This document provides information on avocados, including that they are native to Mexico and Central America, they grow on perennial plants, and prefer tropical or subtropical climates with temperatures between 26-30°C. It also outlines common pests like avocado thrips and diseases like anthracnose that affect avocados, as well as cultivation practices like irrigation, fertilizing, and harvesting the fruit.

1. AVOCADO
Persea americana

2. Introduction
• Family - Lauraceous
• Species - Persea americana
• Avocado is a perennial plant
• It is a hardy plant.

3. • Avocado is medium to large ever green plant
• Known as a 'poor man’s butter’ to the King of Fruits
• Most varieties of avocado are oval or round shaped
with thick, rough green skin.
• The avocado is native to Mexico and Central
America
• Avocado or alligator pear also refers to
the fruit, botanically a large berry that contains a
single seed.

4. Major Growing Areas
• Kandy
• Matale
• Nuwara Eliya
• Badulla
• Kegalle

5. Soil Condition
• Need well-aerated and loose soil
• Limestone, sandy loam and decomposed
granite are the main soil types
• Avocado trees tolerate both acidic and
alkaline soils
• pH range should be 6- 6.5
• Compacted soils will affect root spread
• Refers slightly dry condition

6. Climatic Condition
• Grown only in subtropical or tropical climates
• Temperatures need 26-30 0C
• Minimum survival temperature is about - 4 °C
• Hot, dry conditions could result in low yields
because of fruit and flower drop
• A high humidity is desirable, because it
decreases stress conditions
• Rainfall exceeding 1 000 mm is desirable

7. Morphology
• Trees to 30m tall
• Leaves
– Narrowly to broadly elliptic
– Leaf blades 10-30cm long
– 3-19cm width
• Flowers
– 3-6mm long
– Yellowish green color
– Determinate and indeterminate type

10. • Root system
– Shallow root system
• Fruit
– pear-shaped,
– often more or less necked
– oval or nearly round
– yellow-green, deep-green or very dark-green,
reddish-purple, or so dark a purple as to appear
almost black, and is sometimes speckled with tiny
yellow dots,
– lossy or leathery skin

12. Varieties
• Pollock
• Purple varieties
• Fuerte
• Booth - 7
• Simmonds
• Tower 11

13. Pollock Simmods

14. Purple variety
Fuerte

15. GROWTH STAGES

16. Bud Development

17. Flowering
• Avocado flowers carry both male and female
reproductive organs
• Each flower opens twice over a two-day
period
• The first day as a female and the second day
as a male.
• Air temperature regulates the opening and
closing of flowers

18. Three requirements for a
successful fruit set
1. An overlapping of the flowering stages
2. Significant insect activity, including bees
3. Temperature is somewhat low

19. PRODUCTION OF PLANTING
MATERIAL
• Nursery management
– Poly bag nurseries are prominent
– Need proper drainage
– Seed should be treated with hot water for 30 min
– Apply fungicides and gypsum

20. Propagation
• Sexual
• Asexual or vegetative

21. Vegetative propagation
• Grafting is prominent
• Stem or branch may not be thicker than 2 cm
diameter
• Remove the top and bottom part of the
branch
• Two types of rootstock can be used
– the cultivar and the seedling rootstock
• cultivar rootstock is produced by vegetative
methods, Seedling rootstocks grow from seed

24. Crop Establishment
• Site selection
– Surface and subsoil drainage must be
excellent.
– Sloping ground with a porous top soil
structure may be unsuitable

25. • Land preparation
– Dig holes large enough to take the
root system comfortably
– Do not place fertilizers in the planting
hole
– Half fill the hole with soil and Fill the
hole with water

26. • Planting
– Planting space varies among varieties
– common planting space was about 20’x 15’ with
145 trees per acre

27. Management practices
• Mulching
– This should be loose, 10 to 15cm deep
– Oats, sorghum, mixtures of these with a legume
– Mulch provides organic matter, a valuable source
of tree nutrients and food for beneficial soil
microorganisms

29. • Tree training and pruning
– Little pruning is required
– regulate tree canopy size
– tree removal
• When yield decline immediately follows the removal of
productive trees

30. • Selective limb removal
– Limbs that are low, overlapping or growing up the
centre of the tree
– exposed limbs with white plastic paint
• Stag horning
– pruning a tree above the graft

31. • Fertilizing
– small amounts of fertilizers
– applicable on sandy soils
– Every 8 weeks apply a nitrogenous fertilizer
– Organic fertilizers are ideal, applied on top of the
mulch layer.
– Use 10 liters of matured poultry manure per tree
– From the third year apply an NPK mixture

32. • Irrigation
– 1800 mm per year rainfall
– Avocados are very sensitive to moisture stress,
especially during
• flowering
• fruit set
• fruit development
– Irrigation systems should be designed depends on
• number of trees per hectare
• soil texture and depth
• weather conditions
• trees’ growth cycle

33. – In orchard's basically drip irrigation techniques
– Required ammount 3 to 5ML per hectare
– Water stress can cause symptoms including;
• fruit drop
• ring-necking
• skin cracking
• salt burn
• In young trees, vegetative growth is reduced

34. Pest and Disease Management
• Common pests
– avocado leaf roller
– Avocado thrips
– Persea mites

35. Thrips attack
Persea mites

36. Pests
• Avocado thrips - Scirtothrips perseae
– Symptoms
• leathery patches and spread across fruit
• adult insect is orange-yellow in color with distinct
brown bands
– Management
• organic mulch about 6 inches
• if insecticides are to be applied

38. • Diseases
– Anthracnose
– Scab
– Stem-end rot
– Phytophthora root rot
– Black streak
– Bacterial soft rot
– Sun blotch
– leaf spot

39. Anthracnose
Scab

40. Diseases
• Scab - Sphaceloma perseae
– Symptoms
• Oval or irregular brown or purple spots on fruit with rough
texture
– Management
• Plant tolerant varieties; spray with copper containing
fungicides

41. Harvesting
• Handle fruit carefully during harvesting
• Fruit should be cut off
• Healthy fruit should be carried in canvas
picking bags
• Harvested fruit should be removed as soon as
possible
• place it in cold storage

45. Uses of Avocado
• Health benefits
– lower cholesterol levels
– seeds, leaves, and bark are used for dysentery
and diarrhea.
– promote hair growth
– relieve toothache.
– Use for skin care
• Use as food item
• Beverages

47. Value added products

49. Research Ideas
• Investigate the relationship between fresh avocado
consumption and risk factors for cardiovascular disease
emerging research suggests that fresh avocados may play a
positive role in many emerging areas including skin, eye, joint
and cellular health.

50. References
• http://www.fao.org
• http://ucanr.edu/sites/Farm_Management/fil
es/156255.pdf
• https://www.plantvillage.com/en/topics/avoc
ado/infos/diseases_and_pests_description_us
es_propagation

51. Thank you