I miss Bob Bergh. If you want to learn about avocado flowering and pollination, read everything that this longtime University of California researcher wrote. His studies were creative and useful, and his reporting was honest and skeptical. In short, you can apply everything that Bergh learned, and you can believe everything that he shared.
In 1967, Bob Bergh wrote a piece for that year’s California Avocado Society Yearbook called, “Reasons for Low Yields of Avocados.” It contains a thousand gems of insight, but one slapped me in the face when I reread it a few days ago.
This was the story of the “unusually heavy avocado set” throughout Southern California during the spring of 1965. “Avocado set” refers to the amount of new fruit that begins to grow on trees soon after flowering.
What preceded this great new crop of 1965 were two things that will sound very familiar. First, the winter of 1964-1965 “was marked by much more late rain than is usual.” Writes Bergh: “University of California at Riverside records show that March, 1965 had 1.23 inches of rain — well above average. Then April that year had 4.63 inches — which is much more than the combined rainfall totals for the preceding six Aprils on which I checked the records.”
While I don’t have the numbers for UC Riverside, I know that my yard’s March 2020 precipitation total was 6.29 inches, and my April total (up until today) is 6.27 inches — which is also much more than the combined rainfall totals for the preceding six Aprils in my yard, according to my records. Much, much more late rain than is usual, to be sure.
(Most of Southern California was about 200% above normal for precipitation during those months; see this video from the National Weather Service.)
Secondly, in 1965, this cool, wet weather delayed the bloom of the avocado trees until later in spring. Later in spring the weather is usually warmer than early in spring. So when the avocados bloomed in the late spring of 1965, “temperatures above normal for avocado bloom were in fact experienced.”
What is your weather like today? At my place, last two days were 80 or above, and the next six days are forecast to be between 80 and 90 too. Above normal, indeed.
Effects of much late rain and warm weather on avocado fruitset
But what do these events mean for our avocado trees? How might they result in an “unusually heavy avocado set”?
One effect of our March and April rains is that rains leach salts out of a tree’s root zone and improve its condition. “Trees with leaf tip-burn [caused by salts] are manifestly not in the best condition to set and mature fruit,” explains Bergh.
(See my post, “Avocado leaves turning brown? Here’s why and what to do.”)
As for the warm weather, there is a high correlation between warmer temperatures during bloom and heavier fruitset in avocados. Or as Bergh puts it, “Ordinarily, the higher the temperature mean, the more favorable the set prognosis.”
The temperature mean is the average of the daily maximum and minimum temperatures. And in another article Bergh says that means above 65 degrees give the best fruit set. Yesterday, my yard’s high was 88 and the low was 51, for a mean temperature of 69.5. That’s auspicious. (See details about this temperature-fruitset correlation here.)
(Important note: B-type avocados have been found to need higher mean temperatures than A-type avocados for good fruitset. One study done in Australia estimated that the B-type variety called Shepard needs five degrees Fahrenheit more compared to the A-type Hass. And during the heavy set of 1965 in California, Fuerte — a B type — was the main variety grown.)
Why do high temperature means help avocado fruitset? Among the reasons are that bees and other pollinating insects are more active, avocado flowers open in their female stage more regularly, and once pollinated, the pollen tube in a female flower grows faster in warm weather.
What could go wrong?
So I’m feeling positive. I like how this spring of 2020 is shaping up; it’s shaping up like the spring of 1965. Unfortunately, there are numerous other factors that affect the fruitset of an individual avocado tree in a yard.
A few of the factors that could make a tree produce little to nothing despite the conducive climatic conditions include:
-Tree age (young trees never produce as much as older trees)
-Preceding crop and therefore amount of bloom (if the fruitset of last spring was heavy then the tree is unlikely to repeat)
-Health of tree going into last winter (an unhealthy tree sometimes grows mostly leaves instead of flowers)
-Cold damage (branch tips that were injured cannot flower)
-Variety (certain varieties always produce more than others)
-Rootstock (some have shown higher fruitfulness than others)
-Timing of bloom (an early blooming variety might have already finished its bloom)
-Pollinators (if few bees are present, then who will get the pollen to the female flowers?).
