Fuerte to fruit consistently and predictably. Many individual Fuerte trees fruit well, but no one seems able to reproduce these trees.
Hi Greg
I bought a leed avocado for a friend in November 2018
It was in a 2 gallon pot
I had it for 3 months in Cerritos and finally planted it to my friends backyard in early March in Arcadia
Since then the tree leaves started turning yellow and falling
However it also has many new buds (not sure flowers or leaves?)
We are not sure if we under watered or over watered it?
Currently we water it about 3-4 gallons every 3 days
Or water is not the cause??
Please help!!
I have pictures which I can email you if you are okay to share your email address!
Thank you
Hi Joanne,
It’s likely that the old leaves are just dying a natural death and will soon be replaced by new ones. This is the time of year for that.
Greg,
We are at our new place in Santee and have decided the best spot to grow fruit trees.
My heart sunk when I read your advice about growing a tree from seed, expecting it to be like the parent. My dad brought me two 1gal. Hass that he grew from store bought avocados that he enjoyed once.
I don’t have that much room to accommodate these particular trees, plus a grafted variety that you recommend. It would be a great experiment, but at the expense of space to grow other fruit trees (guava, pomegranate, fig, sapote).
I’ve also set a lot of hope into a couple of avocado seeds that I threw in my worm compost bin. Many in the online vermicomposting community swear by this method for superior plants with a large yields.
I don’t want to offend my dad. My parents have attempted this method at their mid-city San Diego location many times. Only one of the trees had been productive, the others have been duds. It could be other reasons, such as not enough sunlight, using red painted mulch, using synthetic fertilizers, overcrowding, etc.
I don’t want to want to invest so many resources without success.
Your thoughts?
One other question. My mom keeps insisting I should plant deciduous fruit trees on a terrace close to the pool (fig, avocado, guava). The leaf litter seems too much to deal with. This area is the furthest corner of our lot, South facing, elevated terrace that had reflected heat from a concrete wall behind it. Besides family therapy, LOL, what’s do you recommend based on this info?
On my previous question, I should add, that it’s my house, they only come to visit weekly.
Would growing the experimental trees grown from seed in large bottomless containers/raised bed style work long term? I’ve come across a round raised bed that is38″ in diameter by 29″ tall, giving you roughly 8 square feet of growing space.
https://shop.epicgardening.com/products/round-tall-metal-raised-garden-bed
Would this work for other fitting trees, such as dwarf citrus, etc?
I could definitely prune the trees to keep the size manageable (per your other articles I’ve read).
Hi Maureen,
I think you could make this work, yes. One of the main challenges being in Santee is that you’d have to keep on top of the summer watering — possibly every day during heatwaves — because the restricted soil volume will mean that the trees need a drink more often.
Hi Maureen,
I encourage planting seedlings if you’ve got the space to let them grow because that’s how every great avocado tree that exists got its start. The more we all plant seeds, the more great varieties we’ll find in the future.
That being said, it’s highly unlikely that a seedling avocado will produce fruit that’s better than the varieties we already have available. Please see more about this in my post “What kind of avocado tree do you get when you plant a seed.”
If you want to know the avocados you’re going to get from a tree you simply have to plant a grafted tree. One way to achieve both of these ends though is growing a seedling (like the ones from your dad) and then grafting one of its branches. This way you’ll know what you’re going to get out of that branch but you can still discover what might come from the seedling. I have a couple of these multi-graft trees going, and they are fun.
As for planting some trees by the pool, all trees lose their leaves approximately every year, it’s just that evergreens like avocados grow new ones as they shed old ones so they’re never bare. It might, in fact, be easier to manage a deciduous tree like a fig because you’ll deal with leaf drop during a single, more concentrated window of time.
But I’d be careful about which types of trees you plant in front of a south-facing wall. This will increase heat during winter as the winter’s south-angled sun reflects off it, and some trees (such as apricots or peaches) need as much chill as we in Southern California can give them in winter. Better to plant trees there that would actually benefit from warmth during winter (such as bananas, guavas, avocados).
Good luck not disappointing your folks!
Hi Greg. My Reed avocado has avocados emerging from the blooms. There are still a few full bunches of blooms and it is supposed to rain the next few days. Will the rain harm the flowers and new avocados by the force of it? Should I cover it with something? Thank you kindly.
Hi Pamela,
Don’t worry about the rain. It won’t harm any little avocados that have set, and the flower opening just stalls or slows way down when it’s rainy and then resumes afterward.
Hello and thank you for the great article. I read a bit about these trees before I put mine in the ground a few years ago..I have done very little to take care of it, I have been diligent about water and mulch. Other than that, I planted it and left it to grow. Last year I had about 3 terrible avocados and this year it looks like I will have a bunch. I attributed it to all of the rain and now my tree is now about 8ft. I was super excited until my arborist came over to work on my olive tree and he pointed out that all of the growth is from 2 suckers that have taken over. He suggests I cut them off, but they have flowers and fruit. What was the original tree also has fruit but is still only about 4 to 5 ft…. Would you cut them off or let them keep growing?
