CULTURAL TIP: EVALUATE TREE HEALTH FOR SIGNS OF STRESS
Many avocado trees on groves in the north and south have started their flowering process with flower bud development well underway. There are a few trees where the flower development is well advanced and open flowers can be expected in the near future. For other trees flower opening may still be a few weeks off. Now is the time to take a good hard look at the trees and assess if the trees are showing signs of stress. Those trees that had a larger fruit load than usual, even for a heavy crop year, may show the following signs that they are not in the best of health:
- Leaves that are light green to yellow in color
- An excessive drop of leaves
- Sparse leaf cover
- Thin "weedy" short shoots pushing flowers only from the tips
The above symptoms suggest the trees may have been drained by the 2009-10 large crop and despite having a very light crop to harvest this year, have not yet fully recovered. If you think your trees look unhealthy or stressed contact your farm advisor about potential cultural management activities you can undertake to best support your trees as they go into flower opening and fruit set over the next few weeks. Doing nothing to help trees in poor condition at this time of year and over the next couple of months will generally not be helpful in getting good yields of fruit.
