Author Topic: RootMaker RootBuilder 2 / II Expandable Container for Side-Yard Avocado Project  (Read 29902 times)

z_willus_d

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I've gone ahead and manually updated all the postimg.org links that I "own" in this thread to the new postimg.cc link.  Folks should be able to view the pics that I sourced now.

zephian

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Any updates on this project? I'd love to see more pictures of local avocados!
-Kris

trang2le

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Hi Z_willus_d,
Are you still looking for Reed avocado? Four Winds Growers is selling it, and the nursery also has 10% discount for the entire order between 8/1/18 and 8/8/18. Enter the coupon code, SAVE10, at check out.
https://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/collections/avocado-trees


z_willus_d

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Hi trang2le-

This is great news.  I haven't been on the site for a month or so.  I've been heavily involved at work.  I was checking 4-winds growers regularly and didn't see any avocados for sale, let alone the Reed.  Thanks for the heads up.  I'll put an order in ASAP.

I will take some pictures and post on my project soon Zephian.  We need to compare notes.
-naysen

z_willus_d

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It's been a while since I gave an update on this project.  The trees have been out from Spring and through Summer now.  They've had a chance to thrive or dive.  I've lost five out of nine of the trees that were planted.  Those all were the weakest at the outset, and two were victims of my veneer grafting experimentation.  I did have a strong Duke scion for a while, but the mother plant seemed to fade, and it took the graft along with it.

It's interesting to juxtapose the pictures of these trees that I took in April to those from this week.  Those that survived look more or less the same size and health as the original specimens.  I know that most of the original leaves fell, and those were replaced with more bug-eaten versions of the same.  Here are some pics.  I wonder if these will survive the Winter.  Four Winds nursery has a good stock of trees for sale right now, including Reed, which is difficult to find in this area.  I'm dithering on whether to wait for next Spring to purchase them, or grab them through the web now.  I'd love to hear how Zephian and the others are fairing with their similar projects.

Lamb-Hass:


Mostly dead Stewart:


Holiday hanging on:


Threadbare Sir Prize:


Pinkerton:


I've got three avocados on my five year old trees in containers.  2 on one (Furte) and 1 one more on a Bacon; nil on the Mexicola.






zephian

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I lost my lamb hass and holiday to overwatering. Replaced them with Stewart and holiday from home Depot and reported same day and guess what?...root rot. They are doing OK now though. Where did you find reed? Brad just sent me a huge Reed I think we are trying tomorrow and if the wife loves it I'm screwed.... lol. I've been focusing on some other plants but the avocados are the wife's favourite thing to eat.
-Kris

z_willus_d

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Sorry to hear about your losses.  Do you have any pics showing your HD replacements?  I'm curious how much they've advanced through the summer compared to my plants.  You can find the Reed on sale at Four Winds Nursery.  It's $35 + shipping.  I ordered a bunch of citrus from them in the mail last year.  I wasn't so happy with the size of the plants, but they've all survived and don't show any signs of disease.  It's a better deal if you can grab a 5G tree at the local nursery for the same price.  Sometimes four winds has a 10% off coupon running, but they don't seem to have one right now.

zephian

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The replacement trees are only a couple of weeks old now. Not much to show.
Holiday wasn't in the best shape and a branch has dropped it's leaves already but hasn't withered up.
I think it will make a recovery but we will see.
The stewart seems alot more forgiving and the Hass has come back from a pretty bad root rot issue. I'll send some pictures in a couple weeks.
-Kris

Mark in Texas

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Gotta share a pic of my Reed taken yesterday.  Photo doesn't do it justice.  It's just shy of 10' tall and is about 8' wide.  How in the hell it took 18F for a few hours and came back is beyond me.  I can only assume that the thick canopy provided for a nice "warm" micro climate.  The roof peak is 18' by comparison and the pot is 100 gals. waiting to host another avocado tree.   It gets mostly rainwater and nothing but Osmocote Indoor/Outdoor encapsulated food.