Hi Judy,
Was the terrible fruit from the rootstock suckers or your original tree?
If you want to keep your original tree growing well, then I’d at least cut the suckers back somewhat so they don’t shade the original tree too much. There’s no necessity to cut them all the way off immediately, but they will probably crowd out and shade and eventually kill off the original tree if you don’t do anything at all.
Hi Greg,
Thank you so much for responding! That was my intuition looking at it, I felt like get some of the weight off the top and I think it will grow more like a bush for a while. The fruit was from the original tree. I think I let them ripen on the tree too long they were beautiful, but they were very waxy. I think I should have pulled them sooner and left them on the counter to ripen. Again, thanks so much for the response…Wish me luck!
This is by far one of the most comprehensive, informative posts about avocado trees.
My current tree is about 29 years old, producing about 500-700 fruit yearly.
I thought it was a bacon variety, not so sure now. The year long heat a few years ago got it all off track.
No matter, they are smooth, large, buttery and delicious.
I’ll read this article again and print your friendly charts. Thank you so much for the great info and photos, especially the children enjoying the tree!
Hi Greg,
Thank you so much for responding! That was my intuition looking at it, I felt like get some of the weight off the top and I think it will grow more like a bush for a while. The fruit was from the original tree. I think I let them ripen on the tree too long they were beautiful, but they were very waxy. I think I should have pulled them sooner and left them on the counter to ripen. Again, thanks so much for the response…Wish me luck!
Hi there. I have a Holiday Dwarf and a Reed planted next to each other (8′ apart) and I keep them small. They flower and set fruit every year (this is their 4th year), but in all this time I’ve only harvested 1 Reed. All the rest fall off the trees by the time they’re pea-sized. Any ideas?
Since they only set fruit once/year, it’s tough to experiment…
Hi Richard,
A couple of possibilities:
You’re in a hot location, and the Reed tree gets stressed in the heat while its fruit is still small. Reed avocado trees are very late bloomers, and so their fruit is usually small when early summer heatwaves hit. Small fruit is vulnerable to being shed by a tree that is stressed. This happened to my Reed tree when the early July heatwave hit last summer even as the adjacent Lamb tree held most of its young fruit — but the Lamb had flowered earlier and its fruit was bigger.
Your tree is just young. Some avocado trees don’t bear or bear much until their fourth year in the ground. My Reed carried fruit in its third year, but it didn’t carry much until its fifth year.
Hi Greg-
Love reading your posts! I just recently planted a wurtz from a 5 gallon container and transplanted it into a 20 gallon container here in Orange County. It’s only a few feet tall but thriving. I’m thinking of my next move and would like to have A&B types and would also like to have avocados year round. The only problem is that I don’t have too much yard space. Would it be possible to graft a hass and a fuerte onto my Wurtz or would the hass and fuerte branches outgrow the wurtz base? I’d love to hear your suggestions and keep up the great work!
Hi Chris,
Yes, yes! Get some A/B cross pollination going, and have avocados year round. Sounds like a perfect plan.
You could make a multi-graft tree with Wertz, Hass, and Fuerte. Always with a multi-graft tree, you’ll have varying growth rates so you’ll have to keep the faster growers from overwhelming the slowest. That is not a physical or technical challenge; it’s an emotional one. It’s easy to do the necessary pruning, but it’s hard to have the patience to allow your tree to only get big as fast as the slowest-growing variety. But it can be done! (I have such trees here and there in my yard.)
An alternative is growing individual Hass and Fuerte trees adjacent to the Wertz. That set up can be slightly easier to maintain, especially if they’re in pots and can be moved as necessary to adjust the space each one is given.
I have a older backyard avo, it’s a big tree, avos are the smooth skinned kind. Lighter green.
1) how can I identify the kind of avo?
2) it is in a backyard surrounded by cedar chips, is this ok?
in Reedly, CA
Thank you!
Hi JL,
Do you know if it is a grafted tree? If it was planted as a seed, then it is a variety all its own.
A common smooth-skinned, light green avocado variety that is old that it might be if it is grafted is Zutano. Search for images of Zutano to see if they match, and also note that Zutano has a seed with a pointy top and it is generally harvested in winter.
I don’t know of any reason that cedar chips would be a problem.
Hi Greg – Thank you for sharing your experience growing avocados in SoCal! Great information.
