We recently bought a new home with lots of fruit trees and one of them is an avocado tree. Most if not all of the trees have been neglected for years, and I’m trying to nurse them into health and fruiting. Our avocado tree didn’t give us but 1 or 2 avocados last year and it’s clearly unhappy, despite being 30ft tall
The leaves are all partially brown. (See pictures)
I read online that this usually means too much salt in the water or soil and that I need to flush the soil for several days with the hose - The problem is that I suspect that the water is putting the salt in the soil in the first place, but also… we live in Southern California and we’d go bankrupt if I had to flush the soil of salt with the hose (not to mention the ecological expense.) Any other ideas or advice?
I’m no Avocado expert, but isn’t now the time when Avocado leaves brown up and fall off and replaced with new growth? I see some new growth on the top. Do you have a wider angle pic?
What @bleedingdirt said. To get an idea of how avocado tree looks in different seasons in So. Cal, @Richard has a nice thread here on his Reed tree
Also, the lack of fruits may not be due to just the lack of care. It could be a seedling that won’t produce much or won’t produce in your climate. I think the latter doesn’t apply to you as much in So. Cal as it is up here in the Bay Area. I’d wait for one season and think about grafting known varieties if fruiting doesn’t pick up.
Sorry, I should have specififed. It’s been like this for the whole 18 months we’ve lived here through all the seasons. I’m not sure it might be normal. I’m just checking on that, I guess.
Also, it’s got to be at least 10 years old. The previous owner lived here longer than that, and he didn’t plant the orchard. I don’t know anything about avocados and it might just be starting to fruit (we got 2 in the 18 months) but it’s at least 30ft tall and 10ft in diameter - planted in the ground. I guess I’m just trying to diagnose it’s condition and maturity then. Thank you for the link I will check out those pictures.
SOrry for the lack of photos - I did take more but the forum won’t let me post more than one because I’m a new user, here’s a wider one:
There is less browning at the top but it’s still there, I was wondering if it’s sunburn (It gets 120degrees here in the Inland Empire during the summer) but I thinik the top would be worse if that was it.
The planter that it’s growing in is irrigated by sprinklers 4x a week, but I don’t know if that’s enough. That’s another question I am researching - the best way to water trees with automatic irrigation - I suspect the spray nozzles are can’t be good enough to soak roots of trees? Most of our other trees are solely irragated by standard lawn sprinkler irrigation and I run them once a week for 1-2 hours depending on heat but I can’t imagine that soaks the roots?
Avocado trees require a lot of water, especially if you have well drained soil. Additionally they should have a very thick layer of mulch - they have shallow root systems and don’t like competition for water or nutrients.
I’d say your original theory of salt is right, and especially if that’s a seed-grown tree, rather than one grafted on a more salt-tolerant rootstock. A soil test would help resolve that question. Here’s what Integrated Pest Management For Avocados (a UC publication) has to say about managing salinity problems:
Hi Swincher, I live in Seattle, in the middle of Magnolia.
Grandfather of my future dau-in-law has sent us Avocado’s from his back-yard in Puerto Rico. In looking at ways to further the family connection, we were considering trying to find cold hardy varieties of Avocado (one each A & B type in the same hole) most protected part of our back yard.
Might you have any suggestions on a mail order source that is a bit more precise about variety and rootstock than “cold hardy avocado”? Any other suggestions about how to approach this?
FYI - Have enjoyed reading you blog, rather impressed at the survival of some of the plants during the Dec 2021 freeze . In our yard we push the margins of what will survive - even if it doesn’t always thrive. Snow cover made a huge difference it seems. Thanks
PM me, I can probably get you a tree or two this summer if you’d like, or next year if you want something a little more established. I have not found any good sources of hardy avocados grafted on hardy stock, but I’m planning to graft a few dozen more this year.
IN the 6 months since I first posted this, I bought a rain barrel, which has been a complete waste since we have not gotten any rain in Southern California lol
BUT! The tree seems to have resolved it’s problems itself! It has since lost all of it’s brown leaves over time and had a fascinating period of exploding witih new leaves that are all healthy.
Now if someone could help me find the avocados in this sea of thousands of leaves that look like avocados LOL
