Hi Mark, I was hoping you would chime in on my project. I'm glad you steered me towards the single height, as the double literally doubles the cost, so $250/roll becomes $500/roll. I thought the 250/roll wasn't bad. I'm not sure how to get wholesale, but I'll try. What's really taking me aback is the shipping quote I just got -- $240 to ship two rolls to CA. Ouch!
I'm familiar with that .pdf you linked, and I have in fact studied it with great interest over the past couple weeks. So of the concerns I have with their process and its applicability to my situation:
1) They have very controlled temperature ranges that will not apply to my situation. I'll probably see a more wind (though nothing too bad in my semi-protected location).
2) They are purposefully limiting the tree's trunk girth/strength so as to emphasize energy for fruiting. This means they are trellising or otherwise supporting the 2/3 horizontally trained main branches - almost like a grapevine.
3) If I was able to "train" an avocado in this way, I wonder if it would be transportable in the future. I guess I would have to cut back the main leader branches before transport, but maybe that would be recoverable.
4) They're using Paclobutrazol, and I question how "safe" that is for edibles. At the least, it must invalidate the "organic-ness" of the product. Have you used it? I can't find much here on its use for Avocados.
5) I wonder if I will be able to supply the amount of water required during flowering/fruiting with my shared drip loop. That's more of a logistics issue that might apply to any Avocado tree planting, though it seems like it would be more important when you're "potted" with limited grow media (depth, volume, etc.)
All that said, I was thinking to try and implement something like the methods described in Yonemoto presentation. I'd be interested if anyone else on the forum have tried his methods, and if so in a non-greenhouse environment.
Any tips on getting the RootBuilderII supplier to offer wholesale? Any group-buys in the works?
Thanks!
-naysen