Summer heat

8/12/2012

 It's been really really hot lately, but the tree is doing fine -- great, really. Another flush of new growth started about a month ago and the tree looks really nice overall. One fruit fell only a week after my last post, leaving one avocado left. The remaining fruit is about as large as a yo-yo and growing nicely.

If you forced me to guess, I would say that the switch from thrice-weekly deep hose waterings to the daily drip waterings was a minor shock to the tree and convinced it to drop some fruit. But I'm not an expert. So as of mid-June, our Holiday avocado tree has a single fruit on it, and with luck it will stay there until maturity.

There are no signs of sunburn on the tree, which is great given how much heat we've had recently. Our yard gets quite a bit of shade in the winter from a large tree in the neighbor's yard. We knew this when we planted

Another flush of growth
started late July.

our Holiday, but decided that its current spot was the best/only spot in the yard that would work well despite the winter shade. The tree gets full sun in summer and seems to be enjoying it. Since planting day, it has grown about a foot and is creeping above its support stake. The nursery had pruned the main trunk at
about 5 feet, but several branches went outward from there and have risen almost a foot higher.

Drip irrigation system. Half of the arcs of the
"circle" around the base are "soaker"
lines, the other half are standard
1/4" feeder lines.