Preventing sunburn damage in avocado tree trunks
Sunburned damage in avocado tree trunk. November 11, 2015
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During the canopy change process the avocado tree is decapitated to then graft on the water shoots that emerge. During that process the truck get a lot of exposure to the sun. Once the water shoots grow out, the trunk gets some shade only to be hit again as the water shoots are thin out and just a few selected for grafting. It is a double impact. Thus the name in Spanish "golpe de sol" sun hit. At one point I thought that painting the trunks with while latex paint would help, maybe, not much in my opinion as the photos in the page shows. It is important today to maintain the integrity of the truck as intact as possible in the event the tree need to be infuse to protect it from Laurel Wilt. Go to this Page to see the list of product and the trail development.
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This video shows the extend of the problems bought about by this sunburned trunks. The clean up and restoration of these trunks is very time consuming thus very expensive. In addition even if the damage is stopped it is irreversible and even if the bark grows around the dead tissue these trees will always be more susceptible to decay and insect colonization. Bark beetles love this environment and we do have a host of imported beetles carrying all sorts of diseases.These trunks may be even impossible to infuse properly with the fungicide to protect them for Laurel Wilt root transmission as the material may be inserted into this dead tissue areas.
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The first thing I have done is to take some pictures of some of the damage, pointing out always faces to the SE. Then some time in the summer of 2016 I will begin the process of decapitation of some tree using different products and materials, hopefully I can find something to prevent this damaging situation.