Reinaldo Lobos, the assistant manager of Vivero Alihuen, explains how techniques have been used to replant in traditional avocado growing areas, after so many years of drought

Following the return of rainfall to traditional avocado-producing areas in Chile, the question has been: how to recover some of what was lost due to enduring more than a decade of drought?

Reinaldo Lobos, deputy manager of Vivero Alihuen, in Hijuelas, in the central zone of that country, states that it is very difficult to develop projects that allow growth above what Chile had before the worst period of water scarcity, but the techniques of replanting on rootstocks are giving good results in areas where there were already productive trees.

The expert reminds us that we must never forget that the essential trilogy for avocado growth is water, soil, and climate. Therefore, simply using replanting techniques will not solve the problem if the specific characteristics of the area where they will be used are not evaluated.

According to him, in his experience in Chile, there has been a good business in "producing on some rootstocks, for example Antillean rootstocks from seed, which are very good or adapt very well to replanting; or on clonal rootstocks, which also have the same characteristic."

The key has been discovering certain rootstocks or types of seeds, which are not the most abundant, but show resistance to current field conditions, subjected to water stress or considerable changes in weather, compared to past decades.

“Rootstocks like Velvik, which is a seed-based rootstock; or clonal rootstocks like Dusa and Toro Canyon, have adapted very well to this condition and are yielding very good results,” explains Reinaldo Lobos.

Although new production areas have been developed south of the Valparaíso Region, rootstock techniques have yielded healthy fruit mainly in La Cruz, Hijuelas, Panquehue and Llay Llay, which are in the interior valleys of the Fifth Region.

“In these places, these techniques are working. I would say that in the La Cruz area there are probably the first orchard renovations,” explains Lobos, who points out that these are not necessarily new practices, since there are orchards where this form of replanting has been developed for 20 years.

In the case of the Metropolitan Region, there have been both positive and negative experiences: clonal stocks have not yielded the expected results because they are very sensitive to water salts. However, the Velvik rootstock has performed better under these conditions.

The importance of “helping” the soil

Another way to improve productive capacities in the avocado industry—as in other fruit crops—is to balance the use of products that limit the soil's ability to regenerate itself.

“Before, we were big fans of salts, urea, ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, and the truth is that, over time, it's not that they aren't needed anymore, but we realized that we required other things. It's not all about adding nitrogen to the soil, because sooner rather than later we're going to run into a huge problem,” Lobos explains.

Although it is not an absolute replacement, the volume in which these products are applied has been considerably reduced, making up for this lack of elements with active soils, humic acids, fulvic acids, sugars, organic matter, organic amendments.

“The truth is that today we have much better soils than we had before. We are helping the soil. By simply adding salts, what we were doing, to put it in very practical terms, was weakening the soil, since we had poor, almost inert soil that did nothing. Today, we have healthier and more productive plants,” highlights the assistant manager of Vivero Alihuen.

Along with improving soil and plant productivity, the application of these techniques has also helped the environmental sustainability of the avocado business, which is increasingly incorporating this factor into its development and future projection.