Raspberries last week, Avocados this!

It might not look much but this is a big hole, which took me maybe 3 hours of hard work to dig… The motive? For a couple of years I’ve had three Avocado trees growing in my greenhouse. I had read that by restricting the container they grow in, it’s possible to have them fruit indoors… so that was my original plan. But since then I’ve been doing more research and I decided to move them outside. As a tree they can grow up to 6 metres tall, so it seems pointless to restrict them… I read about what conditions they like and one crucial aspect is that they do not like having wet roots and will rot and die if planted in soil that is not free draining, which is why the hole I dug is the shape it is:

The largest avocado I had transplanted into a half wine barrel, and as it grew it became the big challenge with this project. How to move it? I could carry the two smaller plants in their green grow bags, but the weight & shape of the wine barrel avocado had me stumped. At a guess I’d say it weighs 150kg. First problem was that the wine barrel is actually wider than the door to the greenhouse. And I had read how avocado really hate having their roots damaged, and major damage will stunt a plant’s growth. So I had to move it carefully…

After a few days of thought I decided to take the same approach I did when moving the piano into my house. I did it on my own, using only a sack barrow and leverage. The sack barrow was under one end of the piano and I could lift the other end and move it forward about a foot before it exhausted me. So I spent maybe 3 hours repeating a cycle: move, rest, move, rest. It was a good reminder that what seems impossible can be solved by strategy. Could I do the same with the avocado?

While moving it inside the greenhouse I discovered that by tilting the entire wine barrel and tree, I could slowly & carefully roll it forward. I got it to within a few feet of the door and then tilted it towards the door, so the branches were poking outside. I then did a slow rotation, spiralling the barrel as I did, and it worked! I got the barrell and plant out of the greenhouse without any damage!

Next I dragged & rolled it along the side of the greenhouse:

Next I slid it down the steps that I’d cut as a path from the upper level to the middle, where my asparagus bed is. This went ok, my main fears were losing control of it and (a) being crushed by it or (b) losing it off the side and down into the forest or (c) damaging it. I took it very slowly using a shovel as leverage, and slowly sliding it down each step. Thank jah for gravity – I defintiely could not have got it UP the steps…

I then slowly slid and scraped it down the second path:

And that was my days work done! I was exhausted and my muscles were tired as hell! But I had been successful – all three avocadoes were in place, ready for transplanting…

The next day I went shopping for soil. The ground is all heavy clay, so I needed to fill that giant hole and the two smaller ones with decent well-draining soil. I bought bags of compost, potting mix, peat moss and a fruit tree soil mix. Carried them to the site via wheelbarrow and built a base layer in each hole, also adding blood & bone, gypsum, sheep pooh pellets and some potash.

The two smaller plants were easy enough to transplant – I simply rolled the sides of the planter bags down, until the bag was inside out and the soil and root ball was exposed. I carefully lowered them in and filled in the soil around them, and then used the cocoa husks from Whitkers chocolates as mulch.

Avocado 1: Hass

Avocado 2: Reed

I’d run out of soil by then, so off to the local nursery to get another boot full of bags of soil. Once I had enough soil to fill the third big hole, I still had to decide what to do with the big avocado plant? I had to get it out of its wine barrel, without damaging the roots.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that I would leave it in the wine barrel, and simply cut out the base of it, so the plant could grow down into the soil. So I got a drill and a skillsaw and by tilting the entire barrel and plant on the edge of the hole, I could access the bottom and I slowly & carefully cut the entire bottom out. But I then remembered something I read: “Avocado are naturally shallow rooted with the majority of the roots in the top 6 inches of the soil and the roots extend far from the trunk” – Hmmm… So how are the roots going to grow sideways if the wine barrel sides are in the way?
OK decision made: I had to completely remove the wine barrel. Using a hammer & chisel, I managed to remove the first steel belt and by the time I got the second belt off, I could pull the individual pieces of wood out… At last the barrel was removed, leaving just the tree in its soil.

I filled it in, added cocoa husk mulch and after a week of hard physical work I am done!

Avocado 3: Hass

The rope (& cloth around the branches) is due to us having gale winds at the moment, and as these have been indoors sheltered from the wind, I was worried it would damage the branches… So I stabilised it somewhat, and will take the rope etc off it once the weather calms down….

While picking up soil I also got a hose that will reach down to this area, as I’ll need to keep up the water and will eventually rig up some automated watering system for when I am away… It still looks a bit like a bomb site, but it feels like an accomplishment to have cleared this area which was completely overgrown, and now is home to seven raspberry plants and 3 avocado trees.

Summer is coming to an end, with daylight saving in NZ ending this weekend. So these plants have got a good six months of autumn & winter to get established, grow their roots and hopefully start to produce fruit!

It’s funny how non-linear such things are. A month or so ago I bought two small fig trees from someone off Trademe, and when I picked them up I was amazed to see he was getting fruit from his fig trees, and they were still only small trees. On the lower level in my garden I have a big fig tree I planted quite a few years ago and disappointingly it has never fruited. I also have a fig tree in my greenhouse and its never fruited either. So I brought the two new little fig trees home – they are only smalll, only 2 foot tall but to my surprise one fig tree already has two figs on it! And coincidentally I noticed my big fig tree has 2 fruit on it as well! So at last some figs!! But my theory with the big tree is that I was not watering it often enough, or consistently. Since I planted the two new plum trees down there beside it, I added fertiliser and mulch around them and the fig tree, and I have been careful to water them every day if we haven’t had rain…

It’s not a complex recipe, and while each plant varies, this is the basis of everything:
Good soil, clean air, sunshine and…. consistent watering!

One last comment: weirdly I find these garden projects really help my motivation and mood! Apart from the obvious benefits of being outdoors and getting exercise, it also seems valuable to have projects other than obsessing about sound & music, which invariably requires much time spent in the studio. I think my modus operandi from now on will be to always have a specific garden project in development, as it is so beneficial to my mental health & positively impacts on all of my other work.

It is also an endless learning curve. I want to grow avocado as I like eating them and I look forward to sharing a photo of my first avocado! But I also never knew this: “Unlike most fruits, avocados are not edible when they are first picked from the tree. Maturity is not synonymous with ripeness. To determine whether the fruit is mature and ready for harvest, bring in one avocado and place it on the kitchen counter. If it softens without shriveling, it is ready to be picked. Another test is to cut a fruit open. If the husk covering the pit inside the fruit is brown and papery, the fruit is ready to harvest.
Only after a stem is severed will fruit begin ripening”