heavy pruning of potted avocado tree?

Question

I have an 8 ft potted avocado tree. It was repotted and pruned last spring. Flourished. Now it’s too big for inside although I managed. New growth, which always happens in inside winter housing, will be spindly and long. I’m wondering if I can drastically prune it again now in December before that growth appears. Will that harm the tree? It is doing it’s leaf loss thing now. All the greenery is mostly out on the ends of limbs. Sure would make it easier to care for until spring comes and it goes outside with promise of new roomier home for next winter.
Thank you, Camilla
can’t seem to upload photo

Answer 1

You can prune, but you will have to do this continually until spring. This may hurt the tree. What would be better will be to get a horticultural lamp of about 200 watts per square foot of tree canopy. This will keep the growth much shorter. Instead of getting tall, it will remain very compact and bushy. You can prune once to shape it before applying the light for the winter, but after this, it will remain compact.