Getting to the Root of the Problem

My husband and I moved to Fallbrook, California about a year and a half ago. Having moved from the desert, Fallbrook feels like the Garden of Eden! We love being able to graze through the yard from breakfast to dinner, enjoying the fruits of our little plot of land. We have learned much about farming and the individual requirements of each variety of fruit and nut that we grow. We have much more to learn.

Our avocado, so far, are the most problematic. Clearly, they had been neglected when we bought the property, but we did our research and gave them the TLC they needed, and they rewarded us with hundreds of big, delicious, sweet and meaty fruit.

We spend hours inspecting our trees, their leaves, buds, blossoms and fruit, and we fertilize and water exactly to the specifications of the local professional we consult with.

Beautiful plants and flowers tend to grow under our avocado trees. They are not terribly interested in growing under our citrus or nut trees, but they love to volunteer under our avocados. Some of the volunteers include wild tobacco, with its lush pink flower, the forget-me-nots, evening primrose and, of course, the beautiful but invasive alyssum. l love the wild flowers, but my husband does NOT love having these volunteers under his avocado trees. He feels they are stealing the water and nutrients from the avocados. He wants to dig them up and replace them with mulch. One by one, my husband started ripping out the volunteers and replacing them with mulch. This is homegrown mulch, made here on the property from the branches of trees that we’ve trimmed.

One day, we noticed that 50-60 tiny avocados had fallen from one of our trees. More and more fruit dropped over the next few days. We were baffled, and began to research exactly what would cause such a dramatic fruit drop. We learned that avocado trees do not like it when you disturb the ground where the roots are, and they have many roots quite near the surface. We learned that an avocado tree whose roots have been disturbed frequently drop their fruit.  I like to envision the tree throwing its fruit at the one who is disturbing it’s roots, but I think it is actually dropping its fruit in a desperate effort to cover and protect it’s roots from whatever is invading the precious, life-giving top soil.

In Pat’s Garden Forum, we read “If you ever cultivate under an avocado tree, it will drop all it’s fruit. If you have a hired gardener tell him never to rake up the leaves under the avocado, they look messy but must be left to lie on the ground under the tree. . . . . raking under, or digging, or cultivation is the usual cause of serious fruit drop.” In the same forum, we also read “Switching to drip, lack of water, or quick swings in temperatures can cause more than the usual numbers of fruit to drop off.”

As new farmers, we had unwittingly disturbed the ground where the surface roots were. We removed the blanket of wild flowers which had volunteered to protect the roots. This exposed them to weather, temperatures, and changes in the amount of water they were getting. Our intentions were good, we wanted to protect the roots with mulch and get rid of the volunteers that were taking both water and nutrients from our avocado trees; but we learned very quickly that nothing good comes from disturbing a healthy root system.

Ephesians 3:16-19 “That according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Part of the fullness of God is to enjoy a life in Him which bears the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If we are rooted in Christ, and filled with all the fullness of God, others will be able to see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Others will benefit from our fruit, and grow from partaking of our fruit. If, however, others look at us and see our fruit dropping onto the ground, it indicates that we have allowed someone, or something to disrupt our spiritual roots.

How about you? Have your roots been disturbed? Has someone or something come along and cultivated the soil around your roots? Are you experiencing fruit drop and wondering why? If you are not experiencing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in your life, I encourage you to consider these questions, and get to the . . . .wait for it . . . . root of the problem!

California avocado growers can prevent excessive avocado fruit drop through good cultural management. This means the farmers carefully and intentionally tend to the soil in an effort to produce fruit and protect the roots of the tree. They do not disturb the soil or the root system. They cultivate it in a manner that will enforce the roots, compel them to behave a certain way, make them stronger, and encourage them to produce beautiful fruit. Fruit that benefits anyone who tastes it.

Like the farmer, we can prevent spiritual fruit drop through good spiritual cultural management. We must carefully tend to the soil and remain fully rooted in Christ. Our roots need to be covered with the beautiful wildflowers who volunteer – the blood of Jesus. We need to nourish our roots with Living Water, feed our roots the Word of God and guard against anyone or anything who might try to cultivate the soil with something that does not honor God. Our roots must be deep and firm in order to be able to withstand the wiles of the devil and the winds of the world.

Just as the volunteer wild flowers were a protective covering for the roots of our avocado trees, so the blood of Jesus is a protective covering for the roots of our lives.  Guard your heart against anyone or anything that would try to replace God’s covering over your life with mulch.  That mulch could be drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, whatever your personal “mulch” might be, don’t let it cover your roots. Jesus is the only covering you need.  Let Him produce in you fruit that is delicious and beneficial to any and all partake of it!

Lord, help me to root more and more deeply into You. Help me to stay grounded in Your love. Cause my fruit to be beneficial to those around me.  Reveal to my heart when something or someone attempts to tamper with my roots, and give me the strength and wisdom to recognize when my fruit drops.  Lord, You are the vine and we are the branches, we can not survive if we are not securely attached to You. Prune me, cultivate the soil I am in, and renew a right spirit in me.  I love you!