Author Topic: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?  (Read 2660 times)

BonsaiBeast

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Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« on: September 14, 2020, 12:36:25 AM »
I am looking at buying a lot of land that used to be an avocado orchard. There are many 50+ year old avocado trees.

Obviously an older tree is valuable, but is there any procedure anyone knows by which these trees might be sold or relocated instead of being destroyed? Would an existing avocado orchard desire them, or is the cost simply not worth it?

simon_grow

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2020, 12:46:13 AM »
I believe it would be cost prohibitive to move such large trees. Grafted avocado trees grow quickly in our climate and avocado trees are relatively inexpensive.

Simon

Dirt Diva

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2020, 02:40:43 AM »
Hi BonsaiBeast,

We bought a 1/3 acre lot with 37 80+ yr. old trees on it. Our home design was finally ready after 4 attempts to save every tree possible (one drawing even had a tree in the living room). Ultimately we did not have to remove 33 of the trees and have a 3400 sq. ft. home.

Take your time deciding what to build and where the optimum placement and design is. You will be thankful many years from now, as I still am in my wonderful home.

Happy Gardening,
P J, the Dirt Diva
P J, the DivingTemptress and Dirt Diva

Epicatt2

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2020, 04:02:46 AM »
My two cents-worth would be that if you have any way of finding out what cultivars all these trees are then you could offer/share budwood from the best varieties of them or the rarest of them.  And in that way the trees would be preserved even if they ultimately had to be cut down on your property.

OK — HTH

Paul M.
==

noochka1

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2020, 01:45:51 PM »
If you are up for a bit of a project, graft them all to a single tree, or 2 trees. 

Ansarac

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2020, 03:53:15 PM »
There are businesses, which pay for big, old trees, and also to pick the trees.

Longranger

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2020, 05:41:21 PM »
On the practical side does the property have a well? If not watering mature avocado trees will be very expensive. Also you will have limited room to plant other things.

ScottR

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2020, 06:12:04 PM »
If you want to keep some of the tree's and there to big for your plans you can always stump them at about 3' and select sucker growth and graft to want varieties ;)

pczhou

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2020, 05:15:34 PM »
Why not keep it as an avocado farm and sell the fruits? You'd make good money!
Maybe the water table is shallow and you'd never even have to water the trees.

spaugh

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2020, 06:05:24 PM »
Why not keep it as an avocado farm and sell the fruits? You'd make good money!
Maybe the water table is shallow and you'd never even have to water the trees.

Sounds magical!
Brad Spaugh

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2020, 07:30:17 PM »
I would leave the trees and plan whatever you want to do with the lot around them or modify your plans accordingly. As others have commented, productive old avocado trees are a valuable resource. You can sell the fruit. You can try and develop the next great variety through a breeding program. You can enjoy all the avocados you can stomach.

hademarqvce

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2020, 11:20:26 AM »
I would also leave the trees and build around them. And I think I couldn't destroy the trees. If you are interested, you can find photos on the Internet of how hotels, cafes, gazebos, etc. were built around the trees. It looks very beautiful and I think these architects are professionals because they were able to preserve nature. If we talk about me, I want to redo the living room and replace the doors. Now we have wooden doors, and I want glass sliding doors, because they look awesome. And so I found a good company where I can order such doors (you can find them on https://doorsdirect2u.co.uk/product-category/patio-doors/), but I'd like to know your opinion, please help me choose the best sliding doors for my living room.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2020, 05:04:05 PM by hademarqvce »

kicksavedave

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2020, 11:13:49 AM »
There are businesses, which pay for big, old trees, and also to pick the trees.

My uncle has 4 acres of Avocados on his home in Fallbrook CA, but city water, no well.  He got tired of the work and water bill, he was no longer interested in being a farmer, so he turned it all over to an Avocado grower who now manages the whole grove and pays the water bill.  My uncle still has all the Avocados he could ever eat from a couple personal trees, but he doesn't pay the water bill or manage anything - the grower does it all and sells the avocados and keeps the profits.


850FL

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2020, 02:27:01 PM »
Build a giant treehouse

850FL

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2020, 02:29:26 PM »
My boss refuses to cut down oaks and magnolias, and literally modifies his sheds, roofs etc around them. That being said, how much more precious would a 50+ y/o tree that actually produces something be..?

Nikosven

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #15 on: March 12, 2024, 10:21:24 AM »
You could consider incorporating the trees into your new property design, creating a unique and environmentally friendly landscape around your new house. Maybe consulting with an arborist or a local agricultural extension office could help.
And if you're in need of materials or resources for your building project, you might find what you need at https://www.usafiredoor.com/commercial-door-and-window-frames/steel-frames/hollow-metal-frames/. They have a variety of options that could be useful for your construction project.
« Last Edit: March 15, 2024, 11:35:04 AM by Nikosven »

Jal

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #16 on: March 13, 2024, 09:13:26 AM »
It is important to take the security of your home into consideration. On my property I have two avocados that are around 30 years old and huge branches have broken and fallen with their load of still immature fruit. Of course, this characteristic should not be common to all cultivars.

drymifolia

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #17 on: March 13, 2024, 01:14:01 PM »
I would agree that you should be able to keep at least a few of the trees in your construction plan, but at the very least a single tree should be kept if you can.

If you can identify the cultivars, and if it includes any historical varieties not currently available in the nursery trade, your local fruit club/society (or forum members in your area) would likely appreciate a heads-up and permission to collect scionwood before you remove them.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2024, 01:15:41 PM by drymifolia »

Elijah

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Re: Building a house on an old avocado orchard. Destroy the trees?
« Reply #18 on: March 18, 2024, 01:51:30 PM »
Hi BonsaiBeast,

We bought a 1/3 acre lot with 37 80+ yr. old trees on it. Our home design was finally ready after 4 attempts to save every tree possible (one drawing even had a tree in the living room). Ultimately we did not have to remove 33 of the trees and have a 3400 sq. ft. home.

Take your time deciding what to build and where the optimum placement and design is. You will be thankful many years from now, as I still am in my wonderful home.

Happy Gardening,
P J, the Dirt Diva


I am impressed by the number of tree you have in a 1/3 acre land. I was looking for a land to buy recently and even 0.8 acre seems not big enough to have 20 trees.
Obviously it depends on tree size but I am talking about average avocado trees with some jack fruit trees and macademia in between.