Author Topic: RootMaker RootBuilder 2 / II Expandable Container for Side-Yard Avocado Project  (Read 29907 times)

z_willus_d

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In haste while pruning I took off a newly grafted Orange Sherbet branch holding 17 nice fruit.  Oh well.  I mailed a friend some scions yesterday.



Mark, I think I would have ruined my month if I had taken that branch off.  That fruit looks amazing.  I was watering with a tin can the other day and popped off the largest Avocado on my Lamb-Hass (and  nice and shaded it was too).  I had a sour mood the rest of the day after that one.  I'm curious, what is your water schedule for the mature avocados you have there.  Assuming 90F+ temps, are you watering daily with a good soaking?

Mark in Texas

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Mark, I think I would have ruined my month if I had taken that branch off.  That fruit looks amazing.  I was watering with a tin can the other day and popped off the largest Avocado on my Lamb-Hass (and  nice and shaded it was too).  I had a sour mood the rest of the day after that one.  I'm curious, what is your water schedule for the mature avocados you have there.  Assuming 90F+ temps, are you watering daily with a good soaking?

I water about every 1 - 2 weeks depending on season and temps.  I'll go a month or so on mangoes in the winter, often on avocados.

Just recently I realized I haven't been watering enough for years.  Stepped it up and man what a difference.

z_willus_d

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Hi Mark, I think once a week deep watering is probably idea where the roots are well established and you have decent water retention.  In my case, these five trees are in containers with the roots blocked at the bottom, so they don't have the deep tap root and ability spread far and wide.  That said, as I noted, they are (or were) escaping at the bottom and feeding along the mulch layer just above the root barrier I placed over the ground.

I have three more mature trees I planted in my front yard in the ground.  They set incredible amounts of fruit (like thousands) but nearly all dropped.  I think one tree has three fruit right now, and another has 2-3.  I'm wondering if the soak tubes I embedded within the mulch layer that runs over those trees could be providing too much water, since they tie in with my drip system that runs several times a day.  The soil is well draining, so I don't think the trees are sitting in a puddle.  It's backwards that the nearly 10 year old trees planted in the ground with trunks 2-3x in diameter have so much less fruit than these ones in the side-yard that get less light, aren't afforded any ground rooting, and are half the age or less.  I'll figure it out one day.  The leaves on the three front yard trees look nice.

I hope you have a great garden this year.  Send some pics as the tomatoes and everything ripen.

Seanny

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My young tree dropped all the fruits.
Now it’s older it’s keeping fruits.

Don’t worry about your young trees.

z_willus_d

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Hi Seanny,

Thanks for responding.  I think I wasn't clear in my previous response.  The younger trees are doing well.  Sure they drop a lot of fruit, but it's expected.  It's my older tree (~10 years) that I am concerned about.  They were transplanted to ground a couple years back.

Mark in Texas

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Hi Mark, I think once a week deep watering is probably idea where the roots are well established and you have decent water retention.  In my case, these five trees are in containers with the roots blocked at the bottom, so they don't have the deep tap root and ability spread far and wide.  That said, as I noted, they are (or were) escaping at the bottom and feeding along the mulch layer just above the root barrier I placed over the ground.

Why didn't you go bottomless?

Been doing salad plates like this almost every night.  Member sent me some SoCal Hass.  They are unreal, best Hass we've ever eaten which stands to reason - homegrown.



As posted in my thread, Reed got blown off the tree.  Have 25 or so hanging.  Damn good for early in the season.  Weird that the seed pushed a root radicle.




z_willus_d

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Hi Mark, those platters look amazing.  My sungolds are just coming in.  I can't wait for the rest of the garden to begin harvest.  I'll be waiting on the 50 or so candidate avocados for another year.

