How to Grow & Plant Avocado Trees in Poor Drainage or Clay Soil
Вставка
- Опубліковано 22 січ 2018
- This video shows how to successfully plant avocado trees in areas containing clay soil. Root rot disease and poor soil drainage is the number 1 reason why avocados fail and die but this method helps considerably to get your tree off to a good start and turn into a great producing avocado fruit tree! Enjoy :)
Help support the Channel and buy a T-shirt/Merchandise from our Spreadshirt shop: goo.gl/ygrXwU
Shop on Amazon for plants: bit.ly/2yRFNGQ
Shop for plants on eBay Australia: bit.ly/2BPCykb
Blog: www.selfsufficientme.com/ (use the search bar on my website to find info on certain subjects)
Forum: www.selfsufficientculture.com
Facebook: / selfsufficientme-26078...
Twitter: / sufficientme
Subscribe to my channel: goo.gl/cpbojR
Self Sufficient Me is based on our small 3-acre property/homestead in SE Queensland Australia about 45kms north of Brisbane - the climate is subtropical (similar to Florida). I started SSM in 2011 as a blog website project where I document and write about backyard food growing, self-sufficiency, and urban farming in general. I love sharing my foodie and DIY adventures online so come along with me and let's get into it! Cheers, Mark :) - Навчання та стиль
In 1959 my Dad, myself and my cousin planted an avocado seedling, that we had started in a jar of water with tooth picks stuck in it, next to our compost pit in our backyard. 60 years later it is still producing enough fruit to supply 4 or 5 families in the neighborhood. In 2009 I took a seed from that tree and planted it in a small pot of potting soil to see if it would sprout on it's own. It took months to sprout and when it outgrew that pot I replanted it in a 5 gallon pot using a little Miracle Grow mixed with potting soil. In June of 2011 I planted it in my back yard where we had removed another tree and had ground the stump below ground level a couple of years earlier. Again I used the Miracle Grow and potting soil mixture. It took 3 years before it produced fruit, which was not abundant, but tasty. Except for one year, 2017, it has produced 40 to 60 fruit per year and currently stands at about 15 feet tall. I live about 3 miles from my Dad's house here in Southern California where the soil is clay based.
Nice :) did you know if the tree was grafted ?
@@imedimed8025 he literally said he grew it from seed..
@@regiodeurse6513 thank you yes i know but I thought the tree was grafted after that. and maybe he forgot to mention it ..or maybe he does not know about
so it is sometimes useless to graft the avocado because even obtained from seed it does not put enough time to fructify
@Island Mike indeed, every tree is supposed to give fruit .. whether it is obtained from seed or other .. why graft then?
1- it is to shorten the time of fructification
instead of waiting 10 to 15 years .. we wait only 3 to 4 years .. is not better ??
2- but also to be sure about the variety of the fruit obtained ..
3- for the tree to be compatible with the type of soil
4- to change the tree variety ... or to have a self-fertile variety
ect ect ...
but rarely to make sure that the tree will give fruit ..because I mentioned ... any tree gives fruit
@Island Mike All fruit came from seed at one point. All those grafted clones had a motherplant from seed even the mutated ones found their origin in a seedplant somewhere along the line
Great stuff. I'm seriously jealous of your beautiful property. It must be a great feeling to have accomplished that.
Who wouldn’t be
Q
2 minutes in and I can't listen to anything you're saying... I'm completely mesmerized by that gorgeous blue butterfly!!! 💞 I will have to listen again without looking at the screen. ☺
They make Adderal for this sort of thing.
Butterflies = catapillars = not good
@@CoronaTheVirus I think butterflies are fine pollinators if you keep the caterpillar numbers under control!
Bloody streuth. I am so blown away by this legend. I'm binge watching all this and it is so inspiring. We need more people on Earth like Mark.
I love the thoroughness of your explanation in this video.
Thank you very very much. Keep up your great stuff please.
2:17 SO BEAUTIFUL with the butterfly! It came to help you shoot the video!
