How do I Prune Avocado Trees in California?
- 1). Sterilize all of your pruning instruments before making any cuts into the avocado tree. Disease and fungi can transport themselves from the unclean blades into the fresh cuts on the tree. Wipe the blades of any cutting tools with isopropyl alcohol before using.
- 2). Pinch the tips off at a leaf terminal on columnar cultivars such as Anaheim and Lyon, during their first two years of growth. This helps the tree thicken and develop a more rounded habit, rather than straight and tall. Cut the fleshy, green tips off the tree with pruning clippers.
- 3). Trim any branches hanging on the ground back to the main trunk, or right at a leaf terminal, if required. This deters rodents such as mice, rats and squirrels climbing up from the bottom of the tree. If you cut the branch back to a leaf terminal, it will sprout back out with two to three new branches.
- 4). Prune off any branches that are brown and dead, whether due to frost, damage or disease. Nick the outer bark; if it is brown, the branch is dead, and if the under layer is green, the branch is still alive. Prune off any dead branches right above the dead growth with loppers, so you do not transmit diseases to other areas of the avocado tree.
- 5). Trim away any branches that are interfering with a structure, such as your house, any time of year. Trim away the branches at a leaf terminal, flesh where another branch starts or flesh to the trunk.
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