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Avocado Growers

Drip Irigation for Avocados

9 years ago

I have been converting to drip irrigation and I want to add my avocado trees to the system. The tomatoes are doing great so I hope to have success with the avocadoes. Currently I water by hand but that is very time consuming. The three Haas, one Fuerte, one Pinkerton and one Reed all look good.

Any suggestions for the drip system? The plan is to use drip line with one gallon per hour drippers every eighteen inches. One loop around the tree for the smaller trees and two loops for the larger trees. That would be about a dozen drippers for the small trees and about fifty for the larger trees.

I'll have to figure out how long to water. Perhaps an hour every two or three days? I am thinking a moisture meter will be helpful. I have a cheap one I don't trust. It seems to indicate wet all the time and then jumps to dry. I think it might be effected by salinity. Does anyone have experience with a quality moisture meter? Vegetronix?

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Comments (4)

Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
9 years ago
Thanks for asking that question about how long and how often to irrigate. Looking forward to the answers. Last summer the county cut back the watering due to the drought. We are mandated to only water on certain days. We have 3 trees with one gallon emmitters, and water for 45 minutes about every other day. One tree is 4 years old. The others are new. Fingers crossed the county remembers they already cut us back.
mike (zone 9b San Francisco east bay)
8 years ago
better than drip are micro sprinkler.. not sure how big your trees are but you could dig a few holes and put some 4 inch perforated drain pipes in that are at least 2 feet deep. this will allow you to deep water below the surface. unless you leave drip on all day it will only water one spot and just a few inches deep before it dries again
the drain pipe is best when planting a new tree but you can add it later roots will grow back
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Brian, A larger line doesn't give you more pressure, only more volume. Your faucet coming out of your house is probably a 1/2" line operating at 60 PSI which is pretty common. Plastic pressure regulators aren't needed, IMHO, as you can effectively regulate the pressure with the faucet handle. Just another plastic part to degrade and fail in the hot sun. If you're setting up sprayers, go ahead and crack the sprayer adjustment enough so when you blow through it, some air escapes, then hook everything up and crank the faucet half way open and see how they're covering. The only advantage to high pressure is that the line pressurizes completely sooner than later. As an example, on one run I have eight sprayers, and about two dozen 1-10 gal emitters, and I run full pressure on the faucet, which is coming through a 3/4" galvanized nipple from a 1" PVC water line. The only time you run out of pressure is when you have a lot of large sprayers operating at max output, then they'll drop the pressure downstream quite a bit. Don't forget a vacuum breaker.
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@socks: Yes, the trees looked healthy when we bought them. They are planted in our backyard. The backyard soil has a lot of stones/rocks since we purchased the property, and it looks like a construction site. I was told by the nursery that native soil is sufficient for planting avocado, as they have sensitive root system and don't like compost and manure. I told the nursery the soil in my backyard has a lot of stone and the quality is poor, but they told me it's fine, and not to water the trees often. When we were planting the trees, we filtered away the rocks/stones, so the soil was like thin powder form. Since I haven't been watering the young trees much, the leaves started to fall off. The nursery told me that it's lacking of water, so I started to irrigate more often. Then, the new leaves, buds, and branches are starting to die back. I contacted them again today, and they said the tree has root rot now, and the most I can do at this point is to reduce the irrigation amount and keep my finger crossed. I did research online, and i'm not sure if it's really root rot or not. If it is, I doubt the trees can survive without taking any treatment.
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cori...perhaps my info from "fast growing tree" was a different seller...there are lots of sites with that name on the web. Don't get me wrong...Hass is a good avocado. I have 3 of them. They have derived from Guatemala not Mexico. Therefor, they are more tender than Mexicans. I am not sure about your area getting only down to the 40's or 50's in winter (9b). You need to be concerned about your 4 or 5 coldest nights of the year. That is where the danger lies. Lights in the tree does help a bit, and throwing a tarp over small trees helps even more. I know nothing about the quality/price of their trees...so I can not comment on that. If you have good experience with them....I am sure they are honest. You can sure give it a shot. Here is a good place to fine info (University of Calif)...they are not trying to sell you anything. haha Ed of Somis http://ceventura.ucanr.edu/Gardening/Garden_Info/avocado_questions/
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fireduck
8 years ago
I have grown avo trees for 40 years....mostly via drip systems. My recommendations: For very small/young trees the drippers are fine. It is important to target in the small rootzone. After trees are in the ground for a year or two....go to the micro sprinklers that M is talking about. They cover a larger area...and this reduces the number needed. Young trees need more frequent watering than mature trees. However, do know that avocados love water. Standing water/flooded ground is not good....and leads to root rot. Giving timetables for water is impossible because of the many variables. Mulching areas around trees is very helpful. Hope this helps...
tim45z10
8 years ago
I have a soaker hose set up on all my fruit trees. Costs a little more, but worth it.

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