After months of lugging a bucket or two a week up the steep hill to the Haas avocado tree we it finally succumbed to the combination of the heat wave and our poorly drained soil.
It had taken a few hits in the past where it dropped all of it's leaves but the branches always remained green and pliable. This time it's not coming back.
If it would have just made it another month or so until the rain starts back up I think it would have gotten big enough to survive the summer heat. You can tell by this picture that lugging the 5 gallon bucket of water up there each weekend was no easy feat. That was a lot of work with no fruit for the effort.
This is the Stewart avocado we planted at the bottom of the hill. It had gotten bigger than the other and the soil here is better draining. I think that combination helped it survive - barely.
The branches remained green and there are small leaves starting. Hopefully there won't be another heat wave and this one will continue to grow.
I'm going to try again at the top of the yard as soon as possible.
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My grandmother once planted an avocado seed in between her trailer and the neighbor's, and even with awnings on both sides that created mostly shade, that avocado seed grew up to be a huge tree that was so prolific it practically pelted her with avocados.
ReplyDeleteProbably not what you want to hear right now.
Maybe drip irrigation next time? Just a thought...
Sorry about your trees.
This looks like the kind of luck I have had with a "Lula" avocado tree in South Texas--even with drip irrigation. Mine looks just like yours. I have another Lula avocado that is still in a big pot, and it's doing fine, so I think I'm going to find an even bigger pot and grow it as a container tree. I've read that this is possible--but they get quite large after about 3 years (if they don't croak, that is).
ReplyDeleteThis is so sad! It reminds me of something out of a Wiley Coyote comic in the end.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I figure this is just par for the course. We could just show our successes and make it look like everything is always coming up... avocados, but in reality that's not how it goes. Two steps forward one step back but always moving forward - undaunted.
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