How to Grow Avocado Trees So They Bear Fruit? A Detailed Guide to High-Yield Cultivation Techniques

Avocado is a rare fruit of the tropics, also known as oil pear, alligator pear, butter pear, cream fruit, etc. Its fruit is a highly nutritious fruit. So how do you grow avocado so it bears fruit? Below is a compilation of high-yield cultivation techniques.

The best time to eat avocado

Eat it during the day, half an hour before or after a meal. Avocado is a high-energy, low-sugar fruit, very suitable for infants, young children and the elderly. During the daytime it can be eaten either half an hour before or after a meal; eating it before a meal can reduce food intake, and eating it after a meal can promote digestion and prevent constipation. But it is worth noting that avocado is best not eaten at night, because energy expenditure at night is already low, and since avocado is a high-energy fruit, eating it at night easily leads to weight gain.

How do you grow avocado so it bears fruit?

1. Mulching

Avocado is a fruit tree that grows under tropical rainforest conditions and in competition for sunlight. The high-temperature, high-humidity environment makes it grow rapidly; if environmental conditions are not met, it grows slowly. Therefore, avocado cultivation abroad mostly emphasizes growing grass or green manure near the plants in the early stage, and applying heavy mulch near the root zone. Mulching increases the organic matter of the topsoil, forms a rainforest root-zone environment similar to that of its place of origin, stabilizes the ecological conditions of the root zone, and promotes the reproduction of microorganisms that can suppress root rot activity. Therefore, from the young tree stage until the tree itself can form a mulch layer through fallen leaves and before root rot occurs, mulching the tree disk of young trees is especially important. Start mulching in winter, replenish the thickness in spring, and by summer a good mulch layer will have formed. Root-zone mulching can also reduce soil moisture evaporation, lessen the damage of dry heat to avocado, lower soil temperature in summer and raise it in winter, increase soil organic matter, reduce weeds, and prevent water and soil loss on sloping land. But during the rainy season, guard against the mulched soil becoming too wet.

2. Fertilization

The young tree stage of 1 to 4 years after planting avocado is the period for laying the foundation for high-yield, high-quality avocado cultivation; fertilization should be reasonable to promote rapid growth of young trees. The sign of fertilizer deficiency in avocado trees is severe leaf drop and branch dieback. Reasonable fertilization of both young and fruiting avocado trees should determine the type and amount of fertilizer according to soil fertility, tree age, and plant growth or growth and fruiting conditions. Generally, complete fertilizers such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium should be applied in a balanced way, and it is best to guide fertilization through soil and leaf nutrient analysis. In the red soil hillsides of South China, organic matter is lacking and available potassium and available phosphorus are deficient, so even more attention should be paid to the application of potassium and phosphorus fertilizers.

The root system of young oil pear trees is easily damaged by nitrogen fertilizer, and applying too much nitrogen fertilizer easily causes excessive vegetative growth of branches and leaves, delaying fruiting, so attention should be paid to nitrogen fertilizer application. Abroad, 110 to 450 g of pure nitrogen is applied per tree per year, increasing year by year as the tree ages, with half of it using organic fertilizer as the nitrogen source. In the first year after planting, it should be applied in small amounts and frequently. In areas with frost, nitrogen fertilizer should be stopped in autumn and winter, and more phosphorus and potassium fertilizers applied, to avoid cold damage to winter shoots. Superphosphate is applied at 900 g per tree per year. Potassium sulfate is applied at 1.8 to 2.2 kg per tree per year.

3. Drainage and Irrigation

Avocado is evergreen year-round and needs the root-zone soil kept moist throughout the year. It is very sensitive to soil drought; once water is lacking, physiological functions are blocked, tree vigor weakens, causing leaf and fruit drop, and cold resistance in winter decreases, so it should be irrigated appropriately during drought. From fruit set to fruit maturity, maintaining soil moisture is crucial; if subjected to drought in the first month after fruit set, young fruit drops severely. On Hainan Island, the dry and hot weather in April and May causes severe fruit drop in oil pear. Therefore, if there are 10 to 20 consecutive clear days and the orchard soil begins to crack slightly, irrigation should be carried out promptly; if rainfall is below transpiration and evaporation for a long time, supplementary irrigation should also be given. But irrigation must be just right, both sufficient and absolutely not excessive; generally it is appropriate to wet the soil through. If too wet, it will aggravate root rot and also reduce the soluble solids content of the fruit. It is best to use sprinkler or drip irrigation; flood irrigation may cause root rot, and drip irrigation can save 50% to 60% of water. If the leaves begin to curl from drought, the canopy can also be sprayed with water. In the rainy season, attention should be paid to drainage, especially in flatland orchards.

Avocado Cultivation Conditions

Avocado likes light and a warm, humid climate, and is not cold-tolerant; only a few varieties can endure short-term low temperatures of 0 degrees. It is cultivated between 40°S and 40°N in the world. The suitable average annual temperature is 20 to 25°C. Cold resistance varies with variety (the Mexican race is relatively strong in cold resistance, while the Guatemalan race and West Indian race are weaker in cold resistance). Cold-resistant varieties can withstand low temperatures of -6°C; varieties with low cold resistance wither and die when encountering low temperatures of 0°C. It needs an annual rainfall of more than 1000 mm. Its roots are shallow and its branches fragile, so it cannot withstand strong winds; strong winds can cause reduced yields. It has strong adaptability to soil.

Avocado Propagation Methods

Avocado is mostly propagated by seed, and can also be propagated by grafting. When sowing, remove the seed coat and sprout the seeds in a sand bed. Choose a place with deep soil, good drainage and shelter from wind for planting. A plant spacing of 5*(6 to 7) m is more suitable. Mixed planting of varieties can ensure pollination. Grafting is best done with container seedlings; grafting can be done when the seedling diameter is 0.8 to 1 cm thick. Bud grafting or side grafting is mostly used. Seedlings can be planted out at 50 to 60 cm. The planting spacing is 5 to 6 m. Grafted seedlings planted out for 3 to 4 years, or seedling trees for 4 to 6 years, bloom and bear fruit. Mature trees yield 25 to 50 kg per tree, with high yields of 100 to 150 kg.

Avocado Fertilization Techniques

1. Routinely apply nitrogen fertilizer more than 4 times a year, usually by broadcasting or through the irrigation system. For mature trees, apply organic fertilizer at 50 kg per tree and compound fertilizer at 50 g during the young fruit stage, and apply once more after harvest, with the amount doubled.

2. Apply phosphorus and potassium fertilizers when leaf analysis indicates low phosphorus and potassium content. On certain types of soil, zinc can be applied through zinc-containing fertilizers or foliar zinc spraying; spraying when new leaves unfold in spring is most effective. For crops growing on calcareous soil or soil with low oxygen content, the most effective method is to inject chelated iron solution into the root zone.

3. When nitrogen is present in certain soils and irrigation water, the amount of nitrogen used should be reduced. When few new leaves are seen growing on the tree and the leaf color is grayish-white, or when there is much fruit, then nitrogen fertilizer should be increased.