For bigger and sweeter avocados, I keep bees

Gideon Gitonga inspects every avocado tree on his Mugambone farm with military precision.

The retired army major owns the two-acre farm that lies near the equator and is 10km south of Meru town, growing mainly avocados of the Fuerte and Hass varieties.

On one end of the orchard are nine beehives that are teeming with bees. The beehives, just like the fruits, are dear to him because they complement each other to give the best yields.

“Any serious fruit farmer who wants to make good money must also keep bees. The bees not only help in increasing production, sweetness and size of fruits but also produce pure organic honey every three months,” he says.

Gitonga has 200 Hass and 10 Fuerte avocado trees and is currently setting up a fruit tree nursery.

“In my last harvest, I earned Sh37,000 from seven avocado trees compared to Sh41,000 from 500 coffee bushes, the reason why I am uprooting the latter.”

With more trees bearing fruits, Gitonga is eying more than Sh100,000 from about 20 trees.

“Fuerte fetches Sh3 per fruit compared to Hass, which earns Sh10, the reason why I have more of the latter. But I grow them both for pollination purposes,” says Gitonga, who started the venture in 2012 with Sh40,000.

According to him, with avacados, he only needs to water, trap fruit flies and moths and apply manure every year for good yields. Production increases every year with good husbandry.

Good harvest starts with the choice of good seedling, planting, training and pruning.

When planting, the subsoil should be mixed with manure but the top soil should be put in first.

“After one year, identify three vigorous branches and prune the rest. This ensures you get maximum production from a single tree. The tree is also trained to prevent upward growth for ease of harvesting.”

He observes that avocado trees should be watered sparingly as wet soil causes root rot.

“Application of copper fertiliser during flowering is vital to prevent fungal diseases. As the tree approaches fruition, the farmer must be vigilant to prevent pests,” he says.

Manure is also applied after flowering while soil testing is vital every year to identify the nutrient deficiencies and establish the soil acidity.

HIGH DEMAND FOR HASS VARIETY

“Fruit flies and moths are the worst pests which attack young fruits causing them to die. One trap for fruit flies and another for moths can serve a quarter an acre,” Gitonga notes.

Immediately after harvesting, the farmer says the tree should be pruned. “Pruning makes it to produce more fruits in the next season, but an orchard is not complete without bees.”

He has nine beehives that ensure he has honey and the trees are well-pollinated. At least two beehives can serve 100 trees.

“I get nine kilos of honey every three months,” says Gitonga.

Earnest Muthomi, an agronomist and a technical director at Kengap, a horticulture consultancy firm, agrees that bees are a vital resource in an avocado orchard.

“Honey bees are very vital in avocado production because the male and female flower parts of the avocado open at different times of the day affecting self-pollination. Pollinators help address this problem,” he says.

He says a farmer should mix Type A avocado trees such as Hass and Type B like Fuerte to facilitate cross-pollination.

Avocado flowers are unique in that the Type A female part is ready to receive pollen in the morning but its male parts (pollen) function in the afternoon.

On the other hand, Type B avocado flower female parts open in the afternoon while its male parts are functional in the morning hence, planting both types increases production.

Muthomi notes that a farmer must get seedlings from a certified source for healthy plants.

Avocado plants do well in an altitude of 1,000-1,800 metres above sea level with an optimum soil pH of 6.2 to 6.5.

“A farmer should do a soil test to understand soil pathology and nutrition. The farmer should observe a tree spacing of 7 by 7 metres, canopy management for light penetration, provide a strong tree structure to control size and vigour,” he says.

He notes that there is higher demand for Hass variety because of its big size, dark colour when ripe, good post-harvest performance enabling transportation and storage, nutty flavour, low susceptibility to diseases and 25 per cent oil content.

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• Kenyan farmers are highly advantaged because avocados mature between March and September when there are no other fruits in the world market.
• About 3 million tonnes of avocado are produced worldwide with Kenya contributing about 12,000 tonnes. Kenya is ranked fifth after Mexico, Chile, Israel and Spain.