Topics in Subtropics

UCCE Farm Advisor Gary Bender finally has his 14 chapter book on avocado history, botany and cultural practices on the San Diego County web site. Check it out: http://ucanr.

Training At planting (preferably in spring), if trees have an unbranched trunk greater than 2 feet tall, the tree should be headed back. This procedure should induce other buds along the trunk to shoot. Always remove leaves at positions where new shoots are required.

Iron chlorosis is an off duck. Soil is basically iron with some aluminum, silicon and oxygen added in for good measure, but plants can lack for iron because it is not available to be taken up.

The first step in researching and developing strategies for mitigating alternate bearing (AB) in 'Manzanillo' table olive is to model the tree phenology with respect to the alternating 'ON' (high yield) and 'OFF' (low yield) cycles.

I was recently in an orchard looking at what appeared to be avocado root rot. I was checking on the symptoms and quizzing the grower on the other cultural practices. The grower was prepared with soil, leaf and water reports.