Pruning an avocado tree tree is only bad if you do it wrong . Here ’s how to prune your tree properly .
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Pruning an avocado tree can be bad or serious , depending on when and how you maintain your pruning shear . For exercise , if cut too much off at once orprune at the wrong prison term , you could damage your tree and reduce your harvest . But proper pruning can support the health of your tree , keep it a realizable sizing , and promote more yield to acquire . Here ’s how to prune avocado trees the right way , whether they are get in the yard or a solarium .
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1. Prune in Late Winter or Early Spring
Usually , avocado Tree do n’t need heavy pruning to stay fertile or pretty , but they do require occasional pruning to encourage strong , shaggy-haired development and promote fruit growth . Prune your avocado treebefore it begins to sprout new leave-taking . Avocados yield on new wood , so if you clip too late , you ’ll cut off the part of the tree that produces efflorescence and alligator pear later in the season .
2. Prune Dead or Broken Limbs
bushed or broken branch provide an entry period for pestilence and plant disease to obtrude upon the rest of the tree diagram . rationalize them off as soon as you see them usingclean pruning shear .
3. Prune to Thin the Canopy
Look for branches that are crossing or rubbing together and prune the sapless one of the two . tenuous branches in the nerve center of the avocado tree diagram to open up the tree ’s structure , allow sunlight in , and improve air flow . This reduces disease risk of infection and promote fruit hardening .
4. Prune a Too-Tall Avocado Prudently
Do n’t do a hard prune in a individual growing time of year to decoct the height of a tree . No buzz cuts , please!Remove one major branchon an overgrown Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree one year , then another major branch the next twelvemonth . Pruning an avocado tree tree right for height takes three or four years . Pruning too much all at once stresses the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and reduces the crop .
Use pruning shear to cut the subdivision of an avocado tree diagram . If the tree branches are too thick for pruners , use a pruning hook or a handsaw .
5. Prune Suckers Anytime
mug are shoots that grow from the beginning , below the graft , or straight up from branches . They wo n’t deport fruit and suck energy out of the tree . trim them off on sight , down to the filth phone line .
6. Cut Back Avocado Saplings
If you get asapling from an avocado piton your kitchen windowsill , you may now have a spindly little works that looks nothing like a spreading avocado Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . A good pruning is in edict to further your little Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree to raise a broader trunk and ramification , shaggy offset .
Once the sapling is a foot tall , cut the main stem of the sapling about 1/3 of the way down , just above a thickening . A node is a bump on the stem with special plant life tissue paper that puts out Modern branches and leave . New ontogeny come forth from the lymph node after you prune off the top of the sapling .
This pruning will experience harsh , but consider it tough love because the trim encourages the sapling to put out lots of new ontogeny and get bushier and thick . proceed pruning the sapling each season for a couple of years to determine and train it into a strong tree diagram .
7. Choose the Right Variety
Avocado trees tend to be broad - open tree . The most democratic variety , Hass avocado , progress to 15 to 25 foot improbable and 15 feet blanket when planted in the earth . When acquire in a container , it adjusts its size to fit the pot .
consecrate that avocado pear tree are audacious only inUSDA zone 9 to 11 , many of us grow them in containers andbring them indoors for the wintertime . A full pick for growing in a container is the Wurtz Persea Americana , sometimes called petty Cado . This dwarf salmagundi grows just 10 to 15 feet tall so you wo n’t have to prune as much to keep it at a manageable size .
