Benefits of Pruning Avocado Trees

There are many reasons for California avocado growers to consider pruning their avocado trees.

Pruning:

• Reduces costs.
• Improves profitability.
• Improves pest control.
• Assists trees in Phytophthora recovery.
• Helps avocado trees recover from fire or freeze.
• Saves water.
• Develops avocado trees with strong frameworks.
• Reduces fertilizer needs.
• Increases ease and productivity of harvesting.
• Maximizes the tree-bearing surface.
• Reduces tree size.
• Improves tree health.
• Keeps avocado fruit off the ground.
• Restores avocado tree vigor.
• Influences an avocado tree's response to fertilizer applications, with pruned trees inclined to grow more than unpruned trees. In South Africa, pruning increased the fruit-mineral content of P, K, Ca and Mg, leading to better quality fruit.
• Improves fruit quality, with more minerals available to the avocado.
• Rebalances the tree among shoots, roots and avocado fruit growing cycles.
• Uncrowded avocado trees will grow, spread and create dead, unproductive space within the tree. Crowded avocado trees will grow competitively with other trees, achieving greater size. As a result, unpruned trees can become a "jungle."