We are lucky to have 2 cold-variety avocado trees in our backyard (in north orange county) that were here when we moved in 20 years ago. We’ve never had to do anything to them and they grow this magnificent fruit! I’m thinking they’re fuerte or zutano given the look of the fruit and that they ripen in November – I’m leaning towards the latter because of seed shape but not entirely sure because they have this wonderful flavor, which isn’t how zutanos have been described…
Anyway, I’ve come here because I need help saving one of my trees! A large branch fell off our 30ft tree in the middle of a storm last winter, unfortunately, exposing the inner layers of the trunk where it fell off. Over the past few months the bark has continued to peel back exposing more and more of the inner layers. The tree itself looks ok, the leaves are green and it’s fruiting beautifully this year, but I know this won’t last for long. Any advice on how I can save my tree?!
Your help is really appreciated!!
Hi,
Sorry to hear about the damage to your tree. Avocados usually recover from clean pruning cuts well, fortunately. Sounds like you’ll probably want to make a clean cut just below where the bark damage stops. You can do this anytime if the cut won’t expose other branches to harsh sunshine; otherwise, it would be best to make the cut at the end of winter next year.
For a bit more on this topic, see my post, “Pruning avocado trees.”
Some of my baby avocado trees are approaching the size that I want to switch from a clam shell shaped sprayer to the spinner mode sprinkler. I use the DG model you recommend, but I find that it sprays in a doughnut shaped pattern, and not really a circle, meaning most of the roots under the canopy aren’t getting directly watered, while the roots along the edges are. Is this ok or am I not using the spinner mode correctly? My instinct tells me to water completely under the canopy, extending outside the canopy a little bit, and not just at the canopy’s edge. Do you make sure your avocado trees over 4 feet in diameter get water completely under the canopy or just at the edge of the canopy? Many many thanks.
Hi Keith,
This is an excellent question. First, don’t make the switch this time of year (end of summer or early fall). Your trees have gotten used to the current wetting pattern, have proliferated roots there, and will struggle if you change that during this warm and dry time of year. The safest time to make the change is mid to late winter.
You’re right that the spinners apply a donut or ring of water rather than a filled-in circle, especially when they’re used at lower volume on a smaller tree. I used to worry about this. But over time I’ve realized that the trees do fine under this wetting pattern. True, it doesn’t wet the entire potential root zone of the tree, but that’s not necessary for the tree to thrive. I have heard an irrigation specialist say that wetting about 60 percent of the potential root zone is enough for maximum production. I don’t know if that’s true for avocados in particular, but I’d guess it’s in the ballpark.
What I have found with the micro-sprinklers is that you have to water more often than when you wet a larger volume of soil, as with a sprayer or spot sprinkler for example. That is something to keep in mind. My frequencies have gotten higher over the years to adjust to this reality. (My run times during each irrigation have also become accordingly shorter.)
Awesome. Great information, as always. Thanks so much.
I live in Lake Elsinore, CA. Where would you suggest I buy my avacado trees from & what gallon should I start with? Great post! Thank you!
Hi Kimberly,
In Lake Elsinore you’re not too far from some great places to get avocado trees in North County San Diego. See details in my post, “Where to buy avocado trees.”
I find the five-gallon trees easiest to plant. (Same as the 3.5-gallon plastic sleeves.) But you will get an extra year’s growth for extra money if you buy a 15-gallon tree. Check out this post for more on the pros and cons of starting with a small or big avocado tree: “Should I buy a big or small avocado tree?”
Commentgreg,may i use a rotary sprinkler on my 3 avacado trees?if so how much,and how long?
Hi Kathy,
You can certainly use a rotary sprinkler on your avocado trees as long as it puts the water where the trees’ roots are.
As for how long to run the sprinkler, see if this post helps: “How much and how often to water avocado trees in California.”
My husband has a 3 foot avocado tree in a large whiskey barrel. It needs to be grafted to a Reed avocado tree. Where can I take it to have this done? We live in Clairemont (San Diego)
Hi Danielle,
I’d try asking at Armstrong Garden Center there near Morena Blvd. They might know someone who can do that for you. Or ask at Walter Andersen Nursery in Point Loma. If you have no luck there, then contact the California Rare Fruit Growers, San Diego Chapter: https://crfg.org/home/chapters/california/san-diego/
Let me know how things go, and write back if you can’t find anyone to do it by late March (March is an ideal time to do this grafting).
Hi Greg, a few questions for you regarding my Hass here in Santa Barbara. The tree is ~10′ tall, ~8′ in diameter canopy spread, and has ~50 fruit on it.
Presently there is very little munch under the tree, after reading this post to learn about fertilizing I am starting to clear a 5′ circle of vegetation under it and then lay down mulch. Is clearing the vegetation first necessary?
2nd, my watering up until now is a drip hose that runs 1x/wk during the not rainy season. Water is off for now until the rains let up. Today I’m moving the hose to ~3′ away from the trunk. I’m considering installing a sprayer, just curious if the dripper could do an equivalent job?
