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Avocado Growers

Close-proximity planting?

8 years ago

Not sure if anyone is familiar with "backyard orchard culture" made popular by Dave Wilson nursery - the idea is planting backyard fruit trees in groups of 3 or 4, with about 2 feet in between, and pruning to keep them small for ease of harvest and the correct amount of fruit for a household.

Thoughts on if this can be done with avocados? It's usually a stone/pome-fruit strategy (which has worked very well for me and many others) but I'm curious if anyone has tried this with Avocados. And how do they respond to being pruned to keep height down to say 8 or 9 feet?

Featured Answer

pip313

8 years ago

Unfortunately avocado rootstock doesn't reliably dwarf the scion. It's not like citrus or apples.

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Comments (9)

fireduck
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Simply put...that is an over-crowding situation. The webmaster/owner of the "cloudforest café" has spoken many times how this system has resulted in a tangled/crowded/unproductive mess over a few years. Stick with established tested and true traditions....and you will have longevity and production that will satisfy. PS pruning to 8-9' height for most varieties is doable...not ideal.
BarbJP 15-16/9B CA Bay Area
8 years ago
Well to be fair, that system was developed for deciduous fruit trees, which are a whole different animal than evergreen fruit trees.

And for those of us who don't know, who is the webmaster/owner of "cloudforest cafe"?
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pip313
8 years ago
That method is also for dwarf rootstocks, something avocado doesn't have.
tim45z10
8 years ago
They have semi dwarf Hass avos. Two years ago I bought two, from HD. They aren't doing as good as I had hoped.
holzinger
8 years ago
I think you will be better off growing multiple grafted trees. Research the growing habits of the varieties you want to grow and graft those with similar habits on the same tree. The commercial growers near where I used to live in Ventura, CA would routinely prune their trees to no more than 9-10 feet tall every year.
Nick (9b) Modesto Area
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Thats the plan with my Avocado trees is to grow them between 8-10 feet tall and around 6-8 feet wide. I'm spacing them about 8 feet apart from each other.
pip313
8 years ago
They have small varieties. Like Gwen, holiday aka xx3 and kona sharwil. Those are considered dwarf scion.
Nick (9b) Modesto Area
8 years ago
I have a Wurtz , Holiday, Bacon and Stuart which are suppose to be dwarf and or compact. The other trees I plan to keep smaller as well. I plan to have 4 in containers and 6 in the ground.

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