Heat disaster!! Prolonged high heat devastated our baby avocados, next year's crop. The temperature in our grove was 114 degrees on July 6th and reached over 100 degrees for several days in a row. The avocado leaves burned up. Our grove looks like a madman ran through it with a flamethrower. One side of a tree can be burned and the other looks green and lush. We saved our potted plants by moving them into the shade and watering three or four times during the day. A few bougainvilleas died; the dragon fruit, roses and passion fruit look terrible and may not make it. The pomegranite trees and the succulents loved the heat.
Our trees were too big for efficient watering and picking so it was time to either radically prune them or stump. We've chosen to stump all 850 of them to about 5 feet high. Water use goes down radically because the trees have no canopy which is where water loss occurs. We have to be very careful about irrigation because root rot is a danger. Fertilization can be stopped until regrowth appears.
We'll miss the forest the grove has become with the huge tree canopies meeting overhead to create a park-like area below. But it wasn't very practical. Birds and critters that have made their homes in the trees will have to move over to our neighbors.
New growth should appear in six months.
 |
| Sounds like rain as the baby avocados drop from the trees. |
 |
| Can you see a couple of avocados hanging on for dear life. We're keeping a scattering of trees around the house for privacy. |
No comments:
Post a Comment