Other than trapping as I’m currently doing for rats (5 so far, no damaged fruit yet) any recommendations to keep the rats out of the tree? I’ve not yet added something to the trunk to prevent them from climbing, as the tree touches a fence and stopping rats there would be next to impossible. That’s where I have my traps.
Finally, gophers. My yard is loaded with them, including around my orange and avo trees. Its been several years (more than 10) they have been my “pets”. Is there a point where the tree is somewhat immune to them, or am I living on borrowed time allowing them sanctuary in my yard? I live on 1/4 acre and keeping up with them is just beyond my current capacity for time, I’ve not yet looked into the traps you recommend though.
Hi Matt,
I’m a big believer in “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If your tree is growing and fruiting well — and it sounds like it is — just keep doing what you’re doing. It’s clearly working.
But if you want, you could add mulch. Clearing the vegetation under the tree isn’t necessary, but it does mean there will be more water left in the soil for the tree.
In a location like Santa Barbara (close to ocean), I’ve seen avocado trees do very well on drip lines.
I have no personal experience with rats being a problem with avocados.
Once a tree gets to the size of yours, it can handle a certain amount of gopher action in the soil below. How much can it handle? I’m not sure, but I once saw a mature Hass tree in Carpinteria that had dozens of gopher mounds under its canopy and it looked good and was holding a couple hundred avocados. In my own yard, I’ve lost small trees to gophers, but found tunnels under larger trees that never seemed to care.
The Cinch traps work very well though, once you get the hang of using them. I’m certain that you could totally control the gophers in your yard using Cinch traps for a few months consistently. There’s no downside to trapping the gophers except for the time it takes to trap.
Thank you for your detailed response, I appreciate it.
I did mulch and remove the vegetation. I currently have the drip line on top of the mulch. I’m wondering now if under the mulch would be better?
You’re fortunate you don’t have rats, especially with so many avocados.
Hi Matt,
Whether the drip line should be under or on top of the mulch depends on a few personal factors. Do you have dogs or kids that will trip on the drip line? Then maybe under is better. Do you think it looks better to have the irrigation out of sight? Then maybe under is better. It’s also probably a tad more efficient if the drip line is under mulch because the water is even less exposed to evaporation.
I tend to still have most of my drip lines on top of the mulch, however, because it’s helpful to be able to watch the emitters when they’re running. This helps me catch clogs sooner and notice if I’ve accidentally chopped a line while weeding or something.
I’m so glad I found this site, I live in SoCal, orange county, myself and my husband have been researching which tree to purchase and how to plant it. we are going tomorrow to purchase. He wants to leave the tree in a pot and put in the yard and I want to actually dig a hole and plant there. Which do you suggest? Thanks for all your information !
Hi Sylvia,
I would definitely put the avocado tree in the ground if it’s possible. It is hard to keep avocado trees happy in containers for very long.
Hi Greg- What do you know about dwarf varieties? What is the best avocado for SoCal beach cities?
Thanks Brad
Hi Brad,
Check out my post on growing avocados in a small yard space for ideas on “dwarf” avocado varieties. It’s actually a complex topic: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/can-you-grow-an-avocado-tree-in-a-small-yard-space/
Beach cities in Southern California are ideal for growing most avocado varieties since avocados don’t like the heat of inland nor the winter cold of inland. That being said, if I were so close to the ocean that I could feel the cool breeze off the water, I’d plant an A type just to have a better chance of high yields. Some B types like Fuerte don’t produce well if the average temperature is too chilly. Otherwise, if you’re close to the beach but your yard still gets pretty warm compared to right on the beach, then plant any variety you want. I’ve seen Fuerte and Nabal and everything else do great in those locations.
For some avocado variety profiles, check this post: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/avocado-variety-profiles/
Hi Greg!
A few questions. I am new to growing and have planted a Holiday which is doing quite well. I also just received a Fuerte from Four Wind Growers because I like to description of the taste. I have a space of about 40 feet wide for planting on a hillside at the top of our yard.
Our yard is south facing so I don’t mind the trees offering some shade and we are planting at the top, our house is down below.
Based on the fruiting season, and the fact that maybe my selection of Holiday and Fuerte may not produce much fruit, I am thinking to add a Hass to
My mix.
Do you recommend this or is this over kill. I thought if I add a Hass I will cover the whole year between the season.
I read some of your posts and you mentioned that you can plant two trees in one hole for smaller spaces and would like to plant the or your recommendation 4 feet from the Holiday to have it form into one tree with 2 stalks.
I am not sure if the Hass will be too large and over power the Holiday since it is called a Dwarf.
I wish I knew about your posts before I purchased a Hass.
Thanks!
Hi Jan,
If you eat avocados regularly, then I don’t think adding a Hass tree will be overkill. Putting the Hass so close to the Holiday would mean the Holiday would get overwhelmed though, unless you wanted to prune the Hass to keep it small. A friend has a Don Gillogly avocado tree planted about six feet from a Holiday and the combination works because the Holiday is slightly south of the Gillogly and she prunes the Gillogly twice a year to keep it down to about ten feet tall.
