Use Lono to Increase Yield & Prevent Alternate Year Yield Bearing
What is alternate year bearing?
Alternate Bearing is the tendency of avocado trees to have a year of high yield and Small avocados, followed by a year of low yield with larger avocados. This is a widespread and common problem amongst avocado and other fruit tree growers.
Why does alternate year yield bearing happen to avocado trees?
Avocado trees grow three crops at the same time: this year’s crop, flowers for the next crop, and budwood for the crop after that. To get consistent yields across all years the avocado tree must focus its growth equally on fruit (for this year), flowers (for next year), and shoots (vegetative growth).
Alternate Year Yield Bearing happens in avocado trees when the crop allocates too much resource on either the fruit, flowers or shoots (vegetative growth) and does not grow them all equally. By the tree focussing too much growth on fruit this year, it can have detrimental effects on the growth of flowers which affects the yield for next year.
Alternate Year Yield Bearing rarely occurs in nature, this asymmetrical growth between fruits, flowers and shoots is a consequence of the level and ‘form’ of Nitrogen we apply to crops.
Nitrogen taken up in ‘nitrate’ form is processed in leaves and causes the production of the growth hormone ‘auxin’, which emphasises vegetative growth. We see increased internode length, faster/uneven shoot growth and increased water shoot development & height (The Nitrate Effect).
Whereas nitrogen taken up in ‘amine’ form is processed in the roots and causes production of the growth hormone ‘cytokinin’, this emphasises fruit and flower development, root growth, shorter internodes and uniform shoot growth.
However, even when farmers apply nitrogen fertilizer in ‘amine’ form, the avocado crop is largely outcompeted for the amine nitrogen. The competing microorganisms convert the amine into ‘nitrate’, and consequently, even when farmers apply Nitrogen fertilizer in ‘amine’ form, the form of nitrogen taken up by the avocado crop is still ‘nitrate’ and therefore still favours heavy vegetative growth.
This means that the more nitrogen we feed the avocado crop, the more vegetative and unbalanced growth we get. When we consider this over several years, we see a ‘boom and bust’ cycle. This also results in most of the nitrogen we apply being pruned off each year, losing potential yield and wasting fertilizer input.
Our Solution
Our fertilizer Lono is formulated with our LimiN technology which supplies ‘Stabilized Anime Nitrogen’ to the avocado crop. Stabilized amine nitrogen supplies amine nitrogen to the crop in a way unrecognisable to microorganisms, and therefore the amine remains in amine form rather than being converted to nitrate. This means that the crop takes up most of its nitrogen in ‘amine’ form and therefore emphasises fruit and flower development and shorter internodes.
Using Lono to fertilize avocado crops alongside conventional nitrogen fertilizers helps the crop to allocate growth evenly between vegetative and reproductive (fruit & flowers) development.
Recommendations
Apply Lono throughout the season at 5L per Ha monthly by drip or foliar spray.