If there is one thing I’ve learnt over the years teaching pruning, it’s that when I start to talk about old wood, new wood, two year old wood – your mind squeezes shut with fear.
So before we begin here today lets relax a little. Just hang with me here while I talk about new wood and how it influences how you prune your Avocado.
Avocados Fruit On New Wood
Avocados fruit on their new wood. The new wood is soft and bright and is at the ends of the branches. It’s the wood that the flowers and fruits are hanging from.
Once this wood has flowered and fruited, it’ll never fruit again.
It will however carry on growing. The branch you see before you will stretch out a bit further every year. And the fruit will come on those new bits. It doesn’t take long for them to get annoyingly out of reach or annoyingly in the way!
Renewal Pruning
The solution to those far away Avocado’s is simple. Each season remove one or two branches at their point of origin. Be bold! Choose the tallest one or the one that’s cluttering up the middle and cut it right out. Dont leave a nasty stub or part branch – go right back to the trunk.
Your tree will react to this by shooting out fresh new growths where you cut. The next lot of fruits are now reachable! Huzza!
This is renewal pruning. Off with the old, to grow the new. Oh to be a tree.
Apart from reach-ability, compact Avocados are way easier to foliar spray (how they love seaweed!), and much easier to protect from wind (which they hate).
Heres an excerpt from my pruning book “Pruning Fruit Trees: A Beginners Guide“
Avocado
Avocados can produce alot of fruit on a small tree. Happiness = feet on the ground for all orchard tasks! Avocado trees are super easy to prune. Their wood is soft and there is very little science to muddle your way through.
An annual prune makes for a quick, easy job. Leave the prunings as mulch around the bottom of the tree.
Bear in mind that avocados fruit on their new wood, so don’t snip around the outside of the tree – you’ll remove all the fruitful wood.
Timing
Timing is personalised to your area and frosts/ temperature as well as dependent on variety.
As a good general rule to begin, prune your avocado in spring/ mid spring whenever frosts are done. If no frosts at yours, depending on variety, as soon after harvest is finished, as possible.
Height And Width
Use thinning cuts to reduce the height and width to your chosen limits. Within your comfortable reach is a good guide – leave the ladders to the roofers! In a two for one deal those thinning cuts also open the tree for light and airflow. Focus on removing the dominant, vertical shoots. Avocados respond with a strong regrowth , so don’t be shy!
Fresh new shoots low down on the tree make for easy times ahead – fruitful wood, within our grasp.
Remove really low branches to keep the fruits up out of the grass.
