Avocado Tree question...

Our avocado tree doesn't seem to be doing too good. It's leaves are damaged (probably from our horrible winds), and are really droopy and dried out. How to revive it and can I cut the damaged/dead leaves off or do I let those fall off naturally?

https://www.facebook.com/AvocadoDiva. She might be able to help you. She's in Southern California, and knows tons about avocados!http://www.avocadodiva.com/

Thank you! I will drop her a message and see if she can be helpful.

We had out avocado put in late last summer, it was a 20 gallon put so still pretty young. I remember this time last year all the leaves started browning and falling off, and I freaked out. I ended up just letting them be and some fell off on their own, others just sat there. Come spring we got a ton of flowers and new growth. Now its starting to brown and look limp again. I suspect its just the cycle for the tree. I'm not freaking out this time. We have a Hass.

hybridtheory45 wrote:We had out avocado put in late last summer, it was a 20 gallon put so still pretty young. I remember this time last year all the leaves started browning and falling off, and I freaked out. I ended up just letting them be and some fell off on their own, others just sat there. Come spring we got a ton of flowers and new growth. Now its starting to brown and look limp again. I suspect its just the cycle for the tree. I'm not freaking out this time. We have a Hass.

Do you just have the one tree? I'm not positive, but I think you need two trees for pollination? There are A and B pollinators or something. If you contact the Avocado Diva in the post above, she can tell you. She knows all about that stuff

Yep, just the one, and we still have avocados a plenty. Not sure how that happened since I did know you were supposed to have 2. I think the neighbors have one though so that's probably it.

hybridtheory45 wrote:Yep, just the one, and we still have avocados a plenty. Not sure how that happened since I did know you were supposed to have 2. I think the neighbors have one though so that's probably it.

Yep..that's probably it. I had no idea you needed two...but our neighbors have lots, so I think we'll be in the same boat you're in

Mulch, mulch, mulch. I have a 28 year old avocado tree that we planted and every year it would look poor and drop lots of leaves. It used to be surrounded by St. Augustine grass. After our Dec 1st windstorm of 2011 it lost half its leaves. Everybody was chipping their tree limbs lost in the winds so I used some to mulch my avocado tree for the very first time. This year in March I trimmed it back so it wouldn't sway so much if we had another windstorm and I asked the tree trimmer to leave behind the avocado trimmings after he chipped them. I spread those again around the avocado tree. I must have six inches of mulch on my tree almost as far as the canopy goes. This summer we had the most days over 100 degrees and I never had to rake a bag of avocado leaves! The tree looks excellent. I wish I had mulched sooner. It would have saved me from raking all of those leaves over 27 years. A neighbor down two houses also has an avocado tree, so I do get avocados which I begrudgingly share with our local squirrels.

southern gardener wrote:

Do you just have the one tree? I'm not positive, but I think you need two trees for pollination? There are A and B pollinators or something. If you contact the Avocado Diva in the post above, she can tell you. She knows all about that stuff

The "pollinators" for Avocado are bees. A pollinator is the agent that carries the pollen, so a plant cannot be a pollinator for another plant. The type A and type B varieties are "pollenizers" for each other. A pollenizer is the plant that provides the pollen for pollination. The type A and B varieties take turns, alternately shedding pollen and being receptive to pollen. This functionally prevents self pollenization for most varieties.

MacGregor in his Pollination "Bible" notes that the Hass variety is somewhat self fertile *IF* there is a high population of bees.

There is a lot more info on avocado pollination in his book (Chapter 5) which is online at: http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/13211600/2067097133/name/Insect+Pollination+Of+Cultivated+Crop+Plants.pdf

Roseinarosecity wrote:Mulch, mulch, mulch.

Excellent advice except for one caveat: do not place the mulch directly against the trunk of the tree. Keep an open circle, at least a foot from the tree, so that air circulation to the base of the tree is not impeded.

This is true of all fruit and yard trees. Placing mulch directly against the trunk will stimulate fungi and plant diseases, because it doesn't ever fully dry.

In regards to pollination, I think it depends on the type of avocado. We only have one.

as to the avocado lady, she said it would be really difficult to grow an avocado tree out in the hi desert. Plus she kills a lot of young trees off as much as she gets any success. And they don't like wet soil.

Ours more or less lost all but maybe 2? leaves but the scrawny trunk is still green and alive.

I tried planting an avocado tree from Costco last year. It died, so I tried again this year. My tree is doing much better. I water it lightly (from a drip, 5 minutes) everyday to keep the roots moist. I water it heavy (5 minutes) about every 3 days. It's growing nicely so far, but I think I'll mulch.

It's good to read your prior posts about the leaves falling off in October. That would freak me out if I hadn't read your posts.

Some avocados trees are hybrids. At least the ones from Costco are. I'm not sure how they do it, but you only need one tree.

Thanks for your posts!

My avocado tree lost all of it's leaves, but is getting a bunch of flowers and some new leave growth. I think I figured out it needs more water. I read on a bunch of websites that say not to over water, so I was overly cautious. I now water regularly and a lot once a week. Yesterday I put mulch around it the bottom (away from the trunk).

My dang neighbor has a "new" tree like mine in their front yard. It's in the middle of their grass (something I read you're not supposed to do). It's looking way better than mine. Probably because it's positioned to get plenty of sun and the grass is keeping the roots moist....do I sound jealous? LOL!

Well since I share my lemons and guava with them, we can share our avocados, depending on the success of our trees....can always find a silver lining.