Tropical Zone Gardening: Avocado tree continuously suckering. Anyone know why?, 1 by banyanman

banyanman wrote:
I have an old avocado tree that produces 100+ excellent fruit each year, but it continuously produces suckers from the bottom of the trunk. Those in the photograph on the left are over a meter high and grew to that size in less than three weeks - so it is a vigorously growing tree. I know to cut them off, but within another month there will be more suckers to the same size. The tree is healthy so I am not worried about it (the suckers go straight onto the compost heap) but I am wondering why my tree is continuously producing so many suckers.

Do other gardeners in the tropics have the same experience? Does anyone know why the tree is suckering so much? (I live in the Philippines in what would be the equivalent of Zone 14 in the US)

I have consulted all my tropical fruits books and searched for information on the Web (including DG forums), but haven't found any clues to date.