With recipes that require avocados increasing daily, the demand for this fruit has skyrocketed. What can shorten the time between its planting and harvesting?
Your tree requires optimum conditions to grow faster and produce fresh, healthy, and tasty avocados for your enjoyment. Anything apart from optimum will result in normal and not fast growth.
What Are the Best Conditions for My Avocado Tree To Grow Faster?
A warm climate, optimum temperatures, and ample sunlight are some of the ideal microclimatic conditions for cultivating avocados and achieving high yields.
Below, we look deeper at factors that can make your avocado tree grow faster. Let’s dive in!
Climate
A place’s climatic condition is paramount to a tree’s growth. The primary avocado varieties are all tropical plants, meaning they like warm conditions for most of the year. Avocado trees can barely grow in a cold climate.
It would help to cover blankets over young trees during extremely cold weather. You can also mulch the mature trees to help them survive the cold conditions.
Soil
Soil is a critical factor to consider if you are to speed up the growth of your tree. Most trees will grow well in loamy or sandy soils. The suitable pH for avocado trees is 5-7, slightly acidic to neutral. However, the optimum soil pH is 6.2-6.5.
Avoid soils with poor drainage because when soil is waterlogged, root rot can swiftly develop.
Soil nutrients provide health to the plant and accelerate the growth of trees. Soils lacking nutrients will likely produce sickly and low-quality yields. Analyze your soil and determine the nutrients lacking for the fast growth of your tree. Purchase the required fertilizer to supplement the nutrients.
Sunlight
The importance of the sun to all plant life cannot be stressed enough. Most avocado varieties require ample sunlight for 6-8 hours daily.
Most mature trees can withstand the suns heat for that long without suffering sunburns. However, the younger trees require protection from the sustained heat from the sun, without which they might suffer sunburns.
Shading nets, painting the trunks, and intercropping are all helpful ways to prevent the sun’s harmful effects.
Temperature
Optimum temperature is key for faster growth of your avocado tree. Avocado can grow between temperatures -4°C and 40°C but the optimum temperature for most varieties is between 16°C-21°C.
Young trees are typically sensitive to low temperatures, while older trees can survive up to -2°C.
Avocado trees need a minimum of four weeks during the autumn-winter season with cool conditions to produce flowers. During blooming, however, temperatures should remain above 10°C.
High temperatures can also be hazardous to avocado growth. Temperatures above 40°C can severely harm young sensitive trees and stress mature ones.
The trees suffer the most during the tail end of summer when warm winds and heat waves are rampant. The tree is most vulnerable to high heat in this period because it is when they bloom.
Fertilizer
Fertilizer plays a critical role in growing avocado trees faster. It contains nutrients like nitrogen, zinc, phosphorus, and potassium that avocados thrive under.
Fertilize your tree six times annually between ages 1 and 3. Afterward, you can reduce the application to four times annually.
How Often to Water your Avocado Tree
A critical part of making avocado trees grow faster is proper irrigation. Young avocados require frequent and sufficient irrigation, especially with their small and underdeveloped root system.
Water your tree lightly but frequently (2-3 times a week) while checking the subsoil’s moisture level. Ensure you do not overwater or underwater because both are equally harmful to the tree.
After a year since you planted your tree, you can reduce the number of times you water it to once a week. This is because the roots are already well established.
Soak the soil adequately and allow it to dry before you water it again. Don’t let the soil dry up too much before watering.
How Long Does an Avocado Tree Take to Bear Fruit?
How long a tree takes to produce fruit depends on how the tree was planted. If it is a tree from the nursery, it will take 3-4 years to bear fruit, but if you start with a seed, it will take more than 10 years to see fruit.
Final Thoughts
Whether you own an avocado tree or are planning to grow one, we understand your urgent desire to see your tree grow faster and produce fresh, healthy, and tasty avocados for your enjoyment.
Apart from all the optimal conditions that must be met for growing avocados faster, your time and effort will also play a vital role in achieving that.
This article provides all the necessary information to help you grow your avocado tree faster. We hope the knowledge and insight above will bear fruit. Cheers!