And on and on. There’s soil, and cross-pollination opportunities, and humidity levels. “. . . and so the complicating interactions pile up,” writes Bergh.
It’s also possible that the weather gets too warm. “It is felt that temperatures above 95 degrees can influence young fruit drop,” wrote Len Francis. I feel the same. I’m now in the habit of watering down an avocado tree’s foliage midday to cool it if it gets over 95 during bloom or within a month after, and this appears to help fruitset and prevent fruit drop.
(See my post, “Protecting avocado trees from heat.”)
But at least we had those good rains of March and early April, eh? And now we’ve got a stretch of warm days that will open up all of the avocado flowers on time and invite the bees to do their work from dawn to dusk. Like they did back in ‘65?
More about avocado flowering and pollination
In addition to the links I’ve included above, these are some of my favorite resources on avocado flowering and pollination, from Bob Bergh and others:
“The Remarkable Avocado Flower” by B. Bergh
“Avocado Pollination Basics” (video) by M.L. Arpaia
“What Pollinates the Avocado Flower?” (video) by R. Hofshi
“Pollinators of Avocado” by G. Ish-Am
“Stingless Bees Can Serve as Efficient Avocado Pollinators” by S. Gazit and G. Ish-Am
“Native Pollinators of California Avocado as Affected by Introduced Pollinator Gardens” by G. Frankie, B. Faber, J. Pawelek, R. Thorp, R. Coville, and C. Jadallah
“Avocado Pollination and Bees” by O.I. Clark
“Avocado Pollination Tests” by O.I. Clark
“A Study in Cross-Pollination of Avocados in Southern California” by A.B. Stout
“History and Review of Studies on Cross-Pollination of Avocados” by C. Gustafson and B. Bergh
“Avocado Tree Arrangement and Thinning in Relation to Cross-Pollination” by B. Bergh
“Interplanting Complementary Avocado Varieties Aids Fruit Production” by D. Gustafson
“Pollen Production in Avocado” by C.A. Schroeder
I’ve also written some other posts related to avocado flowering and pollination:
“Grafting a pollenizer branch into your fruit tree”
“Cross-pollination of avocados, or Why I planted a Hass next to a Fuerte”
HERE is a list of links to all of my Yard Posts
Hi Greg,
I love your yard posts and we bought your calendar as well! I appreciate how you are an in the trenches kind of gardener with spot on information for Southern California. My question is regarding avocado trees. I live in Agoura Hills and I’m lucky enough to have a large yard. I’d like to plant a row of avocado trees near my property line (just trees on the other side, no wall, chain link fence). I’ve heard so many mixed things about growing avocados here. Some say it’s too hot, others too cold (frost) yet another comment was that the soil around here contains a fungus that rots avocados. My husband is more than willing to plant trees (we were thinking about 6-8) but I know that he’ll be very unhappy if all of his labor and our hard earned dollars come to nothing. Can we grow avocados here? Will they need to be babied year around? Thanks so much Greg, keep the great posts coming!
Rachelle
Go for it.
How To Plant An Avocado Tree, Revised
By Julie Frink
1. Place the potted tree where you are planning to plant it.
2. Build up the soil around the pot, up to the level where the stem comes out of the dirt. Tamp the dirt down so it is somewhat firm around the pot. If it is a large pot you can put it into the ground half the depth of the pot.
3. Take the pot out of the dirt mound.
4. Remove the tree from the pot.
5. Put the little tree in the hole in the dirt mound left by the pot.
Little digging is necessary but nice rich dirt for a mound is. When a hole is dug there is a problem of water draining into it (and the root system of the new plant) like a well, or draining out of that area into the surrounding soil, leaching it dry depending on the soil content of the surrounding soil. If you feel better about the process by spading up the ground and making it loose or amending it that would be ok. Many of the new commercial plantings are on berms or raised areas. This has alleviated some of the root rot problems. After planting, all trees settle somewhat so that in several years the trunk area will be lower than when you planted it.
