Avocado tree down-sizing

[nickar]

hi Everyone. I have an 8 metre high avocado tree in my garden and it is much too big for where it is. How far can I cut it back and have it regrow? Or is it too late to downsize? It is a very vigorous and healthy tree which has been pruned earlier in its life and the main trunks/branches are 50cm diameter. thanks for any advice.

[Chris]

I don't know anything about avocados specifically but I will tell you what I know about fruit trees in general.

Prune in the winter prior to buds leafing out, at the end of the dormant period.

Fruit appears on secondary or tertiary branches, usually tertiary on most fruit trees (your trunk comes from the ground, primary or scaffold branches come from the trunk, secondary branches come from primary branches, and tertiary branches come from secondary branches).

So if you prune off all your tertiary branches you will have no fruit until the tree can regrow them.

That being said, production trees are pruned all the time to maintain a managable size. So I'm sure you can prune it, even severely. Sometimes pruning a tree as such will reduce the visual appeal of the tree, so it isn't done in the home setting often. But in an orchard setting it is done all the time. Just make sure you leave sections young enough to sprout new growth.

[nickar]

thanks very much for this advice Chris
If I prune right back to the primary trunks will it regrow or die?

[j.parson]

I know this is a little late, but, I saw this post and I had to reply because I have an avocado tree in my backyard that wasn't producing good fruit (not very tasty at all). So we had the gardener level it down to what looked like a stump. It was probably about 3 feet tall. We forgot about the tree, until last week when we were playing with our nephews in the yard and he was near what looked like a tall bush. It was the avocado tree growing again! The leaves are very green, and they look very healthy. We are seeing if the tree will fruit again, but right now it seems like the tree is just growing back. Hopefully I can post some pictures of the avocados... perhaps next year. Anyways, I hope things went well for you! :)