A recent blog post by Dr. Ben A. Faber provides growers with cultural management best practices to assess and address damage to avocado trees caused by heat stress.
As noted in the article, one of the first steps is to assess the heat damage to your trees, which may look slightly “toasted.” In these instances, it’s best to leave the trees alone. For those trees that have lost significant portions of their canopy, it’s important to take actions that prevent the tree suffering from sunburn as the trees will be unable to sufficiently cool themselves. To address these heat-related issues:
- Whitewash branches that are exposed to the sun by leaf loss
- Restrict irrigation as the trees cannot effectively move water and this may lead to soggy conditions and root rot
- Do not prune the trees until new growth has occurred (about 3 – 6 months later)
- Adjust fertilization as you would for a frost-affected tree
The California Avocado Commission has a variety of heat-related articles in its cultural management library including the following:
- Best practices for California avocado groves impacted by excessive heat
- Potential for heat mitigation by overhead irrigation in avocado groves
- Avocado heat damage follow-up
In addition, it is equally important to remember to reduce heat-related illnesses for your employees by providing them with appropriate measures to eliminate workplace hazards.