Welcome back to the series! With our raised beds built and the drip irrigation system installed, it’s time to move from physical preparation to crucial strategic planning: Orchard Mapping.
Mapping your orchard is vital because it converts your sprawling field into a precise, manageable system, allowing you to know exactly how many plants you have and where they are located. This is the bedrock of efficient farm management.
Plant Spacing and Calculating Capacity
Successful avocado planting relies on correct spacing to allow for future growth and prevent canopy interference. The established standard for an avocado orchard is:
- Row-to-Row Spacing: 7 meters
- Plant-to-Plant Spacing: 3.5 meters
Once your raised beds are complete, you must take precise measurements based on this 7m x 3.5m spacing to calculate the total capacity of your land. This process helps you transition from an estimated plant count to an exact number. For example, our mapping helped us increase our density from an older field’s capacity of 808 plants to a much higher capacity of 1052 plants in our new field.
Integrating Mapping with Irrigation Zones
Orchard mapping must go beyond simply counting trees; it must integrate with the irrigation system established in the previous episode.
- Include Underground Lines: Your map must clearly display the route of all underground drip lines.
- Define Irrigation Zones: By including the drip lines, you can accurately mark where each irrigation zone begins and ends, and identify which valve controls which section of the field.
Knowing the number of plants within each irrigation zone is critical. This enables you to optimize fertigation and irrigation by running specific zones for controlled periods and ensuring an equal distribution of fertilizer and water to the exact number of plants in that section.
Future-Proofing Your Farm
Ultimately, the orchard map is a powerful planning tool that future-proofs your farm:
- Variety Placement: The map helps you decide where to place different avocado varieties within the orchard.
- Plant Placement: It ensures the correct spacing and placement of every single plant.
In avocado farming, planning is the most important tool, and a detailed map ensures your strategy is sound, leading to better results.
Next Steps and Resources
Note that planting the Avocado Orchard is just the beginning. It is also crucial that we manage the plants well in order to maximize our yield and profits. For that, Avocado plant nutrition and fertigation becomes the most important thing to master.
If you are interested in learning how to correctly interpret your soil, leaf, and water tests to create an effective fertigation schedule, we have an Indo-Israel Avocado Fertigation Course to help you achieve the kind of rapid growth we’ve seen in our 2-year-old orchard.
Stay tuned for our next episode as we continue our journey on How to Plant 1000 Avocado Plants!
