Growing Avocados

One thing I’ve always wanted to do is to try growing Avocados. I love avocados and they seem to be getting more and more expensive to buy in NZ. The price of avocados has been going up steadily over the years to the point where they're now so expensive there's a black market in Avocados. They can cost anywhere from $1- $4 each! – even when they’re in season.

The problem with growing them myself was I never seemed to have enough space, with so much of my garden devoted to growing vegetables, etc. Over the years I’ve had several Avocado trees pop up all by themselves from an avocado stone that was thrown in the compost. Some have even grown to a reasonable size but then never fruited. Aside from the fact they were always in the wrong place, they generally don’t do well unless they're a proper grafted tree.

So, I finally decided to have a proper go at growing them, but first I had to commit to sacrificing some of my vegetable garden. The position I chose is against a plywood fence at the very back of my property. I would need enough space not for one, but for two trees side by side — 2 different varieties — the Haas and the Fuerte varieties which are complimentary to each other from a pollination point of view.

The first thing I had to do once deciding on the best place for them was to make sure the soil was right. Regular readers of this blog who’ve read my posts about my other fruiting trees will know that I have a lot of solid clay underneath my topsoil. So I had to get rid of it by digging 2 huge holes where I would plant my 2 avocado trees.

Avocados have very sensitive roots, so the soil needs to be very light and able to drain away freely. They also have a tap root that goes down quite deep. So after digging quite a deep hole I also dug a drain that went even deeper then filled the bottom of it with scoria. I also buried a perforated Nova Coil pipe to ensure that any excess water could escape freely.

I mixed some of the existing topsoil with a mixture of compost and fine gravel (gap7) and gradually refilled the hole.

 Avocados are also gross feeders so I also added whatever slow release fertilisers I had including half a bag of sheep pellets and half a bag of Osmocote – the blue granules.

Any and all clay from the hole was discarded which was about 80% of what came out of the hole. The best time to plant is when the soil temperature is warm so I planted them in late spring after a few warm days. They get a bit of morning shade, but over the warmer months they’ll get a good amount of sun in the afternoons.

So, now all I can do is wait and hope that I’ve given these 2 trees the best possible start in life. It’ll be a few years before they’re ready to bear fruit.

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April 2019

After being in the ground over a good long hot summer the 2 trees are looking quite good. Thanks to some faithful watering by my wife Marie, topped off with a huge feed of home-made compost and a pile of lawn clippings as mulch, the 2 trees are settling nicely into their new location, especially the Haas (on the left), which is showing signs of fresh growth.

(Update, May 6th) 

Avocado prices hit record high prices in NZ at $10.00 each

Read NZ Herald article here