Remember, I didn't go bottomless for a couple reasons; listed here in order of severity (High->Low):
1) These trees are planted along the side of my house adjacent to the neighbors yard (just a couple feet over across a fence).  They have very mature fruit trees (plum, pear, cherry, etc.) that have roots which have invaded most of my yard.  I planted some blueberries in the ground some 20' away from these trees, and found the younger blueberries in a pot produced loads more and grew, where as those in the ground were insipid.  They were overrun with the neighboring tree root system.  The same has been true of a garden bed I keep that's in the vicinity of those trees.  I'd have to dig a trench of 2-3 feet down and lay down some metal siding to attempt and address the problem, but the ground is so boulder, stone, and rock ridden, it would require some heavy equipment and a lot of space to do that.
2) I wanted to keep the option to take some of these trees with me if we ever decide to move to a new location.  I know that transplant will be very rough on the trees, but they should be able to survive the ordeal.  If you read up on the RootBuilder site, they talk about wrapping the container in burlap material for transporting.  I think the idea is you just remove the container, pull-up the burlap and transport.  I don't think that was meant for trees that are multiple years in their site.  Maybe I'll get to test the idea some day.
3) Well, I had a three sometime ago, but I can't remember it.  Oh well, (1) and (2) suffice.

Thanks for always chiming in.  It's gotten quite (it seems), though I haven't been keeping up as much.

Mark in Texas

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Howdy!  Sounds like a solid plan, good on ya!

Salads keep us old pHarts reggie ya know.




z_willus_d

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Looks like another stellar platter.  Y'all are eating like royalty there.  Enjoy!

pczhou

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Did you ever get any fully ripe avocados? Do they grow in Sacramento area?

z_willus_d

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Did you ever get any fully ripe avocados? Do they grow in Sacramento area?
Hi, last year I got 3 or 4 of which most were quite good.  These were from three mature trees in large 50-gal container pots.  I've since transplanted each into my front yard.  This year the five side-yard avocados are holding a fair amount of fruit.  This is their 2nd season in the RootMaker/Builder containers.  The first year they were too immature to hold any fruit.  This year, they are doing much better with the Pinkerton looking the best with 20+ fruits of about half full maturity (size).  This is followed by the Lamb-Hass, with quite a few fruit as well.  The Sir Prize and Stewart had a lot of fruit at the start, but are now down to 3-4 each.  The Holiday is the worst of the bunch, currently holding onto just one sole fruit.  We're having an extended heat swell here, so I'm hoping the plants don't decide to drop a bunch of fruit from the stress.  The last few times we had multiple 100F+ days back-to-back, I had several fruit drop.

So, that's where I'm at currently.  I think you can definitely grow avocados here, but you need to properly protect and baby them.  You need the right varieties (not necessarily what I'm growing).  And you need patience.  In any case, I've learned a lot over the years, and I think there's a chance I'll get some decent harvests in the long term.

If you have any specific questions, let me know.

Good luck.

pczhou

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Thank you for the useful information. I live near you and nobody in my family has ever been able to get any avocados here. Then again, we used to live where the Hass avocado was originally created and couldn't get any avocados there either. We don't know why we never got any fruit but perhaps because there are no bees in our area.

The lowest temps we've been getting is 30 degrees, and only for a few hours. So I want to try the super tasty varieties. I'm concerned about the 105+ degree weather the most, and the saline water supply.

I recently got a Hass, Pinkerton, Sir Prize, Reed, and Jan Boyce in 5 gallon containers. My family eats 600 avocados per year. Do you think 6 avocado trees in 50 gallon containers can produce this much (100 avocados per tree)?





Bush2Beach

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No chance on that kind of production. I wouldn’t count on any and then you’ll be happy with whatever you do get.
Thank you for the useful information. I live near you and nobody in my family has ever been able to get any avocados here. Then again, we used to live where the Hass avocado was originally created and couldn't get any avocados there either. We don't know why we never got any fruit but perhaps because there are no bees in our area.

The lowest temps we've been getting is 30 degrees, and only for a few hours. So I want to try the super tasty varieties. I'm concerned about the 105+ degree weather the most, and the saline water supply.

I recently got a Hass, Pinkerton, Sir Prize, Reed, and Jan Boyce in 5 gallon containers. My family eats 600 avocados per year. Do you think 6 avocado trees in 50 gallon containers can produce this much (100 avocados per tree)?





spaugh

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No chance on that kind of production. I wouldn’t count on any and then you’ll be happy with whatever you do get.
Thank you for the useful information. I live near you and nobody in my family has ever been able to get any avocados here. Then again, we used to live where the Hass avocado was originally created and couldn't get any avocados there either. We don't know why we never got any fruit but perhaps because there are no bees in our area.

The lowest temps we've been getting is 30 degrees, and only for a few hours. So I want to try the super tasty varieties. I'm concerned about the 105+ degree weather the most, and the saline water supply.