Wonderful video - thank you so much. I live in Phoenix, AZ (USA) where we have clay soil and I'm putting in Avocados this year so I'm so glad I saw this before I started. Again, thank you.
Mark thanks so much for sharing your knowledge, you have helped me get so many of my problems sorted out plus helped immensely in avoiding so many more. You have a great energy and enthusiasm which gets me off my butt and back to growing my own food. Thanks again.
Self Sufficient, thank you for your valuable insights on problems with growing avocados. I think your video clearly identifies perhaps the main reason why avocado trees so often fail.
It is because of videos like yours that youtube remains so popular.
Great tips! If you get a grafted avocado where the graft dies and the rootstock takes over, you can let it go for a couple years (until it's nice and strong and established), and then cut it off and graft on some branches from one of your other avocado trees. They should grow quickly with a strong base plant, and will give you much better fruit than the rootstock would have.
My wife got me into watching your videos, love your Aussie accent. We are from San Antonio TEXAS and I'm trying to grow avocados and I keep having the same problems. Well you just told me how to fix them my yard is nothing but clay soil, I will have to mount them up now. LOVE YOUR VIDEOS
Great advice Mark, we managed to grow one years ago when I lived in South Africa, the soil must have been fertile as the tree loved it. Your info about the tap root hating clay soil will be invaluable to people wanting to grow this lovely tree. Cheers Adam
Wow a video a day after I asked the question! Thanks so much really helps me a lot, hopefully mine can survive! They get delivered this week!
Glad you liked it Atif! All the best with your avocado trees, cheers :)
Delivered from were
@@evan.norwalkcalifornia562 Delivered from where, instead of delivered from were, makes more sense. Just saying.
@@allee3476 🙄ok smart guy
@@evan.norwalkcalifornia562 Good question, though 👍
Hi,
I'm from São Paulo, Brasil, and here clay soil is everywhere. Avacado trees grow really easy, but they get really big.
So if your soil is clay based try getting one of the "big tree" avacado varieties.
When I say big I mean 5 - 7 meters, and the roots are really thicc and will bury itself really deep.
I know cause I had to remove an avacado root once and I'm never doing it again!
*If anyone like the idea please do not plant the tree anywhere near a wall or a house. The roots also grow sideways!*
Thank you so much for the tip
Kay praetor In my neighbor we have some of these varieties and they can get even bigger than that! I've seen some trees over 15 meters high.
Fabio Dantas wow thats high
So that’s why our avocado lived
My grandmother had a tree like that and it still produces fruit for more than 40 years. It's slightly bitter when not ripe but very sweet and oily when ripe. There was no maintenance or care done whatsoever.
This is awesome, exactly what I needed since my 1.3 acres are full of clay soil.
Thank you for all your hard work making these videos. They have been very helpful in learning and understanding how to invest in yourself and backyard.
Cool video mate. Completely correct about mounding on clay. Another very important thing that avos need protection from is hot drying winds. They hate it. Mound them, protect from wind and they are generally pretty hardy. Trees are also social creatures, just like chickens, they need to be with other trees, if that makes sense. Cheers Mark. Hope your enjoying the cooler weather, i know i am :)
eatyourgarden australia . cross pollination required.
Priceless piece of information.. thank you..
Excellent and comprehensive video. I have clay soil too and so this video was extremely helpful. Thank you so much!
What an amazing amount of very useful information. It changed my ideas of how to grow avos pretty much completely.
Thanks for a great tutorial on growing avocado trees. Very helpful.
GREAT Info just something to add when growing grafted tree. you must cut all the branches from the non-fruit part of the tree. if you let the branches grow it will kill the grafted fruit part! i lost 4 grafted trees in the past from not cutting the non-fruited branches!
so remove all branches or growth from the rootstock. great idea.
Leo Diaz that's good to know, thanks
Omg really? I didn’t know that. I wonder why that happens cos some tree rootstocks have like 7 varieties on the one tree. I know people have done ten on the one tree. But thanks for the info, I will keep that in mind.
