Planting Avocado Trees

This weekend we planted two avocado trees in the northern most corners of our yard. A Stewart pictured here at the bottom which bears fruit from fall through winter and a Hass up at the top which should produce from spring into fall. We chose the northern corners to minimize the shadow cast by the trees so that we can grow other crops near them.


We started by digging a big hole and piling the dirt up on the down hill sides (right and top here)
so that a basin is created to catch water as it runs down.


Then we put a little mound in the center to prop the tree up to ground level or a little above.


Once the tree is out of it's container and on the mound we filled the hole with finished compost from our compost pile.

I packed the compost down a bit but left a crown around the base of the tree so that the water will catch in the swale but not submerse the trunk.


The last step is to fill in the depression around the crown with mulch, oak leaf litter in this case, so that it is level with the ground. The leaf litter should not touch the trunk or it can rot. The mulch will help hold the water that collects around the tree in the ground.

With a bit of luck in a couple of years we'll be flush with avocados nearly year round. Apparently avocados need really well drained soil and ours is pretty heavy clay so we will definitely have our fingers crossed. We hope to stay on top of it with mulch, compost and some added gypsum when we get around to buying some.