Avocado trees like lots of water but good drainage. They don’t like clean hard dirt under their outstretched branches. They like lots of leaf and wood chip litter to keep their surface roots cool and well nourished. They do not like soil under the tree to be cultivated because it disturbs their surface roots. Most of the avocado feeder roots are in the top few inches of the soil. Avocados do not do well in pots. Very large pots can be used for a few years but that is all. Transplanting from a large pot (like a whisky barrel) is very difficult. Often the root ball falls apart and the tree dies. It is very rare to get good fruit production from a potted avocado tree. It is best to plant from your 1 to 5 gallon potted tree into the ground that the avocado tree will occupy for its entire life.
Don’t fertilize heavily. Too much fertilizer will kill an avocado tree because it has all the delicate feeder roots that are so close to the surface. No fertilizer will not kill a tree. Just the right amount of a very dilute solution of fertilizer will help a tree to be healthy and to grow faster.
If the tree is quite small you might consider protecting it with a tomato cage to keep soccer balls, large birds, children and large dogs from destroying it. Baby trees like shade. Nature has them growing under the limbs of the mother tree. Larger more mature trees like lots of sunshine.
Uh-oh, yesterday I used a cultivator to rake under my little Jan Boyce, disturbing some of the little surface roots. What impact might that have on her? She was planted in 2018, is about 3 feet tall and covered in blossoms and new leaves. Thank goodness I read this before I did the same to my Fuerte!
Hi Nancy,
That’s not a nice thing to do to your little Jan Boyce, but it will survive. It’s just that avocados really like to grow roots up near the surface and even into any mulch that is there. The more roots the better, especially during a stressful heat event.
Hi Rachelle,
“In the trenches kind of gardener:” I love that. Thanks! As Dennis said, Go for it. Your climate in Agoura Hills is similar to mine, which is sometimes hotter than avocados prefer and sometimes colder than avocados prefer, but not too hot or too cold to grow avocado trees that give you a satisfying amount of fruit in most years as long as you go about it wisely.
See my post on planting avocado trees: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/how-to-plant-and-stake-an-avocado-tree/
Also see my post on watering newly planted avocado trees: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/how-to-water-a-newly-planted-avocado-tree/
I would also be prepared to protect the trees from gophers: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/the-best-gopher-trap-its-a-cinch/
If you have a lot of rabbits running around, you might put a little cage or wrap around the trunk, too.
Will the trees need to be babied year round? Only for the first year. Pay close attention for one full year in order to get the trees off to a great start, and then your job gets easier and easier every year until at around year five when you need to do almost nothing beyond making sure the water is turned on.
Thank you so much Greg and Dennis!
We’re going to get our first two babies this weekend: Hass and Fuerte and we’ll round out with Pinkerton, Gwen, Reed and Lamb to have nearly all season Avocado heaven!
I’ll keep you posted thank you for all of the valuable information!
Rachelle
Just be aware that Gwen has a reputation for being finicky to heat dryness etc. My little Gwen so far is o.k. but it is definitely not vigerous, whereas my baby Carman is very vigerous, as is my Sharwil. Hope it all goes well for you. Also be careful adding organic material INTO the soil, should only go on top of the surface.
Hi Rachelle,
That’s going to be a great lineup of varieties. Your friends are going to be begging you to share!
As for Frank’s note on Gwen, that is indeed its reputation. I wouldn’t say my Gwen is the most vigorous tree either, but it has done fine and held fruit through temperatures well over 100. I hope your Gwen ends up doing well too. Please keep us updated.
Hi Rachelle Dior, I live 1-1/2 block from the DIY Home Center at Agoura. I can give you and your husband a tour of my 13-Avocado plantation endeavor (now just 6) I started last year. I had driven/biked all over AGOURA HILLS to see an avocado tree on any back yard but I DID NOT SEE ONE!!!.
It is challenging but this being my second year it is toddling and I’m sure you guys can pickup A LOT of pointers from my lessons learned if you guys are interested…
You are welcomed to choose a day/time and we can meet at DIY HOME center and we can walk, bike or drive over to my back yard!
Hi Gus!
Wow! I hadn’t checked back on this post for awhile and it’s so exciting to see all of the comments! My husband and I would love to see your plantation!
Take a look at the surrounding hills. If you see Sumac bushes that means “No Frost Here”, and you can grow citrus and avocados if it isn’t too hot.