As for harvest seasons, yes, Hass would fit in between Fuerte and Holiday well.
Thanks! I will plant it about 6-8 feet away, and do the Fuerte about 15 feet from that.
Since they are on a hillside I plant to prune to keep them manageable for picking. I don’t want to tumble down the hill. 🙂
Hi Greg, I’d like to plant an avocado tree in our front yard in Mission Viejo. Can you recommend a “pretty” looking tree? It is the only space we have but I’d like to keep the curb appeal of the house if possible, too. We’re looking for a variety that grows without branches low to the ground. Thanks!
Hi Susan,
A few of the prettiest avocado varieties that also make good fruit are Reed, Bacon, Fuerte, and Sharwil. But any avocado variety could look beautiful in a front yard in Mission Viejo if well watered and pruned.
And you can prune up the low branches of any variety to keep them off the ground. All varieties will retain low branches when they’re young unless those branches are pruned off.
So helpful. Thank you!
Hi Greg,
I live in Ramona as well off of Highland Valley Rd by the Grass Lands. I tried a Hass and Fuerte and lost them both. I lost the Fuerte last winter and just lost my Hass. I’m assuming I lost the Fuerte to the cold and the Hass to the heat. I got a recommendation to try the Mexicola so purchased two of those. I wanted a Hass too and looks like you have been successful. Any suggestions on varieties I should try and how to keep them alive during winter and summer? I was thinking 3 or 4 trees total.
Thanks,
Keven
Hi Keven,
Our neighborhood has micro-climates that make a big difference as to how easily we can grow avocado trees. Mostly, it’s about where the cold air settles on winter nights.
You’ve probably noticed that there are commercial avocado groves (mostly Hass) on and near Highland Valley Road. There’s one off Archie Moore, for example. Just that slight elevation makes a big difference on cold winter nights. Down at the Grasslands it might be cold enough to kill a young avocado whereas up on Archie Moore closer to Mount Woodson a young avocado tree isn’t damaged at all. I used to ride my bike to work, and I’d go from down at the Grasslands up to Mount Woodson, and the change in air temperature on those mornings was astounding.
So if you have any slope on your property, plant the avocado trees as high as practical. (Except don’t plant them just upslope of a building or wall, since those structures make cold air pool above them.)
As for variety, you could go with more cold tolerant varieties such as Mexicola or Bacon. But if I were you, I’d try varieties you most want to eat first. If you like Hass, then try Hass again, for example.
The surest way to give them a successful start is to plant them in March, and plant 15-gallon trees. The reasons are that there are no more seriously cold nights starting in March so the tree gets to grow all spring, summer, and fall before dealing with its first winter; the bigger a tree is, the more cold it can handle (no matter the variety). And that’s why starting with a 15-gallon tree helps — because it’s bigger than the typical 5-gallon tree.
That being said, I’ve planted almost all of my trees from 5-gallon containers or smaller, and I’ve planted them in every month of the year, and I’ve even planted them in the lowest part of my yard. So the above strategy is just to give you the surest good start, but it’s not necessary. I lost a couple small avocado trees this last winter, but there have been other winters where small avocado trees never get damaged.
To get them through our hot summers, the strategy is basically: Water often and in abundance.
Thanks so much for the reply and advise! What do you think about putting sunscreen on them? Also, I was a little concerned I was watering too much but it sounds like that’s not a problem? I had them on a slope and I would also see the water running down the slope.
Hi Keven,
It’s smart to paint exposed branches for sun protection. Here’s a post about that: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/avocado-trees-get-sunburned-what-to-do/
You can also spray whole trees with a clay product called Surround. That also provides sunburn protection.
Check your drainage, but all areas around here that I know — besides some in the flats of the Grasslands — drain well and it’s almost impossible to overwater avocado trees.
If the water is running down the slope, it could be because you’re putting on too much volume at one time. Either use a lower volume dripper or sprinkler, or add coarse mulch under the tree. If you’re hand watering, then “prime” the surface by wetting it briefly and then return after 15 minutes to water and you’ll find that the water infiltrates much better.
Thanks for taking the time; that’s very kind of you! I will give it another shot!!
Hi Greg,
I wanted to ask you about fruit dropping from my tree. My Hass tree located in Tustin, Ca is about 4-5 years old and had a pretty large fruit set this year for its first time (I removed flower buds last year to keep it growing). It bloomed starting Mar 2020 and then I counted 106 fruits on the tree a couple months ago it has since been dropping fruits some small and some medium sized. I am wondering why this is happening. The tree is growing vigorously as well (I commented on another post about its growth and water shoots) and seems healthy to me. I am wondering if I am missing something and want to understand better about why it is dropping fruit. Lastly, since this is the first fruit set and according to your other post, I should expected that this coming Feb will be the start of this fruits harvest season, correct (assuming I have any fruit left by that time)? Thank you as always for this wonderful resource you have created for us!