I just have to say. I wish I could meet you, I absolutely cherish your videos. Thank you so much for your content, educating, and zeal for gardening. You are an inspiration.
good day to you Mark !! thank you for taking the time to do this how to video on "How to Grow & Plant Avocado Trees in Poor Drainage or Clay Soil"
Loved all the information you provided. I will be getting me an avocado tree in March 😊
Thanks for sharing, wish our climate was right for avocado trees, great info as usual, thank you for visiting my channel.
Thank you so much for all of the videos you post. They are always so helpful, full of useful information, and your always so happy, it spreads.
I'm growing mine in a 23 inch container. It Is two to three years old. I'm only getting one or two fruit. Maybe I'm not watering enough. It's in a sunny location and water every other day in the summer.
I've killed a few avocado trees due to clay soil, after watching this video the next 3 avocados will get a mound! Thanks for the video.
Ahhhhh, Avacado trees. One of the two types of trees I have given up on growing because they always seem to die. The mounding method is interesting! I might give it another go.
Really enjoy all these videos. When planting trees I take a lot of time (couple weeks) and make a huge mess and dig a 20ft hole using shovels and a makeshift auguger sort of like a Well digger. And then when planting it a bit above ground to avoid root gurdle. The results after 10 years is amazing. That tire method you showed near the end is so cool!! Raised beds are my favorite.
Thank you Marc, I enjoy your channel immensely. You have motivated me to start a veggie and fruit garden. Your videos are diverse and never boring. Keep it up, 💯 greetings from South Africa 🇿🇦
Aaah the dreaded Phytrophera hits the clay and gets attacked,,I managed an Avo farm and the trees on the highest points suffered. The old farmers always hunted down deep red soils,,at least 6 ft to 2 metres deep to avoid this problem.
You can also solve this problem by planting dwarf Avo's as they don't have a long tap root, as you mentioned. They can also be managed much easier in a small backyard garden.
I am currently growing mine in containers.
I know that sandy soils they grow ok, but as you say clay soils can be tough.
Cool video and super helpful for many for sure.
Happy Gardening
Marty Ware
martysgarden ads manure ,compost ,sand to u clay soil an avoxados trees are surfers feeds not deep feeders
Why were the farmers wanting red earth? Is red earth high in iron? I found your comment so interesting
scarlettrubyrose red sand is free draining so the avo’s don’t have root rot problems
Excellent vid! I found it incredibly interesting and educational! I had planned to grow avocado trees in the future and this is valuable information especially considering the clay loam soil we have in my area. Thank you. This could save many a lot of pain.
Great video Mark. It’s a pleasure particularly after watching so many boring videos on this subject.
Thank you this helped me avoid making a big mistake... love all your videos.
Fruits planted by your ancestors are always GREAT
Very helpful, thank you. I also have clay soil and wasn't sure what to do. Your videos are a garden blessing, believe me, and your jokes are great.
Brilliant analysis snd description there. Thanks so much for positing.
How cool for all of us around the world to be here learning about our avacardo trees. I have 4 from seed and so far I'm not worried about anything. Just happy to begin learning. They are in pots. I just might learn enough to end up with some lovelie fruit.
I'm hoping to grow avos in a hothouse up here in WA in the middle of winter even - your advice is super helpful! Thanks again.
God bless you and please know that your videos are amazing, inspiring and soooooo darn informative !!!!!!!
And your observations on the trees and plants are PRICELESS !!!!! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK .... YOU'RE ONE OF THE GOOD ONES 💪💪💪👍👍👍💯.
You can turn clay soil into a more sandy soil with the right amount of gypsum. I cultivated the top 1-2 ft of my whole yard and mixed in gypsum. I also dug 6' holes, used a jackhammer at the bottom and then backfilled with more gypsum and river rocks to start with. I planted my citrus trees and avocados 1' above the ground and had about 1' of woods chips. I made sure there was plenty of worms so they could start breaking down everything and mix the mulch with the cultivated soil.