We are eating our first year of Gem avocados proving that success can be yours too!
The Santa Rosa Plum has yet to deliver. Earlier it had a very sparse flowering and a few fruit set, and there are very few leaves. Today I happily noticed another flower. Do plums have two flowering periods, is this a weird spring situation, and is it normal to be mostly leafless at this time? Anyone know?
Thanks Greg, and very much appreciate your blog.
Alan
Santa Monica
Hi Alan,
Congrats on the new GEM avocados!
Plums don’t usually have two flowering periods, but it so happens that one of my pluots (Dapple Dandy) is also spitting out a few late flowers now, long after the real bloom has ended. Maybe it has something to do with the fluctuating weather this spring.
But your plum is mostly leafless? That doesn’t sound right. I hope it’s just delayed. Time will tell.
Hi Greg,
Thanks for your answer. That helps.
Tried posting on some photos your blog but doesn’t look like photos work.
Any way I can send them to you and maybe they will tell you something?
Last year there were tons of leaves, no fruit. I did prune in the winter because it was thick with branches. This is about the forth year or so.
The plum next to it on one side is full of fruit. The orange on the other as well has lots of fruit.
Thanks again.
Stay safe,
Alan
great read. it’s always interesting to read correlations like this. i’ll be paying more attention to the trees based on what you mentioned. thanks for a great informative read!
Greg,
So glad you have brought the topic of avocado fruit set in your last post. I have 3 avocado trees with Bacon being now 5 years old, Lamb has less than a year and GEM only 5 months in the ground. All with lots of blooms, really healthy leaves and upon close inspection not a single fruit yet. Bacon had 22 fruits last year and this year tons of flowers good size leaves. Last year leaves are now mostly fallen off and they had minimum salt damage. More damage was caused by persea spider mites. There are still some unopened flowers left on the tree but not much. Bacon started to bloom in mid March. I have a feeling that the cold weather and excess rain damaged the flowers. I live in La Mirada about 15 miles off the ocean, zone 10b.
I probably won’t have any avocados this year or absolute minimum. I have also noticed first sign of persea mite infestation on Bacon leaves. Both GEM and Lamb so far have no infestation. It really gives me more appreciation to the growers who depend on good fruit set for their income. They must be doing everything right to get decent yields. I’m so far very disappointed especially since I have created a super soil for all my trees and they are all in 2 feet raised beds. Glad to hear that you don’t have any issues with fruit set.
Hi Paul,
I wouldn’t count your Bacon out yet. If it has even a few flowers left, that can be enough with this warm weather, especially if there is cross-pollination potential with your other trees. Just a few hours with great weather and bee activity can create a crop.
I never said I don’t have issues with fruitset. If only! With some trees, every year is reliable, but with others I worry and fret. I’m just very hopeful this year because of the weather pattern.
I hope you get surprised with some late fruitset during these next couple weeks.
Greg,
I would really appreciate to learn perhaps in a couple of months how the avocado fruit set went for you and your readers. Thank you for the encouragement. You live further down south and had quite bit more rain than in my area. I have checked the season rainfall data for my city and we are about 16% bellow long term average for this year. Thanks to my decent rainwater storage (3300 gallon total) I should be good for most of the summer when it comes to avocado watering with rain water.
Hi Paul,
That’s great you have rainwater storage capacity like that. Your trees must thank you.
I like your idea of updating the fruitset results. I’ll put it on the calendar to write an update around August, which is usually when you can start to count your new crop, and I’ll invite everybody to contribute their own updates in the comments too.
Hi Greg,
What was the result of fruitset last year?
I’m asking cause at this moment we have the weather like you had in the Spring of 2020; some days of good rain; no wind and with mild temperatures between 13ºC (55 ºF) and 23ºC (73 ºF) and lots of blooms at avo trees.
Thanks,
Vasco from Portugal
Hi Vasco,
The fruitset on trees in other yards around me was excellent. Unfortunately, on my trees it was terrible because I had a single cold night that frosted back much of the flowering wood so my bloom was very weak.