Hi Brody,
Rest assured that the behavior of your Hass is totally normal and, in fact, healthy. A young avocado tree like yours sometimes unwisely sets more fruit than it can handle, but then it later wisely sheds some of that overload. To carry 100 avocados to maturity, a Hass tree should be at least ten feet tall and wide at the time of fruitset, or else the fruit load will actually harm the health of the tree. The tree will barely grow and can actually have some die back of branches; it will also be sent into an alternate bearing pattern where you get zero flowering and fruitset the following year.
For example, the first time my own Hass tree carried over 100 avocados to maturity it was about 10-12 feet tall and wide. The following year it bloomed well and set a nice crop again.
You should be able to start harvesting the fruit that remains on your tree in late winter, yes, but since this is your first crop you might find it hard to wait. Go ahead and pick one as early as January. It will probably taste satisfactory but light flavored. If you can hold back and leave a few of the avocados on the tree until June, they will blow your mind with how beautifully they ripen and how good they taste. A Southern California Hass picked in June is unbelievably delicious, to me anyway.
Hi Greg,
Thank you for the response. Great info and I sure will have to leave some until June. Great tasting avocados from my own backyard are what I am after…after all. I very much am looking forward to it. I can’t wait for my Sharwill and Green Gold to catch up as well!
Thank you for this lengthy guide! We just bought a house in Orange County that has an avocado tree in the back. We saw brown tips and we weren’t sure what to do! Now we can hopefully get it in good shape for the season. I also see from the comments that you live in Ramona; I’m the granddaughter of Ernie/Muncie Klemm of Klemm’s Egg Ranch which used to operate down there. It’s a small world!
Hi Jordan,
That’s a neat connection! Hope your avocado tree grows great!
I have a bacon avocado that I planted last October using Cactus/Citrus mix using a mounded technique. Everything looked well until the winds blew all the old leaves off last month leaving a skeleton. The tree tries to recover with little leaf buds all over but when they attempt to open up they dry up turning gray light brown. I built a sun screen and sprayed with copper fungicide. The tree looks like it is burning back every day. I do not know what is wrong and have thought to dig along the root for any rot condition. I have some pictures but do not know how to attach. Eric S.
Hi Eric,
You could try linking to photos posted to Imgur or Google Drive or something similar. Cactus mixes usually drain very fast so your young tree would have needed water very frequently when the weather was warm and dry, and mounding exaggerates the drainage and drying of the soil under the avocado. That might be part of the problem.
I live in Zone 13 (Palm Springs) and have great success with my citrus trees but would like to plant an avocado tree or two. Is there any variety that can thrive in our harsh climate?
Hi Steve,
I don’t know if any avocados can thrive in Palm Springs, but I have read of an old seedling tree that produced well in some years in Indio. See: http://www.avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_40_1956/CAS_1956_PG_103-105.pdf
Check out this post for more thoughts on avocado varieties in high heat: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/heat-tolerance-of-avocado-varieties/
Hi Greg – wondering what your thought are about planting a regular size tree in a full size wine barrel? I’m in northern CA – and our soil is hard clay. Do you think a full size wine barrel would work for a full size tree?
Hi Nikki,
I have seen healthy avocado trees growing up to about 8 or 10 feet tall in wine barrels so I know that’s possible. I don’t know how long the tree can be happy for though.
If your soil is clay but still has decent drainage, you might be able to plant an avocado tree on a mound. See: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/how-to-plant-and-stake-an-avocado-tree/
Hi Greg, I’ve found your information of avocado trees really helpful. Two years a go I bought and plant a Reed Avocado tree; it’s about 7′ tall now. It did produce any avocados last year, they all fell off. But this year there are about a dozen still on the tree, about the size of a quarter. This past spring one of the lower branches produced another branch that grew up and is now thicker than the tree but not as tall. I recently realized this offshoot does not have any avocados. Should I cut it off or let it grow?
Hi Ben,
If you’re sure that the branch is Reed and not rootstock, then I’d allow it to grow. Usually you can see a bump on the trunk where the graft union is. Try to see whether the branch is emanating from above or below that bump. (Below means it’s rootstock.)
Greg,
I’ve been salivating to grow my own avocados since I first discovered your site 2 years ago. We moved into a new construction home in San Diego recently, and as part of the landscaping I had the landscape contractor plant a Haas and a Reed (per your suggestion to someone else). I want your opinion as to how well they are growing. They have been planted for a few months now, and I was happy to see them both showing some fruit!!