Fantastic, detailed advice that should save many people years of wasted effort on avocado trees. Many thanks
Invaluable experience and advice, thanks!
Experimenting can take so long and when you are in your 60’s 2 our 3 years of failure can be disappointing to say the least. Videos like this sure can be helpful. Good job! Good luck on mounding I am doing the same thing here in Florida. My soil is sandy but after losing 3 trees to root rot, I dug down deeper and found a solid sheet of limestone everywhere I dug down. What was happening is whenever we had heavy rain the sand wood fill up with water and it would take a long time to drain down with the limestone holding the ground water. So I got root rot. I am trying the mounds so far so good. The rainy season will start soon here in Florida we shall see 🤞. Mate I just hope we don’t have a another Hurricane!
I live in Florida as well. My Hass avocado crapped the bed a couple of years ago too. Now I'm going to give it another try with a large fruited Florida variety that I currently have growing in a large pot. Maybe I should do an exploratory dig first to see if I also have a limestone layer issue.
Make a small reservoir to collect the water and then pump it out
I helped my parents plant about 40 different fruit trees in their lifestyle block in Auckland. Heavy clay about a foot down. All the trees flourished except for the avos, which all died.. we then did the mound thing, which seems to be working.
How are they 3 years on?
@@ItsBrendo they all died..
@@charlheynike9619 Damn, that sucks. Were they mounded up pretty high? Or just a bit?
@@ItsBrendo pretty high actually
Great info! ♥️ Love growing them from seed! 🌱 cheers! 🙏
Thank you! :)
I totally agree with seed grown avocado trees being a lot more hardy as apposed to grafted Avos. I actually have an avocado tree that was grown from seed here in the UK and I leave it out every winter. It has survived snow and down to -5 temperatures, just sitting out in the open. It will die back, stem and all in the winter and then a new main stem will emerge in the summer and that cycle has continued for around 3/4 years now. So amazing.
if you dig a hole,it needs a sloped trench so water can drain away and filled with sand or gravel fines ,sorts like a french drain,but if your land is low,this wont work...not tried this with ava's yet but works great for other fruit trees,,,,,your way looks to be the most efficient..great vid,,,thank you
I've had no luck with Avo's in my sandy / sandstone. I'm going to try this.
Fantastic failures my friend thanks so much . You have answered most of my questions for this summer .
New subscriber Ive just moved to new digs with a large run down garden attached. Ill be using you for inspiration over the next 12 months as I go about the big job of restoring from scratch. Cheers 👋
I followed your advice to the tee. I did this with an avocado about two months old. Everything’s going well. Thank you so much. Phil from San Diego
How's the tree going?
Great vid!
Looking forward implenenting your advice😃
All very helpful, thank you very much for sharing :)
Thanks so mych , Mark, for this info. I've tried to grow from seed numerous times and they get to 45 cm high and wither and die. Probably when the tap root hits the clay!! Might try in a large pot. Very well presented video.
Thanks Pauline! I have grown them in large containers and they do well except I used fake wine barrels which deteriorated so I had to move them - just another lesson learned by me... :)
Thanks for this video mark much appreciated my last avocado tree died due to our clay soil so now i will raise it up
No worries Kirsten best of luck with your next avo! :)
Legend! Thank you so much for sharing.. full of useful information!
Do interesting. I live in snowy Pennsylvania, USA so I won't be growing any outdoor. But we have lots of clay soil around here. I enjoy watching all kinds of gardening videos. I'll be checking out more of yours. Thanks for posting.
Thank you so much for making this video! your awesome. I hope to start one of these too.
Very useful tips thank you 🙏🏻
This is very informational. I have one avocado tree in a pot right now but seeing how hard it is to grow I may need a few more so I wouldn't be so disappointed if this one dies.
