Avocado is a fruitful plant of the lowlands and highlands of Central America. In tropical areas such as Indonesia, avocado cultivation has considerable opportunities. Avocado fruit demand is always increasing from year to year. This can not be separated from the various kinds of benefits that exist in the parts of avocado plants.
Avocado fruit is rarely eaten in fresh form because it tastes a bit bland. Avocados are used more as processed foods (juice, salad, or ice cream). In addition to food, avocado fruit is also widely used as industrial raw materials, especially the cosmetics and beauty industries.
1. Seed selection.
Avocado seedlings can be derived from generative or even vegetative propagation. Seeds generative yield by using seeds. As for vegetative, base with shoot or grafting. Method with seed is easier. However, the resulting puppies have the possibility to be unlike the parent. In addition, the avocado will bear fruit long, about 6-8 years.
Avocados propagated by grafting and grafting will have the same properties as the parent and bear fruit faster. Only about 1-4 years. However, more teaga is needed to perform the grafting process and its budding.
With vegetative and generative should be chosen from avocado superior variety that has been released by the government. Superior varieties will provide a higher chance to get higher yields as well. Superior varieties that have been removed usually have higher yield advantages and resistance to plant pest organisms and higher environmental stress factors.
2. Soil Processing
The most important thing in the processing of the soil is to make the soil become loose and free from organism or prospective plant pest organism. Friable soil will facilitate the plant in the root respiration and also facilitate the roots in doing interception. Processing of ordinary soil is done by plowing or digaru top soil soil until up to 30 cm deep. Reversal of land by the method of plowing or digaru also aims to rhizome weeds and root residues that can cause plant diseases can be exposed to sunlight so that its existence becomes very minimal.
3. Planting
Cultivated, the planting of avocados in one garden is combined from one variety with another variety. Generally, aokad is not capable of self-pollination except on long green varieties. In Indonesia, there are two types of flowers in some varieties of avocado. A flower type can do self pollination, and the flower type B can not self-pollinate, so it needs to be planted with varieties with type A to allow the flowers to pollinate each other and become fruit.
Planting hole made with size 75 x 75 x 75 cm and separated between the top soil with the ground bottom. This planting hole is left for two weeks after it is returned to its original position. Ideally, every hole is given manure as much as 20 kg for better physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil.
The planting is done early in the wet season to ensure water availability for the crop during the critical growth phase. The soil in the planting hole should be higher so that the water does not stagnate which causes the fungus or mushroom attack. Once planted, the seeds should be given shade so as not to be exposed to the sun directly to grow new shoots or for 2-3 weeks.
4. Maintenance
Maintenance is the most important sala one in the aspect of avocado cultivation because it greatly affects the results. Maintenance includes fertilization, weeding, soil erosion, watering, peangkasan, and control of plant pest organisms.
A. Fertilization
The dose of fertilizer depends on the age of the plant. Young plants, fertilization is done four times a year with a composition of 1.1 kg of urea, 1 kg of TSP, 0.83 kg of KCl for each tree. For plants that have been produced, also performed four times a year with a composition of 3 kg urea, 3 kg TSP, and 4 kg of KCl per tree. Because the avocado has only a few root hairs, as much as possible the fertilizer is placed with the main batag.
B. Weeding
Weeds do not need to be eradicated until all that needs to be done is controlling the critical phases of the plant. Weeding should be done when the plants are almost in flowering, the ripening phase of the fruit, and in the early stages of plant growth when newly planted in the field.
C. Soil Bulking
Soil erosion is important to make soil aeration better so that plant roots will more easily pass respiration and also absorb nutrients more freely. Soil erosion is done by digging the soil around the plant carefully so that plant roots are not damaged.
D. Sprinkling
For newly grown seedlings, watering is done every day when there is no rain. Watering time is in the morning and evening.
E. Pruning
Pruning is done on branches that are too tight or on branches that grow into plant canopy. Besides useful for efficient photosynthesis, pruning is also intended to form the frame of the plant so that the plant will be more easily treated and harvested.
F. Control of plant disturbing organisms
In addition to weeds, pests and pathogens are the cause of the decline in avocado crops. Both do not need to be eradicated until they run out. However, it only needs to be controlled so that the population will not be economically disadvantageous.
5. Harvesting
Avocado fruit harvest can be done every month. However, the harvest usually occurs in January, February, and December. Avocados mature 6-7 months after flowers bloom. The old features of the avocado are of an old color but not yet brown or red, not shiny, and there was a shake of the beeping sound when the avocado was shaken. How to picking done manually premises fruit picking together with the stalk of the bun.
