Here is my fifteen year old West Indian avocado tree a few weeks after a VERY severe pruning and, as Oliver Moore suggested, a girdling but with the bark not removed. In the mean time, with all that dense shade removed I am back to gardening in the Water Wise Container Gardens beneath! The new four foot tall goat fence keeps the chickens finally out. I would love it if I FINALLY got fruits from the tree as I planted that pit back then to celebrate my new home in Tampa after fifteen LONG years in Denver.