Pretty sad back in March.  I left 3 main shoots which are now thick trunks.



z_willus_d

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That Reed of your is becoming legendary Mark.  I think that'll be one you pass on to the next generation.  You missed flowering this year, right ?  I guess it was in staying alive mode after the freeze.  Thanks for sharing.  I'm looking forward to more.

z_willus_d

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Late yesterday, I pulled the one remaining dead Avocado from my Spring plantings.  Five of nine died in all, however at least three of the five were already dead going in (hailstorm survivors, and rotting root systems) from the outset.  I haven't yet replaced the others, but this replacement is a Stewart.  It fills out the five tree slots I still have growing on the side of my yard.  None are thriving now, but all are alive.  It will be interesting to see how well I can protect them going into the colder seasons.

Something I always puzzle over is the water habits at the nursery.  The general conclusion for why my trees did so poorly early on was that the soil medium was too absorbent and that the trees had wet feet.  So the old leaves would turn brown and drop.  A lot of new leaves seemed to fizzle up and dry before they even got started.  I'm still not 100% convinced it was for over-watering with my once a month one or two gallons watering regime early on.  But to the original point, whenever I stop by and check these trees at the nursery, they are soaking wet in their 5G pots.  I think they water twice a day, morning and evening.  They are grown in a kind of redwood chip heavy soil, that seems to get really wet.  Low perlite/vermiculite content.  I'm wondering how they can water the trees this way and not have problems, whereas I am barely watering them at my house and the assumption is over-watering.  It could be the limited light these trees get on the side of the house is in part to blame, however of the five trees that fizzled, four were in full or nearly full sun.  Only one of the five on the side of the house died.

Here are some pics of the new Stewart.  It's the best of about six available at the Roseville, CA Green Acres Nursery.  They're all Four Winds Growers stock.  Kind of expensive at ~$38 a tree.




Mark in Texas

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Sorry to hear about the root rot and I agree, redwood bark is gonna hold a lot of water but it's the exlusion of air that's the problem.  This suggests their mix is breaking down fast...the soil structure sucks.  I use at least 50% coarse inorganics like coarse vermiculite in my mixes.

Yeah, no flowers on the Reed.  Was lucky to have it come back from a stump so it's all good.

zephian

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Late yesterday, I pulled the one remaining dead Avocado from my Spring plantings.  Five of nine died in all, however at least three of the five were already dead going in (hailstorm survivors, and rotting root systems) from the outset.  I haven't yet replaced the others, but this replacement is a Stewart.  It fills out the five tree slots I still have growing on the side of my yard.  None are thriving now, but all are alive.  It will be interesting to see how well I can protect them going into the colder seasons.

Something I always puzzle over is the water habits at the nursery.  The general conclusion for why my trees did so poorly early on was that the soil medium was too absorbent and that the trees had wet feet.  So the old leaves would turn brown and drop.  A lot of new leaves seemed to fizzle up and dry before they even got started.  I'm still not 100% convinced it was for over-watering with my once a month one or two gallons watering regime early on.  But to the original point, whenever I stop by and check these trees at the nursery, they are soaking wet in their 5G pots.  I think they water twice a day, morning and evening.  They are grown in a kind of redwood chip heavy soil, that seems to get really wet.  Low perlite/vermiculite content.  I'm wondering how they can water the trees this way and not have problems, whereas I am barely watering them at my house and the assumption is over-watering.  It could be the limited light these trees get on the side of the house is in part to blame, however of the five trees that fizzled, four were in full or nearly full sun.  Only one of the five on the side of the house died.

Here are some pics of the new Stewart.  It's the best of about six available at the Roseville, CA Green Acres Nursery.  They're all Four Winds Growers stock.  Kind of expensive at ~$38 a tree.



At home depot here in town they definitely water it daily. I think you don't see issues because the nurseries out here have such a small inventory they cycle through it pretty fast - before the root rot starts too show.
I have removed all mulch from my trees so they can dry out a bit more.
-Kris

zephian

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Took some pictures real fast. My trees are a bit droopy... It's pretty hot in the back yard right now.

This is the Hass I got in SoCal in march. Came back from pretty bad root rot.


