Thanks Mark, I've put what I learned from you to good use. All my new trees are being planted in native soil, unfortunately, many of my trees that I planted several years ago were planted in amended holes but luckily they were all planted on mounds.
I've dug up several plants from holes that were heavily amended and it were as if they were growing in a burried pot.
Reed is one of the creamiest of all the different Avocado varieties I've tried. The tree is also small, columnar and the fruit does not turn brown or discolor for a long time.
I hope the Waldin rootstock works better for you. I wonder if there are chromosomal differences between the different races of avocado? Also, I wonder if you would have more success if you grafted onto a seedling grown in the ground be a pot? It's worth a shot!
David, I've seen first hand what you are talking about. It may take a while for seedlings planted in poor hard soils to find a soft spot but when they do, they quickly take off.
I believe that when seeds sprout, the plant sends down a tap root that continues to grow down and laterally until it finds a soft spot in the ground where it can go down as far as possible to reach the water table. Sometimes, like what Shane experienced, seedlings planted in poor, hard soils cannot send down the tap root very far because of rocks and an impervious hard layer, this may cause a delay in the seedlings growth because I believe the seedling is using much of its energy in extending its tap root laterally, looking for that soft spot to go down.
It would not make much sense for a seedling that was Not able to send down its tap root to expend lots of energy into its canopy because it's roots are on the surface of the soil and is thus more likely to dry out. If it spent a lot of energy on making lots of leaves, it will be in trouble on a hot day as it is not able to wick up water from deeper in the ground.
Zands, that would be cool to see if it works, I guess we can also plant in a fabric pot? I would still recommend transplanting into the ground as soon as possible in order to prevent common pot grown fruit tree problems such as over/under watering, not stepping up the pot properly, and over/under fertilization of plants in pots.
I realized a while back how often I have to water plants in pots on hot days and wondered why my plants weren't doing so well. I thought and I thought and i finally realized that due to my frequent watering, I was flushing much of the nutrients from my soil. Not only that, my frequent waterings were gradually shifting the pH of my soil so even though I start off with a potting mix around pH 6.8, my frequent watering shifted it to 8.0.
When I realized this, I fertilized more frequently but then half a year later, my plants weren't doing good again and I discovered that due to my now more frequent fertilization schedule, my soil was nutrient locked. I like to conserve water so I don't like to see much runoff when I water potted plants and this caused my nutrient lock. Now I realize I have to flush my potted plants every once in a while if there are no rains.
Simon