This is an open letter to any longtime avo grower out there.
Come Christmas - I'm looking to take a bit of height off the tallest, most vertical recent growth on my Mexicola Avocado for the first time. Up to now I've mostly been letting it run wild, except when I've found really cantilevered laterals or badly crossed branches - never any real hard pruning. Mostly, the tree has kept a pretty attractive harping 8' wide perimeter all on its own. At its tallest points it's probably pushing 12' and I'm hoping I can steadily work it to keep it at 10'.
Right now we're really only talking about three towering runs here, but is there a chance that in tackling all of them in one go I might really set the tree back unnecessarily? I kind of figured that a lost season might be a given, but I wasn't sure if, taken too far, this might result in alternate bearing for a longer period. I've gotten two increasingly productive years out of the tree thus far. This Thanksgiving should see its third.
Also, if I start with the idea of taking about 2' off of each limb, does anybody have recommendations about how I target my cuts - say, down to the nearest beefy 1/2" south facing lateral growth or...? Glancing at the tree just now, lopping at the 2' mark would have me cutting through a 1" thick portion of each limb.
Or am I overthinking this - and the tree won't miss a beat from what I have planned?
Thanks to any/all for your input.
Chris