Rank trees over years, not one heavy crop

Tree crops wait. Young plants lie about yield. Mango, litchi, olive, and avocado skip or glut. One beautiful season is not a cultivar. Record the same trees for more than one harvest window before you pull the rest of the block.

Cull obvious defects early — disease, off-type, dead unions. Delay the yield crown until the calendar has repeated. Weekend labour and sales plans need regularity, not a hero year.

If you ranked last year's glut and this year is bare, you ranked weather.

In this series

• Name the defect before you buy a famous cultivar
• Do not plant one clone as the whole orchard
• Fruit quality and root survival are two jobs
• Clone the winner and retest — the best tree may be the best soil
• Rank trees over years, not one heavy crop
• A trial is only as honest as the labels on the plants