Is It Bad to Prune an Avocado Tree? 7 Tips to Do It Right

Pruning an avocado tree can be a good or bad thing, depending on when and how you use your pruning shears. For example, if you cut too much at once or at the wrong time, it can damage your tree and reduce your harvest. But proper pruning can support the health of your tree, keep it at a manageable size, and encourage it to produce more fruit. Here’s how to properly prune avocado trees, whether they’re growing in your backyard or in a sunroom.

1. Prune in late winter or early spring

In general, avocado trees don’t need heavy pruning to stay productive or beautiful, but they do require occasional pruning to promote strong, bushy growth and fruit development. Prune your avocado tree before its new leaves begin to grow. Avocados cluster on new wood, so if you prune too late, you’ll cut off the part of the tree that flowers and produces avocados later in the season.

2. Cut off dead or broken limbs

Dead or broken branches provide an entry point for pests and plant diseases to attack the rest of the tree. Cut them off as soon as you see them using clean pruning shears.

3. Prune to thin the canopy

Look for branches that are crossing or rubbing against each other and cut off the weakest branch. Thin branches in the center of the avocado tree to open up the tree structure, let in sunlight, and improve airflow. This reduces the risk of disease and promotes fruit formation.

4. Carefully cut a long avocado

Don’t prune too hard to reduce the tree’s height in one growing season. No short haircuts please! Remove a large branch from an overgrown tree one year, then another large branch the next. It takes three or four years to properly prune an avocado tree for height. Over-harvesting at once stresses the tree and reduces harvest.

Tip:

Use shears to cut avocado tree branches. If the tree’s branches are too thick for the pruner, use pruning shears or a hand saw.

5. Cut off suckers at any time

Suckers are shoots that grow from the roots, below the graft, or directly from the branches. They will not bear fruit and will not draw energy from the tree. When they appear, cut them back to the soil line.

6. Prune your avocado plant

If you grew an avocado plant from a seed on your kitchen windowsill, you may now have a small plant that doesn’t look like a sprawling avocado tree. Good pruning encourages your young tree to develop a wide trunk and dense, branching branches.

Once the plant is about 1 foot tall, cut the main stem of the plant 1/3 down, just above a node. A node is a bump on the stem that contains specialized plant tissue that produces new branches and leaves. When you cut off the top of the plant, new growth emerges from the node.

This pruning may seem harsh, but think of it as tough love because pruning encourages the plant to put out lots of new growth and become thicker and bushier. Continue to prune the plant each season until it develops into a vigorous tree.

7. Choose the right variety

Avocado trees are wide-spreading trees. The most popular variety, the Hass avocado, grows 15 to 25 feet tall and 15 feet wide when planted in the ground. When grown in a container, it adjusts its size to fit the container.

Since avocado trees are only hardy in USDA zones 9 through 11, many of us grow them in containers and move them indoors during the winter. A good choice for container growing is the Wurtz avocado, sometimes called Little Cado. This dwarf variety only grows to a height of 10 to 15 feet, so you won’t have to prune it very often to keep it at a manageable size.