In this blog post, I’ve shared 10 problems I’ve faced over the last six years. These can happen to you as well. Knowing about them in advance will help you prepare better for your avocado farming journey.
1. Bad internet
You need internet to run your automated fertigation system. The problem is, if the internet malfunctions, your fertigation system stops. I assumed that using the best internet service provider would solve this, so I installed Jio Fiber at my farm. But the fertigation system I use isn’t compatible with Jio Fiber due to technical reasons beyond my understanding.
I then went with Airtel sim card internet. Even then, within 10 months, the router has malfunctioned twice. This is something you have to deal with. Let me be clear with one thing, there is no issue with the fertigation system itself, but the internet that it runs on.
Note: We have created a fertigation course along with 2 experts from Israel. You can find more details here.
2. Anthracnose
Anthracnose is a fungal disease caused by Colletotrichum. While most other problems can be managed, Anthracnose can easily fly under the radar. This is because it isn’t visible to the naked eye on unripe avocado fruit. Its symptoms only become noticeable once the fruit ripens. As a result, it can reach market shelves looking perfectly fine, but the final consumer discovers it’s not suitable to eat after ripening.
This issue can be controlled, if you do bi-weekly sprays of copper oxychloride/ copper hydroxide and Azoxystrobin throughout the fruit development stage. Then, post harvest treatment with Prochloraz is also necessary. I have talked in detail about Anthracnose here.
3. Drip system malfunction
Drip lines can get clogged for 2 reaons –
- First, if you haven’t cleaned the driplines with sulphuric acid in a long time, then the emitters can get clogged due to salt deposits occurring from fertilizers.
- Second, using the wrong kind of fertilizers. For example, when I first started fertigating, I used single super phosphate in my fertigation system. SSP is not completely water soluble, and it clogged my drip lines. Now we have switched to completely water soluble fertilizers. More information about which fertilizers to use for avocado farming in India, can be found here.
4. Problems with water pump
‘Bhaiya, motor jal gai.’ I have probably heard this 10 times over the last 6 years and it pisses me off. Its not like we use cheap water pumps, I use pumps from reasonably expensive brands. Sometimes, there are voltage fluctuations or short circuit which just halts the water supply because the pump breaks down.
I can seriously use some help from any electrical engineer reading this, who can tell me what I am doing wrong. Best way to reach me is through email, indoisraelavocado@gmail.com.
5. Starter breakdown
‘Bhaiya, starter jal gaya.’ This, I’ve heard at least 20 times in the last six years. At this point, I’ve accepted that it’s inevitable — it will happen. The only real solution is to keep a few spare starters on hand.
6. Wind
You can’t fight nature, but you can prepare for it. When I planted my first orchard, we had a storm literally the very next day. At least 50% of the plants fell over. Thankfully, my operations manager, Liladhar ji, took immediate action and fixed everything. Although there was no serious damage and 100% of the plants survived, however, since then, we’ve started using bamboo supports in every plantation we do.
7. Fire
You would think this is far fetched. Not really. We had a fire incident in my dragon fruit orchard only a few months after planting. I documented that on my YouTube channel, you can see the video below. It damaged 20% of my dragon fruit plants and burned the drip lines. Since then, we installed water outlets throughout the orchard, so even if some thing like this happens again, we would have water supply to tackle it.
8. Floods
I never had to deal with this problem, yet. But one of my customers lost 90% of her plants because of the recent floods in Punjab this year. Raised beds are a solution, but only up to a certain extent. My customer had decent beds for avocado in her orchard. Still the flood was so extreme that the entire orchard was covered with water, to the top level of the bed. My long time followers know that avocado cannot survive in water logged areas.
9. Weed mat locks
Using weed mat in your Avocado orchard is a great idea. Ideally white color. But the locks that come with the weed mat are practically useless. As you can see in the picture below, the locks are merely 7 inches, which when placed on soil to lock the weed mat, can get removed easily through wind pressure.
We created our own locks using steel. In the video below, you can see how we created the locks and how it works.
10. Cheating
As much as I hate to say this, but this is just wide spread in our culture. Few years ago, I needed to get my nursery polyhouse repaired. I called a few polyhouse contractors locally. Asked them for quotations. One of them sent his guy to have a look at my structure to give a quote.
The guy when arrived, had a look at my structure, called his boss and then gave me a quote. Before leaving, he said if I give the work directly to him, he would do it cheaper than what his boss had quoted. The problem is, I used to trust too easily and it was a mistake on my part. I thought, if he can do it cheaper, I should give the work to him.
I did. I gave him around 60,000 Rs in advance so that he can begin the work. He never did, and after 6 months, he stopped picking up my calls. Luckily I had a post dated cheque that he gave me as a guarantee. I filed a cheque bounce case against him. That case is still in court. But I have no hopes of getting my money back.
Hope this helps,
Thank you,
-Harshit Godha