Hi Paul. Glad to see I’m not the only one with a Bacon avocado tree. I only bought that variety because I thought it might have a bit of bacon flavor to it…NOT. LOL Anyway we didn’t have much luck the first 5 years, we got a few, like you, around 20 or less. But by the 6th or 7th year, which was 2019 we got over 76 avocados!! I’m up in Sacramento County so it isn’t quite as hot up here but I do still need to water morning and evening when the temps reach over 90. Just doing that helped saved more fruit than previous years. Now I know the trick. Other than that we don’t do anything special to the soil, just water as usual. I might fertilize with some fruit and veggie peelings I put in the blender maybe every 3 years, I put some of that around the avocado tree, orange tree, and blueberries. Truth be told, I haven’t noticed any difference. Anyway good luck with your trees and hope they start producing more for you!
Debbie,
thank you for commenting on my post. You definitely live in an area that may be the cold limit for hardy avocados. Bacon is a good choice for your area. Your summers are probably hotter than in the area i live and your watering program must reflect that. Glad to hear you had very decent 2019 crop . Last year my first avocado harvested was just before Thanksgiving. I would like to know if you have any issues with persea mites in your area. Last year i had about 50% of leaves affected by mites and I sprayed the leaves with soap/oil couple of times. My original garden soil is quite heavy clay and that is why i have placed all my avocados in raised beds with 33% top soil clay, 33% sandy loam and 33% compost and mulches mix. The resulting soil drainage is excellent.
Hi Greg,
Really great posts. And yes I have been to Lesotho a couple of times!
We have 2 dwarf avocado trees in our yard (Carmel Valley 92130) they are about 10 years old and have provided some great fruit last year.
They have become a bit wild and I am looking at pruning them. All the brown leaf tips have now been replaced by lush green leaves with tons of blooms. I am really nervous about disturbing things but would like to neaten things up. I did read your article on pruning but would love to send you a photo of what the trees look like now to get some guidance.
By the way I have just germinated more African Birds Eye peppers (peri peri) and look forward to their spicy but tasty fruit.
Cheers
Hi Joel,
The last time I was in Lesotho I got some seeds from one of the peppers they grow there. I had a large pepper plant at my house that the school cooks would pick from to add to the moroho they made at lunch. The peppers had just the right size and spice level for me. Anyway, I failed at germinating those seeds once I got home. I can’t remember why, but I need to go back and try again.
I would be nervous pruning an avocado this time of year too. It is risky because of the sunburn vulnerability, not to mention the fact that you’ll be removing all those blooms. You can do it; I’ve done it. But you have to immediately do a great job painting limbs to protect them from the sun.
Hi Greg, thanks again for such a great article! I’m so glad my Bacon tree looks so healthy this year even after the late rains. It is loaded with blossoms. If it doesn’t thin itself out too much, this will be our 2nd year of a bumper crop. I hope we get more than the 75 we got last year. Our neighbors are loving them too. Keep the articles coming, I really enjoy learning so much from you. Have a great weekend!
Debbie
Thanks, Debbie. And great to hear the update on your Bacon tree. Sounds like last summer’s watering schedule got the job done!
Another great article Greg. Just wish I had planted my trees last year, instead of a couple week ago, so they were already established…..lol. Speaking of which, the Hass and Fuerte I planted are both about 4 feet tall, 15 gallon containers. Noticed yesterday that the Fuerte, which had some clusters of flowers when I planted it, is dropping all of it’s flowers. I am assuming that might be normal for a young tree that is transplanted, that I shouldn’t expect much if any of the flowers to successfully fruit set this first year, correct?
Thanks again……
Hi Sean,
I can’t count the number of times I’ve walked by trees these last few weeks and said I wish I’d planted that or grafted this last year or the year before. It’s so hard waiting.
I wouldn’t expect fruitset on that Fuerte right now. It can happen, but I would expect it. If the tree grows well this summer, and it flowers well next spring, I’d say you should expect some fruitset then since it was planted as a 15 gallon and it’s near a Hass (I’m assuming).
