So, I have tried to plant avocado tree after avocado tree and (assume) deer keep chewing down the young ones to the point where there is nothing but a stick sticking out of the ground and the top clearly chew off in an almost clean bite or two. I had no idea that deer were that attracted to avocado leaves/trees. I am in chapel hill, North Carolina. I know North Carolina is not an ideal place to try to grow avocado trees outdoors. Has anyone else experienced this? Will the trees actually grow back or are they nothing more than sticks in the ground?
that would make a very expensive avocado
CA avocado grower here who occasionally encounters deer. We only have problems with deer nibbling on very young trees. They don’t ever bother our mature avocados (or leaves / branches). My hunch is some small tree protection to get you through years 1-3 and you’ll be in good shape.
Your sticks won’t likely come back and definitely not once there brittle.
Plant on a mound if you don’t have good draining soil. If your tree gets a lot of direct harsh sunlight plan a burlap sunshade to protect from sunburn until the canopy is shading the trunk & limbs. They’re toughest to get established and after those first few years are much easier to care for.
IME, avocados are very good at recovering from dropped leaves etc. can you fence / cordon off a small area around the saplings so they have time to recover?
(in ireland, we don’t need to deal with deer, so i’m afraid i’ve no idea what would help in that regard!)
If it has no leaf nodes left, it may not recover. I suggest fencing. Occlusion is the only way to stop some animals.
True.
Check out The Millenial Gardener on youtube, he's in the Carolinas and has an avocado tree, with winter protection, and it seems to be doing well.
I tried growing several avocado trees from pits in Florida, and it never worked. Got them pretty stout but nope. It wasn’t the deer either. NC is waaay too far north.
How do you get the seeds to sprout? I’ve tried several times and never had one look close to sprouting.
Stick 3 toothpicks into a pit such that it can suspend halfway into a full glass of water. Keep the water level up and in a few weeks roots will grow out of it into the water. Wait until it sprouts up top and then plant it in a pot with soil.
deer will eat nearly anything especially in the dry season . They may have eaten it down to the rootstock and it’s very unlikely that’ll give you what your looking for in an avocado. 8’ fence minimum for deer & buy a new tree :/