Avocado farmer Nick Stehley is vigilant to chop down weeds on his farm in San Diego County in the southwestern corner of California. Weeds “can suck up a lot of water and he’s protecting every drop of water he can. He’s also removing trees and fallowing fields,” says Capital Public Radio. Irrigation water costs $1,600 per acre-foot, among the most expensive in the state. Stehley is hopeful a new growing technique for avocados will pay off. It’s called higher density planting.
The county farm adviser, Gary Bender, who is also a U-California avocado specialist, ran a test in which avocado trees were planted 10 feet apart, rather than the usual 20 feet, and they were pruned to stay short instead of being allowed to grow tall. “The study was a huge success, yielding nearly 13,000 pounds of Haas avocados per acre,” says Capital Public Radio, based in Sacramento. That’s double the usual yield for Stehley’s land. Bender says higher density planting is being tried with other crops, such as apples, oranges and olives.