Boy has this heatwave been tough on my baby avocado trees! My 5 gallon nimlioh and 5 gallon gwen were planted just before the recent rains, and have shown a tendency to wilt when the temperature hits the mid-80s. 50% shade wasn’t strong enough, so I’ve completely covered them with shade from a beach towel and watered twice a day to get them through the recent temps in the high 90s. They still wilted a bit, but what else can I do? I even sprinkled some water on their leaves to help. I’m pretty sure I’m doing all I can to keep them from wilting, but I think you’re right that they may just have weak roots. So the question is what now? With normal temperatures returning, should I keep them completely shaded to prevent as much wilting as possible? I think doing all I can to keep their leaves looking perky should be my goal, even if it means I keep them completely shaded, right? How can we strike a balance between babying young avocado trees and affording them enough sunlight to grow?
Thanks so much for this insightful article. Your avocado pages are GOLD. My 18 month old mexicola has an incredible fruitset right now, and my hass and lamb also have tiny little fruit. My reed and sharwill (planted 7 feet apart) are just starting to bloom a ton of flowers and it looks like it’s happeneing right at the same time. I’m as optimistic as you are that this will be a great year for avocados, but I realize that since all my trees are less than two years old, I’ll be lucky to get even a few.
What a mix of sweet and sour there, Keith. So happy to hear about all of the other trees blooming and looking to set good crops for their size. So tough to hear about the Nimlioh and Gwen.
I think you’re doing exactly what you should, walking that line between giving them relief and giving them sunlight to grow. I’m hoping that it’s a root damage issue that will correct itself in the next month or two before summer heat starts and doesn’t stop. (And maybe we’ll get some late spring cool weather to take it easy on the trees.)
I have a young Sharwil that was acting like your trees last year and I babied it with shade and extra waterings and it did recover and is growing very strongly all of a sudden right now. But it did take almost a full year of extra attention.
I’ve found 20- or 30-percent shade cloth to come in handy for trees like this. If you can put it overhead, it gives relief only in the hottest part of the day but doesn’t shade too much even then that it will slow the growth too much. You might try that a little later as the trees get stronger.
I’ve been spraying the water/honey mix on my Pinkerton/Holiday both #15s that I bot last fall. Today see a few bb sized fruits on the Pinkerton, so perhaps after the summer drop some fruit. The water/honey sure draws the bees!
As Keith’s post, this heat wave is causeing my baby Reed to wilt, just planted a month ago, so shade with umbrella, and water daily. I’ve not had much luck to date starting Reeds, for me they seem to be on the wimpy side when little. Thx again for the great information, a BIG help to us all.
Thanks, Frank. I’ve tried the honey-water mix the past couple years with no clear advantage. I decided I’d give it one more try this year. I sprayed a mix of 1/4 honey and 3/4 water on one side of my Pinkerton and one side of my Fuerte. I did that in order to try to compare the bee visits to sprayed and unsprayed sides of the trees.
Yes, it has drawn some bees, but they’ve only been lapping up the mix from the leaves that were incidentally sprayed. They haven’t visited the flowers that were sprayed any more than they were visiting the flowers before spraying, nor have they visited the sprayed flowers more than unsprayed flowers on the other sides of the trees.
I’m about to once and for all write off this honey-water spray technique. What do you think?
Since this is my first try, don’t know. As you state they lap up the honey from the leaves, but there are many more around the trees on the day I spray….vs few on the days I don’t.
Hi, Greg I leave in Long Beach California and I have a beautiful avocado tree
Last year we had so many flowers by this time and we had so much avocados
that we still have some in the tree not sure if I should cut them all.
This year we hardly have flowers and we have many new leaves burt also many are falling down
and they have dots all over and brown on the vains of the leaves.
We had a lots of rain few weeks ago and wondering if that is the reason for not flowering
I had always left a few avocados in the tree to be consuming weekly.
What do you sugest that I do.
I read that we can painted the trunk and also should I remove the leaves that fall on the ground?
Thank you so much,
Marjorie
Hi Greg,
Last year my little Sharwil finished blooming and all the flowers fell off before my Reed even started, so no A to B cross pollination. But the Reed set its first crop on its own just fine – 19.
