Techniques for avocado farming
- Avocados are a fruit that grows best in tropical climates
- They are considered Superfoods, high in essential nutrients and healthy fats
- Mexico leads the world in avocado production, with 2.75M tonnes in 2025
- The U.S. imports 80% of its avocado consumption, most of it from Mexico
- Mexico avocado production is expected to stay flat with about 265,000 hectares planted. Growth in Kenya is expected to increase by 6% to reach 34,000 hectares in 2025
Growing Avocados
- There are three main types of avocados: Mexican, Guatemalan, and West Indian
- Haas avocados are a cultivar of Mexican and Guatemalan
- Most trees are grown from seed, and can take 7-10 years to fruit
- Some avocados exhibit biennial fruiting, producing a large harvest one year, light harvest the next
- The active root zone of an avocado tree is shallow at 30-40cm (12-16 inches)
- While difficult to grow from seed, when mature avocados will fruit for decades
- Grafted trees can start producing in 3-4 years
- Avocado trees generally do not tolerate pH outside of a slightly acidic 5.0 to 7.0
The market for avocados
Over 11 billion pounds of avocados are produced yearly in the world. The Mexican state of Michoacán produces about 3 billion lbs. per year, and leads the world. Over 80% of the Mexican crop is exported to the United States. U.S. consumption of avocados has grown in the period 1998 to 2023 from 1.52lbs. per capita to 9.22lbs (600% increase).
In the 1980’s, the U.S. market for avocados was almost entirely covered by domestic production. Today U.S. growers produce less than 10% of what is consumed, grown mostly in Southern California on approx. 52,000 acres. By contrast, California is planted with 1.56 million acres of almonds. Between Mexico, Central and South America they have 375,000 acres planted, about 76% of the world’s drop.
Morrocco has been developing as a supplier of avocados to Europe since about 2010, although the crop has been cultivated there since the 1950’s. As newer trees have matured, harvests have increased. The last few years have been record years with 47,000 tonnes shipped mainly to Spain, France, Netherlands and Germany.
Challenges growing avocado trees
Avocado trees are very sensitive to salinity. This is an issue in California, where groundwater used for much of the state’s irrigation has developed increasing amounts of salinity. Avocados prefer slightly acidic soils although some alkalinity can be tolerated.
Avocado species can be of two types, one opens female in the morning, male the next afternoon, the other type does the opposite, so an orchard needs both.
The most prevalent disease affecting avocados is root rot, which thrives in waterlogged soil and excess salinity. Other diseases avocados contract are anthracnose, algal leaf spot, sunblotch, scab and black streak. Avocado trees are also vulnerable to pests such as thrips, borers, caterpillar and lace bugs.
Avocado trees can grow 20 meters tall, so they require regular pruning to keep them at 5-12 meters for spraying, harvesting etc. Because the climates they are grown in tend to warm, and root systems shallow, the mature trees require frequent irrigation.
Nitrogen Use Efficiency for Avocados
Avocados can have a 70% NEU, with average application over 50 lbs/acre and adequate water. Avocados can take over 1 ½ years from flowering to harvest. In the late Fall and Winter months uptake of nitrogen is minimal. Avocado trees are alternate bearing, that is, a bountiful harvest year is followed by a light one.
How can the nitrogen use efficiency be improved?
- Because Fall/Winter uptake is minimal, total nitrogen demand should be applied April to about September
- While high use efficiencies can be attained, good irrigation practices are required
- Leaf analysis is the traditional method for monitoring nitrogen use in avocados
Contact AquaSpy
AquaSpy for Avocado Trees
With a Crophesy LS-N annual subscription, you receive a free simple, three-sensor or six-sensor, wireless, soil moisture probe. Place these rugged, water-tight probes throughout your avocado trees and connect them easily to the Cloud for hands-free data uploads throughout the day.
Then you can instantly monitor soil and crop health for all of your avocados. And if you want to test the soil in other areas, you can quickly and easily move the moisture probe, which is battery-powered and provides season-long insight.
While you can look at the visual analysis of leaves, spending hours in your field, Crophesy enables you to open your app from anywhere and show you what kind of nourishment is available in your soil at your avocado tree root depth. With this data, you can determine when the active root zone needs vital nutrients.
In addition to nitrate (NO3-N ppm) data, the Crophesy LS-N app can show you:
- Nitrification and Denitrification (ORP mv)
- Moisture consumption at the root level
- Salinity level in the active root zone
- Root depth
- Soil temperature near the sensors
- Irrigation depth
And it tells you all this without you having to step foot in your avocado trees.