CULTURAL TIP: MAINTAINING TREE HEALTH THROUGH PROPER IRRIGATION
Very often a great source of frustration for an avocado grower is to see a large percentage of the newly set fruit dropped by the tree. This drop of new fruit is normal and thought to be the trees way of getting rid of the fruit with defective or weak seeds. As a grower there is little, at present, you can do about the avocado tree dropping most of the newly set fruit. If the drop does not occur, the trees may be likely to carry a crop with an excessive number of cukes. Those newly set fruit that are going to stick on the tree, and remain until harvest, tend to be the fruit that is growing the fastest at this time of year. The slower growing fruit tend to be those that are shed by the tree in the June drop. While it is difficult to decrease the amount of fruit that are dropped, you can prevent excessive drop through good cultural management, especially when the newly set fruit are in a rapid growth phase. It is therefore, very important to maintain tree health as the new fruit develop.
Correct irrigation practices are needed to maintain a healthy tree when the new fruit are growing rapidly. This means, don't overwater or underwater the trees. Exposing the trees to unnecessarily dry soils can cause more fruit to drop than if the soil under the trees was at the proper soil moisture content. Also, take care not to over stimulate the growth of the tree; the shoots that grow through the flowers compete with the newly set fruit. If growth is excessive a smaller crop may be possible. A modest amount of new growth on the tree is useful to shade the new fruit and to start replacing the old leaves shed after winter. In addition, continue to consider your harvest strategy. If there are mature fruit still on the trees, along with your new crop, then excessive numbers of this fruit can also compete with the new set, potentially reducing the new crop.
The most important issue though is to correctly manage irrigation.