This year the Sharwil is blooming a month later and both are in sync, so maybe the weather change will lead to the first fruitset for the Sharwil. But along with the bloom, a big portion of the older leaves on the Reed are suddenly going yellow and dropping all at once. New leaves are flushing out nicely though, so hopefully it will cover up quickly enough to set a bigger crop this summer.
Hello again Greg. I’ve got a 10+ yo Hass and ~6 yo Bacon (planted 3 years ago, 6 ft tall). Both trees look healthy. 3 years ago the Hass gave me ~150. It didn’t flower last year. The bacon hasn’t produced yet but continues to grow. I live in Carlsbad.
Both had great flowers this year so I was hopeful for a decent amount of fruit. Then in March and April we had those couple weeks of storms with the last one dropping 6 inches of rain in a 6 day period. During and shortly after most of the flower dropped off both trees. I don’t see any buds that appear to be forming fruit now. So very disappointed.
Was the flower drop from the wind and rain or do I have something else going?
Hi J.C.,
This is a bummer. It’s possibly the case that your trees bloomed too early for their own good this year, or I should say your own good. A friend has a Mexicola that bloomed very early (as Mexicolas do) and he got no fruitset, but on his other trees that are still blooming now he’s getting loads of fruitset.
Are the flowers really all done on your trees? If so, I guess there’s no hope. If there are still a few left, there is hope for fruitset, especially with this continued warm weather.
I’ve never seen avocado flowers drop because of wind and rain but each flower only opens for a few hours as a female and if it doesn’t get pollinated during those few hours, then after a few days it drops. As rainy weather is not good for pollination, it’s possible that your flowers just all didn’t get pollinated.
I’d be surprised if pollinated fruitlets (little green BBs) dropped because of wind and rain. Once they start to grow they seem to hang on well unless it gets super hot. But they can be hard to see until they get bigger. I hope you still have some on the trees that are just hiding.
Thanks Greg. I appreciate your insight. There’s a some growing buds on both trees now. Not as much as expected considering the rainfall. There were a lot of green bb drops after the rains. Time will tell..
Hi Greg,
I am enjoying reading your posts and appreciate how knowledgeable you are in growing avocado trees!
I live in North County and had a 15 gal. Hass tree installed on a southern-facing slope in my backyard last August. The tree had 2 avocados on it only. About 3 weeks ago, my tree had hundreds of what I thought would become flower buds and then fruit, however, I looked yesterday and almost all of these buds are gone. I don’t know if they dropped off or if a pest or bird ate them (do birds eat flower buds?) I was wondering if there is a way I could send you some photos of my tree for help diagnosing the issue (if there is an issue). I never had an avocado tree before, so want to ensure I am caring for it correctly.
Any help would be appreciated!
Hi Cheryl,
I’ve never heard of any animal eating avocado flowers. It’s possible that the tree has finished flowering. Do you still see the stems of the inflorescences, they look like little yellow sticks? Or maybe your tree isn’t flowering this year. Sometimes avocado trees take a year off.
Hi Greg,
Thanks for getting back to me. Yes, I can see lots of stems with no buds on them. There used to be a ton of buds, but they’re gone.
My Holiday Avocado is in its second year and had a ton of flowers a month ago, now in May like yours the flowers are all gone. Just the tiny stems they grew on remain
Appreciate your posts. We are putting in a greenhouse, digging out the center so it’s down into the ground (see Russ Finchs “snow greenhouse in Nebraska”). Wondering how avocado trees pollinate if they are in a greenhouse and bees can’t get to them. Thanks in advance!
Hi Keith,
Thank you. You can open up the greenhouse to allow bees in during bloom, which is in spring when it’s usually warm enough for this to be practical. I know a grower in Texas who does this and gets great fruitset on his avocados in a greenhouse.
If that’s not possible for you, you can try hand pollinating. See this post for more on that: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/hand-pollinating-avocados/
I was so happy when the rain came in April and all my avocado trees sprouted young leaves and were laden with buds. But the heat today. Whoa. The tender leaves are wilting and the flowers shrivel to husk. Nature can throw aspiring gardeners in a loop.
Hi Greg,
I just learned about your wonderful website.
