We grow most of our avocados & subtropicals and all of our citrus in Santa Paula, California. Santa Paulas’ close proximity to the ocean, which functions to greatly temper both high & low temperature extremes, makes it an ideal avocado growing area; the same holds true for our guavas, lychee & passionfruit, all of which don’t do well with inner-California hot & cold weather.
We also grow some of our avocados and all of our kiwis in Soledad California; though slightly more inland, it gets a steady ocean wind from northern Monterey County and produces excellent quality fruit.
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Our History
My parents, Ellen and Hank Brokaw are icons in the California Avocado industry. Having started out in the nursery business in the 50s, Brokaw Nursery was the first avocado tree producer of scale during the 1970s “avocadoization” of California.
Having innovated nursery production techniques and having participated in numerous production method & fruit variety patents, they brought their spirit of problem solving to actual fruit production when they bought the Soledad ranch in 1967.
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Growing Techniques
As ranchers we’re very cognoscente of our limited growing space & water, as well as our needs to meet a minimum productivity threshold in order to be profitable. That being the case, our approach to sustainability is to apply specific management strategies, specialty growing techniques and skilled human labor in order maximize high quality fruit production while minimizing acreage and water & fertilizer inputs.
The most innovative growing practices, which include dense planting, girdling & specific pruning, have been developed in Chile. And over the last couple of decades, we’ve had regular ranch visits by Chilean growing practices consultants and have sent staff members to Chile for training.
The results have been success in our productivity & sustainability goals.
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MODERN AVOCADO FARMING TECHNIQUES