Thank you so much Mark. Finally this video the answer of my problem, .live in Sydney the soil is no good a clay. i wonder what happened to my avo going to die. thank you so much this information
Excellent information mark thank you and best wishes from Ireland 🇮🇪👍🇮🇪
Hey Mark! Really LOVING your videos. Would you make a video of your top 5 avocado tips?
Thank you! You’re the best!
Thankyou!! Best video ever!!!
This was very helpful. Thanks!
I just bought 2 avo trees 1 Wurtz &1 Sheppard&your video on planting &care was really informative &interesting (I like your style of gardening) I think it will be the raised bed method for me 😊 in nth qld
Great video. perfect guide to growing avo's mate.
very Helpful. Thank you.
Love your videos, I’ve been binge watching here in Texas for a week! Your smiles are worth watching all on their own - The great info is just a HUGE bonus and has inspired even me to get a vege garden going, LOL! Keep smiling!
Thank you !!!!! I have considered an aravapa avocado, or Mexican because of the weather out here but the clay in the Kern county arid high desert WAS a big consideration.
avocado are thought to have co-evolved with giant ground sloths it took the sloths so long to digest the seeds that they already had roots and in some nice compost.
Yes I live here in portorico it's crazy how the avocados grow here ... is the soil that is the best for it. I will try with the clay. Gratitude
Thank you. This video was very helpful.
Thank you! I learn a lot about avocado from your video! I did have an avocado tree die just after one water lagging! They really don't like that!
Love your videos! From Aotearoa New Zealand.
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. I understand now why my avocado plant died.. I will try your method. Thanks!! 🙌🏻
Awesome video Mark.
Thanks for giving me hope and some great ideas. My Gwen (Riverside CA University hybrid of a Mexicola and Haas) is "okay" and a Fuerte across the drive way from it is hardy but recent years not much fruit and dry leaf tips. Could be that the gound is rocky ("Alta Loma Potatoes" in the tilted alluvial plane of upper Rancho Cucamonga) and I haven't mulched enough. Maybe the watering schedule is on the "too dry" end of the scale. Both trees are grafts. Well, gotta get back to utilizing the ideas I got from you today. Thanks again for the hope and help.
You're living the life thanks for sharing
Here in San Clemente California ( coastal clay ) I have seen six foot retaining walls at the bottom of hills back filled with good soil . This solves the stagnant water hole problem and Avocados flourish.
@Self Sufficient Me - The timing on me seeing this video was perfect to address a problem I just had with one of my avocado seedlings. I just wish I had run across it about 8 months ago.
The best growing of the five avocado trees I first planted just had one of the two main stems die off from what appears to be root rot. The problem seems to be that the fill dirt my wife bought a couple of years before we were married to raise the grade of her land where we live was almost 100% clay and rocks highway construction fill. Rainy season just ended (I live upcountry in Thailand), so the tree had spent the last 4 - 5 months with its feet soaked due to the near daily heavy rains. The mail order nursery I bought the trees from swore that they were grafted varieties, but it turned out they were grown from seed. The foliage is nice, so I want to save the tree, if I can. Even if it never bears fruit or the fruit isn't good, the foliage is perfect for the part of the yard where the tree is planted. Another video on treating root rot suggested digging down 20 - 25 cm, replacing the soil and mixing in gypsum to discourage fungus. The video also suggest that for clay soils, plastic pipe could be buried radiating out from the planting hole to serve as a drain to let water accumulating in the clay soil escape to avoid the water bowl effect around the roots. I hope it works, but if not, I won't consider it a great loss since the uncertainty is so great about ever getting edible fruit from the tree.
My wife recently obtained adjoining lot that does not have fill. It used to be part of a farm, but has not been used for farming for several decades and nothing has been grown there except volunteer trees, weeds, and grasses. In your video, you said that avocado trees are sensitive to having their roots disturbed by replanting after they've started to grow. Considering the heavy clay soil and rock on the house lot and the farm soil on the adjoining lot, would it be worth the risk to transplant the four avocado trees that I still have planted in the clay soil? They are all from the same original lot of avocado trees I bought. About 4 months ago I bought 3 small grafted avocado trees and planted them on the adjoining lot.
