the avocado culture is experiencing a real boom in plantations and of course in consumption. What seemed to be a somewhat passing fad, lasted basically supported by scientific recommendations on the benefits of its consumption.
Avocado is a very profitable crop, ranking first in return on investment. From where its area is constantly increasing in Spaineven in less hot areas than the original plantations located on the coast of Malaga.
Currently we can see large areas recently planted in the region of Murcia, Huelva and the Valencian Community.
This article is dedicated to the lawyer. But beyond explaining how it is grown, we want to collect relevant information about this tree it can help us to know him in depth.
If you decide to plant an avocado tree in your garden, either by buying a tree from a nursery or by planting a pit, you must take into account some important information before being disappointed, especially concerning the rarity of its flowering and the need for cross-pollination.
Keeping that in mind, growing avocado is not terribly complicated if you follow the light and temperature requirements, the most important variables. In ComoPlantar we can see practical advice on different crops and garden maintenance tasks,
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The figures of the avocado plantation in Spain
Since January 2022, Andalusia in the lead the avocado growing area with 79%, where the production is distributed among the provinces as follows.
- Malaga: 60%
- Pomegranate: 22%
- Cadiz: 10%
- Huelva: 7%
outside Andalusia, the Canary Islandsdue to its climate, comes in second place (13%), followed by the Valencian Community (7%), which recently began its journey into avocado cultivation.
Region in Spain
| C. VALENCIAN | 1467 | 508 | 9065 |
| REGION OF MURCIA | ten | 6 | 7100 |
| ANDALUSIA | 12386 | 10555 | 7667 |
| THE CANARY ISLANDS | 1966 | 1707 | 7398 |
| TOTAL SPAIN | 15849 | 12790 | 7685 |
Source: Areas and annual plant production (MAGRAMA)
Seeing the difference between total area and production area, allows us to know which areas have the longest history in the cultivation of avocado, the oldest being the Canary Islands and the youngest, the Valencian Community.
The problematic pollination of the avocado tree
The idea of growing an avocado tree in the garden and having fruit throughout the year is more than complicated. Firstly, because from a climatological point of view, we need special temperature conditions, only possible in coastal areas of the Mediterranean environment or in some specific areas of the northern coast of Spain.
On the other hand, to obtain an adequate production of avocado, it is essential to know the variety type of flower, classifying this between A or B. The avocado tree produces both male and female flowers at the same time. The alternation of flowering in two female and male phases prevents self-fertilization.
For an avocado variety to produce a good harvest, it must be pollinated by another avocado variety. of different types of flowers.
If we want to obtain a large harvest of Hass (type A), it is advisable to sow a percentage of type B varieties such as Bacon, Fuerte, Zutano, etc., distributed evenly throughout the farm.
Therefore, if you get an avocado from the pit, we recommend that you note which variety it is and do the same with another flowering variety from a different category. Same case if you decide to buy an avocado from a nursery with the aim of obtaining fruit in your orchard or garden.
Immense flowering, but not very effective
An avocado plant can have up to a million flowers per campaign. It can be predicted that if almost all of them fertilized, the tree would be unable to fertilize the fruit.
Of these millions of flowers produced, they only manage to fertilize and fruiting about 0.02%which means about 200 fruits per tree, approx.
Summary of nutrients in avocado cultivation
Avocado is a demanding crop both in terms of nutrients and water, and generally has low tolerance to waterlogged soils or with drainage problems.
At the nutritional level, the consumption per tonne of avocado produced is as follows:
| Nitrogen (N) | 2.43 | Iron (Fe) | 6.35 |
| phosphorus (P) | 1.43 | Copper (Cu) | 3.31 |
| Potassium (K) | 3.99 | Manganese (Mn) | 1.55 |
| Calcium (Ca) | 0.14 | Zinc (Zn) | 3.87 |
| Magnesium (Mg | 0.26 | Boron (B) | 8.03 |
Source: Yara