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| Sunday, 13 January 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The fascinating avocado by Faith Ratnayake The avocado tree is an attractive evergreen, flourishing in tropical forests and near water. It can be grown in a home garden, if you have plenty of room as its roots spread. The seeds are rather bigger than golf balls and germinate easily. The fruit have a great domestic as well as export potential. Originally native to Central America, it has spread to many other countries with tropical or sub-tropical climates. In its wanderings, it has acquired different names. Introduced by the Portuguese to Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese call it Aligata Pera, echoing its name of Aligator Pear in the USA. It is also known as butter fruit, butter pear and laurel peach. Exporting countries include Israel, which exports the shiny purple giants, Spain, California, South Africa and Kenya. Cultivation is best in the hill country, but with proper irrigation, it grows well in lower elevations and the dry zone. Growth and maintenance in the home garden is simple and straight forward. With care and attention, you can be rewarded with a fine crop. Propagation: Avocado can be grown from seed taken directly from the tree to avoid infection and germinates freely. If taken from the fruit, the seed should be steeped in hot water, 49 centigrade for 30 minutes. Rootstock seeds should be planted with the apex just above the soil, in sterile seedbeds or boxes kept continually moist. Coarse, clean fumigated sand is a good germinating media. Growers prefer vegetative propagation, generally the cleft graft, using reasonably mature tips with about three well-developed buds. Grafted plants should be raised in containers. When the primary shoots are about 6 cm in height, the seedlings are ready for transplanting into prepared containers, using sterile potting medium with high organic matter. Growers use nine-litre plastic buckets or tubes of 30 cm deep and diameter 14 cm. Planting: The trees may be transferred from the containers as they reach 9 to 12 months. Very good soil drainage is essential. The use of well-rotted organic material with a light dressing of superphosphate on the topsoil to a depth of 30 cm wills tart the plants off well. A depression or basin should be made around each plant, and filled with water. An application of dolomite will ensure the soil ph level stays around 6.0 and 7.0. The young trees should be shaded to prevent sun scorching. Spacing: In the home garden, the tree should be planted at least 20 feet from the house and the boundary wall. For the smallholder a good management system is to plant diagonally or square, with 8-10.5 m between trees. The hedgerow system spaces trees 4.5 to 6 m in rows, with rows 10.5 to 12 m apart. If overcrowding becomes a problem, alternate trees along rows are cut back or removed. Pruning: The trees need little or no pruning, provided the tree grows symmetrically with well-spaced branches, necessary to carry the heavy fruit crop. Some growers head back the strongest of the dormant buds of the young threes just after planting, near the growing point. The buds then usually grow upright. Subsequent pruning involves pinching out terminal buds and removing crossing and unwanted branches. As the trees mature, the lower branches can be shortened and removed to allow the upper, fruit-bearing branches, to bear downwards. |
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