I just revisited your site and noted the need to remove the original stake, I’m having my gardener take care of that next week. Otherwise, what do you think of how they have been planted and how they look? Thanks in advance.
Here’s a link to photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/zYTLy7ePomxCMa8bA
I really want to grow a Mexican variety, and the ones available to me are Mexicola, Mexicola Grande and Stewart. I hear Stewart fruit is fibery and that the tree isn’t very productive. I hear Mexicola has good fruit texture, but no real flavor – and yet the tree is a nice small size, which is good for my small yard. I hear Mexicola Grande has a bit more flavor than the smaller fruit of Mexicola, but the tree can become huge. I have to decide if that extra flavor is enough reason to commit to extensive pruning. One more thing: I already bought a Fuerte. Do you have any experience of either tasting the fruit of these varieties or observing the vigor and flowering/fruiting habits to give me some insight before I make a decision?
Hi Greg, what a great and informative post and follow ups, dedicated plus. Well done.
I’m an Aussie from the Sunshine Coast Australia (S/E Queensland 30KMS inland)
I am now living in the Philippines absolute beachfront on the west coast of central Luzon. Sand in front, sandy loam in the rear, small lot only 2500M2. At the very rear (road side) of the lot are 3 huge mangoes doing very well, 1 mandarin tree that does well. 10 metres back towards the beach are Filipino Kiwi fruit, (waste of time) Guava’s waste of time as they get stung) Pawpaw, bananas.15/18 metres back is Jackfruit (lots of fruit) a local plum (large tree 10 metres high but takes a lot of space) that yields lots of plums but for only 2 to 3 weeks, don’t know its name, soz. Sour sop that fruits well and keeps the green ants busy,,,,,,like the mandarin and Calamansi.
Moving closer to the beach but still protected by the house is the veggie garden, more bananas and Pawpaw. I have 2 possibly 3 places for avocado trees, looking at Hass and feurte for planting 10 to 15 metres off the back boundary so some 90/100 metres from the high tide.
It can be very hot and humid October through April (dry season and no rain) and cooler though wetter especially May through September.
Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers, Steve.
Hi Steve,
I’m not sure if Hass and Fuerte would be the best variety choices for your location. I’ve heard people getting poor results from these varieties in tropical lowland locations like yours. The fruit is small and often has fungal issues at harvest, is what I’ve seen and been told.
On one hand, I would love for you to try these varieties to see if they perform decently. On the other hand, I don’t want you to waste your time. Based on my observations from travels in places with similar climates to yours, I would try other types of avocados. See for example the varieties that have done well at the southern tip of Florida in the U.S. here: https://www.myavocadotrees.com
I live in N Hollywood & tried planting an avocado tree about 5 years ago. However, every year it would get scorched by the summer sun/heat. I even covered the entire tree with light cloth for a few years but it kept getting burnt. I finally gave up last spring & took it out. Any thoughts/ideas on how to grow an avocado in this part of town?
Greg I live in Ramona Ca. and am wondering where I can buy a good quality avocado tree(s)? looking for a Hass and Fuerte. Thanks,
https://gregalder.com/yardposts/where-to-buy-an-avocado-tree/
Check that article to find where you can source trees.
My avocado tree is approximately 35 years old. It quit producing a couple of years ago. I’ve been watering it more often snd it looks healthy (other than some small dead branches). Will it ever produce again?
Hi Sandy,
It should unless there was another avocado tree nearby that was removed and that tree had been helping its pollination, in which case your tree might not produce as before.
Hi Greg, many thanks for a very informative web site. We live in Tasmania, Australia and planted two avocados (Bacon and Hass) 18 months ago using your posts as a guide. They’ve been doing very well, the Bacon already has a few good sized fruit and the Hass reached approx. 7′ high and 6′ wide, although no fruit so far.
We discovered early on that the local possums absolutely love avocados, so we built fences / enclosures to keep them out. This was successful until a couple of days ago, when possum(s) found its way in to the Hass enclosure. In one night it has eaten at least 2/3 of the foliage, broken 1/4 of the branches, and chewed away bark on a number of other branches over areas a few inches long and half the circumference of the branch.
I am assuming we will need to be careful of potential frost and sun damage until foliage re-grows – we can do this with shade cloth as necessary. My question is, what to do with branches which are entirely denuded of foliage, and/or partially ring-barked? Will these survive, or should we remove them now? It is the beginning of winter; we have occasional mild frosts. If we remove these branches, we will only have maybe 1/3 of the tree left.
Hoping to save the tree, but quite concerned…
Thank you for this great web-site.
My Sir Prize avocado tree is 4′ from my property line and the Bermuda grass from my neighbor’s lawn constantly invades the mulch around the tree. Every couple of weeks, after a deep watering, I pull out the grass as deeply as I can go to get it out. This disturbs the tree’s surface roots but I recover them with the leaves and mulch.