I recently got a Hass, Pinkerton, Sir Prize, Reed, and Jan Boyce in 5 gallon containers. My family eats 600 avocados per year. Do you think 6 avocado trees in 50 gallon containers can produce this much (100 avocados per tree)?





What you dont think you can pull 100 avocados per pot?

I only get that much on big mature size in ground hass trees. 
Brad Spaugh

Nyuu

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Spaugh hey do you think you may get some Dusa is close to expiration https://patents.google.com/patent/USPP15309P3/en

spaugh

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Spaugh hey do you think you may get some Dusa is close to expiration https://patents.google.com/patent/USPP15309P3/en

No, I find clonal rootstocks completely underwhelming.  Just have no interest or use for them personally. 
Brad Spaugh

z_willus_d

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Do you think 6 avocado trees in 50 gallon containers can produce this much (100 avocados per tree)?


I'm assuming this question is quasi-facetious.  I think 100 avocados for a young tree in a container would be a very blessed harvest indeed.  You best bet for achieving results like that might be to go back and read through Dr. John Yonemoto's presentation that I referenced at the start of this thread here:
http://htfg.org/conferences/2016/2016_JohnYoshimiYonemoto_GrowingandHarvestingtheBestAvocados.pdf

Good luck!
-naysen

Nyuu

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Some information maybe useful https://youtu.be/rX9pwyFb1rU
But I disagree a little with some of the things he says
« Last Edit: July 30, 2020, 09:01:30 AM by Nyuu »

Nyuu

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I try get Carmen Hass avocado  but I don't know if anyoe sale it in FL so I like know best for me get one . I know California grow them there but I think it you can't shipped out soil so thinking about getting some Scion wood .
« Last Edit: July 30, 2020, 08:37:44 AM by Nyuu »

z_willus_d

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This past couple days here in Sac Valley have been scorching hot.  The trees are starting to burn.  The Lamb Hass has shown the worst of the bunch.  It's dropped several half mature size avocado fruit as a result.  I guess it's not well adapted to the intense heat, or maybe its proximity to our air conditioning unit's exhaust has something to do with the increased burning of new leaves.

Here are some pics...

Intense heat spikes:


Lamb-Hass now under a shade cloth (after taking damage):




Some damage on Sir Prize:


So far, Pinkerton is doing well, and holding on to the most and best looking fruit:



Pom's not happy:


Chickens aren't happy:


Tomatoes et al. are crispy too:



Mark in Texas

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I am sorry.  Might want to buy some Surround kaolin.  Much easier to apply.   Hopefully this clime from hell breaks soon fer ya.

Here in central Texas we not only have the heat, 100+ every day for weeks but I haven't seen a drop of rain since June.  Everything is brown, grasshoppers are epidemic by the 10's of thousands stripping all my shrubs, asparagus, etc.  Am killing them by the dozens in the greenhouse with a spray of permethrin.

I've got about 7 days before my rainwater tanks go dry and that's it for feeding my Aquafogger which is doing a pretty good job at cooling the greenhouse.

This was a very dense dark green Nellie Stevens burford holly.  They're all like this.



This too shall pass.....

z_willus_d

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Mark, rain? Haven't heard of it, seen it, don't remember what it is... But I must say we are blessed not to have the grasshoppers roving the land.  I hate those things with an unreasonable passion.  We were doing the 100F+ thing for months too, but it ratcheted up to more like 110F+ recently.  You are correct, it will pass in time.  I just hope the power stays on.  Gotta keep those wine coolers running.

Seanny

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Shading that touches the leaves is bad news.
The leaves will burn due to hot shading.
Raise it a foot above.

z_willus_d

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Good point.  It's not an easy proposition. I'll try to see what I can do.  But then that wind causes trouble.  Shade cloth often causes more trouble than its worth with my half-a**ed application/effort.  Thanks.

zephian

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Mark, rain? Haven't heard of it, seen it, don't remember what it is... But I must say we are blessed not to have the grasshoppers roving the land.  I hate those things with an unreasonable passion.  We were doing the 100F+ thing for months too, but it ratcheted up to more like 110F+ recently.  You are correct, it will pass in time.  I just hope the power stays on.  Gotta keep those wine coolers running.
Did the thunderstorms pass you by? We had some thunder and lightning yesterday that took out power from 8-almost 7pm. It was 105... Not enough rain to do anything but hey, it's rain!
-Kris