Biggest leaf on the Hass


Holiday already recovering from dropped foliage and bad root rot from home depot


Stewart from home depot
-Kris

z_willus_d

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Hi Kris, thanks for sharing your pics.  Your trees look a notch ahead of mine, though we purchased and planted over the same period this year.  How much light are the trees getting where you have them.  I believe the limited light on my trees has been a detriment, resulting in "leggy" branching.  On the plus side, they aren't getting too damaged by sub burn on the 110F days.

spaugh

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I dont know which direction your side yard faces etc but defintely lack of daylight hours is no bueno.  Avocados need all day sun exposure to really grow well.  They would do better out in an exposed area under a shade cloth than in an area that only gets half of the hours of sun. 
Brad Spaugh

zephian

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Mine are east facing. I plan to move them to my side yard soon as it's cooling off now. the 110+ weather cooked everything in my yard. I painted the trunk on the hass because sunburn was becoming an issue for me. Remember that my holiday/stewart are new additions and not from my original few earlier this year... once they go permanently in the ground they will be in the easternmost part of my property but that corner gets almost full sun all day.
-Kris

z_willus_d

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South-East facing seems to do best in our climate.  If you can get afternoon shade after ~4pm, and exposure to the cooler morning light that works well.  I used to have all my citrus in the middle of the yard getting full sun for the entire day, and those trees just cooked and dropped all their fruit, regardless of the amount of water I gave them.  After moving them to the east side of the house where they get shade from 3-4 pm forward, they've been thriving for me.  The avocados on the side of my house will get half day sunlight (at least the first four), but if they can manage to grow a bit taller, they should get closer to 6 - 8 hours.  I'm not sure this project will pan out, but I'll stick with it for the time being.  Having them tucked up between the house and fence line should make it easier to protect them from frosts at least.

Mark in Texas

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Mine are east facing. I plan to move them to my side yard soon as it's cooling off now. the 110+ weather cooked everything in my yard. I painted the trunk on the hass because sunburn was becoming an issue for me. Remember that my holiday/stewart are new additions and not from my original few earlier this year... once they go permanently in the ground they will be in the easternmost part of my property but that corner gets almost full sun all day.

For shading nothing beats the ease of application and effectiveness as Surround WP.

z_willus_d

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It's been a while (since September last year) since I last posted any pics of avocado trees in my side-yard project.  I have the original five still hanging-in there.  I can't say that the trees have thrived, but neither have they died.  We had an average winter, with several freezing days.  I've used C9 lights to get the trees through the cool nights.  I think the biggest issue they've faced has been a lack of sunlight (~5hr a day or less).  Here are some pics, and I expect the trees will start to drop a lot of their leaves before flushing anew.

Pinkerton (gets the most sun of the five):


Lamb-Hass (2nd best looking of the bunch):


Stewart:


Holiday:


Sir Prize (looking raggedy):


The line:
« Last Edit: March 24, 2019, 11:20:00 PM by z_willus_d »

zephian

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I have been waiting for this update!
My Hass is starting to drop it's old leaves and push new growth and looks like your holiday is blooming like mine!
Mine will be going in the ground hopefully next month - I just dropped a 30 ft palm tree where they're going to be planted and need to chip and dig up some roots in the planting zone. Ill try and grab some pictures if I can find my digital camera to compare... My phone camera will no longer focus.
-Kris

z_willus_d

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Hi Kris, it will be good to compare and contrast with your trees.  I'm not too hopeful, but it will be interesting to see if any of these 2 year old (from nursery) trees will be able to set or even hold any fruit this season.  I'm planting my three big, mature potted avocado trees in the ground in my front yard soon.  I'm going to need a crane or a human beast to lift the water-heavy root ball out of the container.  I'll post on that effort once they're settled an in the ground.  I'm still digging the holes through my rock/bolder laden front yard.

spaugh

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If you let a tree that size hold fruit its going to stunt its growth. 
Brad Spaugh

z_willus_d

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If you let a tree that size hold fruit its going to stunt its growth.
Point taken.  My experience with Avos in pots is that they will not set fruit until they are much beefier than what I'm showing.  But then you look at what Dr. John Yonemoto is doing in their greenhouses, and you see short, small trees overloaded with fruit.  And stunting the growth seems to be the point there.  I can't help but feel I am missing a few ingredients for that recipe though.
-n

spaugh

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I know its tempting but in the long run it is much better to let the tree gain some size and vigor before letting it hold fruit. 

I have a lot of little trees like that.  No way I'm letting them fruit yet.  I have some 2 year old trees 6 -10ft tall Im still not letting hokd fruit this year.  The fruit doesnt mature properly and the summer heat gets wasted on fruit set instead of leaf flush.

This little gwen tree thinks it wants to fruit already.


« Last Edit: March 25, 2019, 02:38:55 PM by spaugh »
Brad Spaugh