Pruning Avocados

Learn how to prune avocados from Fairchild's Senior Curator of Tropical Fruit, Dr. Richard J. Campbell.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Pruning
• Avocados
• Dr. Richard J. Campbell
• FTBG
• Size Control

[TravisVadon]

Hey, I hope someone can answer this question. It was stressed that pruning the tree will make life easier when it comes time to harvest but if my goal is to get the highest number of fruit possible per tree is it still advisable to prune? Lightly prune maybe? Thanks for the help.

[fairchildgarden]

@TravisVadon You can still get an excellent yield by pruning your avocado trees. You may get more overall fruit per tree with a larger tree, but by pruning you can keep trees slightly closer together and have more trees per acre. Keeping trees small also cuts down on labor as the fruit are easier to get to. Less labor equals lest cost, so bigger isn't always better! Good luck.

[kualalumpur247]

Thanks for that info. I have some small avocado trees (2 and 3 years from seeds, 1.20 to 1.60 meters) but only a small garden. Can I cut them already and do I have to plant them near together?

[fairchildgarden]

@kualalumpur247 You can already begin to prune your trees at that stage. They do not need to be planted close together. You will have to wait awhile before they fruit if they are from seed and you may want to think about grafting them.

[jtotten1313]

I am on the Gulf in FL zone 10 & have a FL Avo tree. This year was the first time i harvested avacados and wondered the optimum time to pick them? They got bigger and bigger but not soft! They were giant! Not too flavorful like a Haas. The branches seem to heavy for the tree. They bend low w/o fruit on them and I'm worried when fruit comes they will break off the trunk. I didn't prune after the fruit was picked - when should I prune? What avo is the most flavorful for Florida? Thanks!

[fairchildgarden]

@jtotten1313 Avocados won't go soft on the tree, you want to pick them by size: the bigger the better. If you feel there are too many avocados on the tree, you can always thin them out. The best time to prune is right after you remove the last fruit from the tree. Good varieties for Florida are Donnie, Simmonds, Miguel and Choquette.

[TravisVadon]

@fairchildgarden Thanks for the heads up. That makes perfect sense.

[kualalumpur247]

Hello fairchildgarden,

thanks a lot for your helpful answer! I am happy if I get the pruning done as I am a total rookie, so grafting is advanced stuff. I haven t even seen another avodado tree in Malaysia so far.

[eightmeg2003]

@JohnnyBlueification and did you see how he chopped that huge branch right onto, and almost ruined, the REST of the tree he had!?!!!!

[jayee179]

excellent video!