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Cultural Management Library

The most successful California Avocado growers apply different cultural management activities throughout the year. The key is knowing what to do and how much of a particular activity to do in order to properly support the trees at each stage of the growth cycle.
In spring, it's important to examine your avocado groves for signs of stress.
Understanding the avocado tree growth cycle for cultural management decisions is critical to identifying challenges and opportunities within your avocado grove.
If your trees have a good crop, good covering of healthy green leaves, and a good flowering with potential for a good fruit set, then you can be justifiably proud of a job well done. However, if the trees are looking like they have dropped all their old leaves, then there is room for improvement.
To get the best results from avocado grove irrigation, it is very important to measure soil moisture levels with reasonable accuracy when deciding when and how much to irrigate. Poor irrigation practices cost California Avocado growers in several ways.
Very often a great source of frustration for an avocado grower is to see a large percentage of the newly set fruit dropped by the avocado tree. This drop of new fruit is normal and thought to be the trees’ means of getting rid of fruit with defective or weak seeds.
Irrigation is important to avocado trees in California because avocados are native to the humid sub-tropical and tropical regions of central and northern South America where rainfall is abundant. In comparison, California is an arid Mediterranean climate with low rainfall.
For the best consistent avocado crops, fertilizer applications should aim to keep the avocado trees very healthy. In order to produce consistent, abundant avocado crops, avocado trees need healthy leaves, they need to produce flowering wood and have strong healthy roots to take up water and minerals. What minerals do avocado trees use?

It's important to provide California avocado trees with the nutrients they need in order to ensure optimal fruit production and tree health. Trees that are supplied with the optimal mix of nutrients are stronger. In general, healthy avocado trees have higher quality fruit yields and are better equipped to handle severe weather events like high winds and cold temperatures.

There are many reasons for California avocado growers to consider pruning their avocado trees. Reduced costs, increased profitability, and improvements in pest control are some of the benefits.