Sunday, January 25, 2009

Avocado Trees Need the Rain

There are three old avocado trees in the Laguna Garden that are most likely left over from an old orchard that was there in the early 20th century. They are Fuentes and they are the best avocados you will ever taste. As is typical with avocados, some years we get hundreds of them and other years a handful.

Avocado trees are very sensitive to salt build up in the soil and with drought years it shows in the leaves. They get characteristic brown tips. Because we have been in a drought for a few years now the trees look especially bad this year. Leaching with water from the sprinklers helps some, but because we have hard water it is not a replacement for good old rain water. The good news is that it has been raining for the past few days and in a few weeks when the trees bloom and the new leaves emerge, most of these tired old leaves will fall to the ground to provide a thick layer of mulch and hopefully the trees will have a better year next year. (And yes, we all have beautiful skin!)

5 comments:

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

I would love to have my own avacado tree to pick from(-: That must be fun. I am enjoying our rain up here too. Its so dry everywhere. I hope we get a lot of rain soon.

tina said...

So glad to hear you are getting rain.

lostlandscape said...

After the last month of freakishly warm weather it's nice to get back to winter again! Our gardens will be all the better for it, avocados and all.

Anonymous said...

oh, you are SO lucky to have your own avocado trees Sheila. My daughter and I eat them by the truckload (or it seems that way). I'm glad they/you are getting rain now too. It's hard to watch plants/trees go thru stress and not be able to do much to help out. Here's to a great harvest next season!

Gail said...

This is good information and since I am enjoying a delicious avocado in my salad...especially interesting! I am glad to hear you're getting rain...it's hard to watch plants dry up! Gail