Would it be better to just let the grass fill in and keep it trimmed low? Also, if my neighbor decides to get rid of the lawn and kill it with Round-up (or similar) will that harm my tree or make the fruit taste bad or be poisonous?
Hi Kathryn,
I deal with Bermuda grass near some of my avocados too. I mostly do the same as you, except that I use a fork to loosen the dirt and Bermuda roots. This helps a lot.
You could let the grass fill in and then just make sure that you’re watering enough to account for it. I’ve done that under a couple of my citrus trees and as the trees get bigger the Bermuda almost stops growing there because it’s too shady. With the avocado, I would wait until it is established though. Maybe wait until it’s around five feet tall and wide, and then allow the Bermuda to fill in under it. Young avocados are wimps.
Round-up would only harm your avocado tree if it touches the tree, particularly the leaves.
Thank you for such a helpful response. I’ve already sent links to your blog to friends that have avocado or citrus trees.
One friend suggested covering the area under the tree with cardboard under the mulch and leaves. (This is recommended in our area to kill lawns to transition to a drought tolerant landscape.) Would this be harmful to the tree roots?
Hi Kathryn,
I’m not sure if the cardboard would harm the avocado roots, but I doubt it would.
Just got a Reed from local HomeDepot. I repotted into a 2×2 tree box. When I bought all the leaves were browning. Is this a major problem or do you my tree will be OK. I will try to attach a photo.
Thanks,
Henry in Santa Ana
Hi Henry,
This time of year (winter), most avocado trees have some brown on their leaves and it’s not a big problem. It indicates that the watering wasn’t optimal over the past summer and fall. Only if most of the leaves are mostly brown is it going to negatively affect the flowering and new growth that is coming here in spring.
Thanks Greg,
I wanted to include photos, but not sure how to that ?
20230305_082429_resized (1) (1).jpg
Greg,.
I sent photos to GregAkders Yard Posts, hope you get
So Sorry
GREG ALDERS YARD POSTS
My tree is growing, has leaves and blooms but that’s it. Also the leaves are a light light green. Not the deep green I’m used to seeing. It is in poor soil and I planted it at least 2 years ago. I’m in SoCal. What do you think I’m doing wrong?
Hi Karin,
Light green leaves could be caused by a few things. The leaves could be immature; they get deeper green as they get older. The tree could be getting too much water; a tree in soggy soil will sometimes have lighter green leaves.
Hello Greg. I live in San Jose, CA. And I think I’ve hurt my avocado. : ( We have huge Armillaria problems in our backyard soil. After losing multiple stone fruit trees & others, I’m turning to avocados since they are more naturally resistant plus we love eating them. Around May 9th, I bought & planted a 15-gal Haas-Lamb from a reputable nursery in the area. I followed their detailed instructions about building a mound, etc. It said to do a once-a-week deep soak. Given that Armillaria thrives in moist soil by the trunk, I put several 2 gal/hr bubble emitters ~1.5 ft from the trunk & let them drip 1 hr 1x/wk. It’s been a cool summer here then we had a short heat wave in late June. I noticed droopy leaves then–to my horror–I realize the majority of its leaves were crisp & fell off when I touched them. My husband talked me into moving the emitters closer & water more which I did in recent days. A few leaves perk up here & there but there’s not a dramatic difference. I feel so stupid, it’s just that I’m paranoid about the Armillaria. There’s just a few leaves left on this sweet young 4-ft tree. Have I killed it? How should I proceed? Is anything different when you have the Armillaria fungus in the soil? I’ve put so much care into this, it’s so hard to see it fade. I would be so grateful for your help.
I just put together a 2’X2’x4′ raised garden bed – bottomless. I intend to pant a Wurtz (Little Cado) in it. I live in Redlands, Ca with red clay soil and not much top soil. Am I making a mistake? Should I plant a Hass instead? Will the tree be happy in the raised garden bed?
Greg,
Good Day. Should I remove leaf matter and wood chips around the base of new tree plantings, or should new young trees newly planted be kept with the same consideration as mature trees, leaving leaf and wood chip debris in a thick amount around the base of the tree?
Joe
Hi Joe,
I would treat young trees the same as old trees. A few months after planting, you’ll see the new tree putting roots up into mulch just like an old tree. I planted a new tree yesterday and added wood chips around the tree.
Hi Greg, My DIG Multi head, micro spinner doesn’t come with a shut off valve. Did you put one on yours?
One more question. My son‘s rental has a very old avocado tree that has never produced avocados. It’s in Chino Hills, where there are lots of other avocado trees. Any idea thanks.
Hi Patty,
Yes, I add my own shutoff valves.
I know of some other old avocado trees that rarely, if ever, make fruit. It can be due to a few reasons, including defective flowers. There’s nothing you can do about it. If you want the tree to produce, you have to use it as rootstock and graft it over to a different variety.