Remember when I wrote about chopping the top of my avocado off? (No? You didn’t read that post, you say? Well, here’s the link in case you need a reminder.)
Here’s what the avocado looked like after its haircut:
The Avocado is Branching Out
Tag: avocado tree
Making A Bushier Avocado
My avocado plant is growing pretty tall, and everything that I’ve read about avocados tells me I should cut down the stem to encourage side shoots.
I tried this once with a different avocado. Something that I read said that once it gets to be about 6 inches tall, cut off the stem to encourage side shoots. I tried that, and this is what happened:
Not exactly what I had in mind.
I ended up giving that avocado to my dad. It’s doing fine, but just looks a little funny with the kink in its trunk.
So, with my current avocado, I decided *not* to cut it off when it got 6 inches tall.
….But then….the peer pressure got to me. It seems like everyone says you should prune it to encourage bushier growth. And I do want a bushier plant.
This excerpt is from Plants from Pits (it’s not my favorite book, but I got it from the library before COVID-19 happened, and now the libraries are closed, so I’m working with what I’ve got):
My tree now has 14 leaves, so I decided today is the day to prune it.
Eeek
Be brave…
I’m trying to take a picture of the plant, obviously, not the side of my neighbor’s house.
I initially just took one leaf and the top off, like the book said. But Stuff You Need to Know says “Prune the tree in such a way to leave many leaves, but prune enough above a leaf so that there are budding areas around the stem.” There were two other leaves very close to the cut I made, and I’m not sure there were any “budding areas” around the stem up there.
So, I took off a little more:
That should leave plenty of stem with budding areas, right? Let’s hope so.
Here’s the final product:
Do you think my avocado tree will ever look like this?
