The most common mistake that I see made, and that I have made myself, when watering a new avocado tree is . . . well, let me show you:
As an example, if your newly planted avocado tree needs, say, six gallons of water per week, then it must get that six gallons on its roots. Three gallons on its roots and another three in the general vicinity will not satisfy.
Thank you for your support of my Yard Posts so I can keep them coming and keep them ad-free.
All of my Yard Posts are listed here
Good reminder, Greg. Always amazed by people’s believing that tree roots can go “seek out” water.
One of my pet peeves, Patty! As if roots have eyes and can see that you are putting water “over there.”
Geez Greg, lighten up about putting water in the wrong place! We get it. Sheesh.
I’m just pulling your leg, of course. 🙂 <3
In addition to wasting water, making the ground soggy in areas where no tree roots are pulling it out of the ground might encourage the soil-borne water mold Phytophthora cinnamomi, "which thrives in waterlogged, poorly drained, and warm soil conditions." My biggest mistake with young avocados in my clay-like soil has been overwatering and concomitant root rot. I killed several young trees before I got my mind right!
That’s a very good point, Randy. Thank you.
Hey all, my avocado has been in the ground now for 2 1/2 years, its showing new growth finally. Its about 7 ft tall, slender, open gaps, looks to be happy. Whats the root system and watering pattern look to be now? I am doing an apx 5 point, 2 to 3 foot out from the truck. Truncks apx 2 gage at the soil level. Im in alpine, the soil is clay on the outside perimeter, but when I planted, I made a 3 ft deep, 8 foot wide hole, and back filled with munlches, leaf and twig matter, soil conditioner, sand and rock. Planted it on a small mound. I was hoping it would have had some good growth. It looks happy, and finally some blooms this year, very encouraging.
Hi Greg: Very good short fundamental video we often forget. I noticed you planted on a mound. Is this your new method or a test of sort? Can you state what GPH dripper you used in your video? I’ve been using a 2 GPH dripper run x 2hours on a new tree but i always think its not enough water. Thank you ,
Hi Joe,
I plant on a mound according to the quality and depth of the dirt in a spot. I aim for a minimum of two feet of good dirt below/around a tree so I mound up as necessary in order to achieve that. It has worked well as long as the mound is broad enough (not steep like a pyramid).
That’s a 2 GPH dripper in the video. I find that 1 GPH and 0.5 GPH drippers can also work fine in my sandy loam soil. What really matters is how long you run them. For that new tree I planted on the 2 GPH dripper, I’ll run the system for about 6 hours per week in the summer (split into two or three irrigations). That has worked well on similar sized trees in past years.
Thanks for this reminder!!I’m planning on planting a new tree and I have forgotten some things along the way and might treat my young tree too much like it’s older sisters.
greg, have you ever grown long neck avocados?
Hi Mike,
Not really. Pinkerton is the variety with the longest neck that I grow a whole tree of. (Its neck gets very long in my hot climate.)
I haven’t found a long-necked variety that I love to eat. All of the ones I’ve tried have had long seed cavities, thin skin that doesn’t peel, or some other inferior characteristic. But I haven’t tried them all so maybe there’s an exception out there that I need to try.
Back to Pinkerton, while it’s an overall very good avocado, one of its faults in my eyes is its neck. That part of the fruit is hard to scoop out, and the skin of Pinkerton doesn’t peel super well.
To me, long-necked avocado varieties are more fun to look at than to eat. In this way they are like giant-fruited varieties. Avocados that weigh two pounds look cool but they are just not so easy to use. So I have grafts of a few long-necked and giant-fruited varieties, or have over the years, but don’t really grow them.
In case you have any interest in the Don Gillogly variety specifically, I did do a profile on the fruit here: https://youtu.be/hj7UoYkr32Q?si=dpbuZNcYTZ6bDGCg
I don’t want to sound negative and discouraging about long-necked varieties, but I just wanted to be clear and explain why I don’t grow them personally.