Great video on the subject. Having clay soil myself, and having planted and lost 3 grafted Avocado trees, I am reluctant to try again (they cost $70-80 ea here in Tassie!) But your video entices me to maybe try again! I do have one young seedling that is doing much better than the grafted did. It seems soil is everything - a few kilometers away from me there is a small commercial Avocado farm doing fine, but on the deep red volcanic soil that is so good for drainage.
Exactly - soil is everything! In Toowoomba (my hometown) avocados grow like crazy in the volcanic soil and here it frustrates me to see avocado groves literally just kms away. On a positive, the clay does retain some water during dry periods and actually helps the majority of our other fruit trees so you win some and lose some I guess :)
I've got a 10 year old tree I grown from seed, its pretty healthy and yet to fruit. It almost did last year, had lots of side shoots grow, finger crossed this is the year. Too bad you live far away else I would have given it away, its almost 6ft tall now growing in a 40L
Yes its all about the soil but its more the fact that poor soil has poor drainage. Break up your soil with good quailty soil and create a 50cm ridge to plant on to so that the tree is ensured good drainage. Use good quality mulch too. 80% of roots are in the top 30cm below the soil. If you get frosts you may need to grow Bacon variety too
Homesteading DownUnder try watering more after the other tips used. Winter watering is often overlooked. Avocados need more frequent waterings because they feeder roots stay high up in the soil
I am from Trinidad and Tobago west Indes and planting all sorts of crops grow according to the weather conditions so you have to choose the best time of the year too plant
Thank you. I really learned a lot.
I have a grafted avocado in a pot and was going to do the ultimate sin by planting in a clay death trap. Good million dollar info. Thanks.
Hello from Florida USA! A few years back, I grew an avocado tree I sprouted from a store bought Hass avocado. At first I had it growing in a small pot and eventually transferred it to a larger one as it was growing quite rapidly. Then it went into the ground. I back--filled the hole with a mix of compost and native soil and topped it off with a thick layer of eucalyptus mulch. It continued to do well for about a year but then began to show similar symptoms to what you described on this video. It was a goner two months later. Our soil here is very sandy and well drained so I'm very perplexed as to what caused it's demise. Currently I have another tree growing, but it is the large fruited Florida variety. It's 20 inches tall (about 51 centimeters) and living in a large pot. I'd like to plant it in the ground sometime this summer but I'm afraid it will meet the same fate as it's predecessor. Since clay is not the issue here, could this be a case of being too sandy? Note: I'm 5 miles from the shore so salt is not a factor.
great vid - I just mound planted Hazelnut trees - so glad you corroborated my views on this - no digging into the top soil that would create a water hole of the clay. thanks
Beautiful butterfly!
Another good video. I have played with trying to grow an avocado tree but where I am at we have snow in the winter and they don't seem to handle it. Now I am going to try sugar cane but I will put a small in closer around it in hopes that will protect it from the cold winters.
Excellent presentation and awesome info sir. I'm trying to germinate some seeds for next year and had no idea what I was getting myself into but now I do. Sounds daunting but not terribly difficult. Have you ever heard of anyone growing a tree in a large smart pot?
Now busy with my 15th grafted avo tree.
I think its healthy to lose some like I have . That will force one to begin to understand the avo's needs better.
Strangely, when we begin to pay the price for not trying hard enough to understand their needs then they begin to survive more AND MUCH BETER THAN BEFORE.
Lastly, understanding the needs of my fruittrees made me understand my own needs for healthy living so much better. Your advice made a significant contribution.
Thanks from P.E, RSA.
Watching your video has solved my problem as to how am I going to plant my avo seedling since the soil in my place is clay. Thank you brother.
Amazing info 💯
Great video! I just planted my avocado trees last month. I also created a video about building my avocado hill.
Thanks, that was very informative
I love your Videos!
Great video thanks!
Thank you sir i really like your video . . . I'm living . Melbourne good luck to. your channel .