I moved to San Diego about 2.5 years ago. Two years ago my very mature Fuerte produced a huge amount of fruit. Last year, and sadly this year, I’ve had a huge amount of buds and new leaves, with no flowers or fruit. The leaves appear very healthy and so does the tree. Suggestions as to why, what to do, who can help? thanks Marvin
Hi Marvin,
You’re so lucky to have a mature Fuerte tree. Sorry it’s having a couple off years. It might be doing this as part of its natural fluctuation of production. All avocados fruit more and less each year, but Fuerte is particularly known to have wide swings, just as your tree has.
As long as it appears healthy, there’s not much to be done.
It is surprising that it has taken two years off though. Usually, avocados just take one year off. Barring some terrible weather event, the tree will almost certainly flower heavily next spring and set lots of fruit as before.
Hi Greg,
We bought 2 of your wonderful calendars — one for our neighbor next door. We have a total of 4 avocado trees – 3 Fuerte and 1 Reed. The mature Fuerte and Reed were here in north Vista when we purchased the property 20 years ago. Both produce faithfully. The two Fuertes we planted barely produce and have been in the ground over 10 years. The first one was barely 2-3 years old when a mulch truck hit it. We cut it to the ground and a few years later it came back! It is at least 25′ tall, buds up, and sometimes has little avos, and NO production. The second Fuerte was planted shortly after the first was cut down. It produces limited. They are planted next to each other and the canopies meet. The mature Reed and original Fuerte are all in the same proximity with just enough room to walk in between the trees.
Hubby is fed up with the two Fuertes that are not producing. He wants to cut them down and plant other avocados…
Is there anything to do to save these trees from the axe? They have in-line drip/Netafim, and look healthy.
Thank you for your sage wisdom,
Lorie
Hi Lorie,
How I can relate! You are not alone. Let your husband cut them down. Either graft them over (if you want to experiment with that) or plant new trees. If they haven’t produced in over a decade, then they are duds and I would bet a lot that they are never going to produce. This just happens sometimes. See my profile of Fuerte for more on this: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/the-fuerte-avocado-tree-a-profile/
Hi Greg,
Do you know a reputable company who picks citrus and sells them. We have a new neighbor who has about an acre orchard.
Thanks,
Lorie
Hi Lorie,
Which kind of citrus?
Hi Greg,
I have two questions for you. I am located in Olivenhain and have one Haas and one Fuerte in my yard. Both are healthy and have produced a few fruit each over the past three years that they have been in the ground. Last spring both trees were covered with flowers but less than ten set and turned into fruit.
Do you have any advise on how to improve the fruit set for these trees?
The second question has to do with sources for additional Avocado trees in north San Diego. I have room for one more tree. Based on what I have read, I would like to give the Reed variety a try. Do you agree with this plan? Assuming so, do you know of any sources for one or five gallon Reed plants?
Thanks for your help.
Hi Bob,
One thing that comes to mind is whether there were many bees and other flying insects visiting the flowers. That certainly makes a difference. To improve it, add flowers that feed the bees and grow the populations, and possibly even add a beehive. Get some ideas here: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/growing-a-bee-garden/
That said, some years fruitset is low on certain trees for reasons that I (at least) don’t understand. My Gwen tree, for example, had lots of flowers, lots of cross-pollination, lots of bees visiting, but then dropped most of its small fruit that set. Meanwhile, nearby trees of other varieties dropped very few of the fruit they set and some had no cross-pollination opportunities.
Adding a Reed sounds like a great idea. I visited a yard in Olivenhain a couple months ago that had a few beautiful, fruit-laden Reed trees. You could get a good, small Reed tree from Clausen’s in Vista, Maddock in Fallbrook, or Subtropica in Fallbrook. See this post for more: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/where-to-buy-an-avocado-tree/
Well, I know this is an old post, but I found it interesting there was no data from readers regarding the amount of fruit they picked in 2021. I took data, and found my ~12′ tall Hass yielded 128 avocados, while in 2020 it yielded only 68. It’s a younger tree, but I thought that was a rather significant gain in 1 year. The 2021 rain season was not as favorable, but it appears the tree has been very productive again.
I found the first fruit on the ground today, and it’s very good size. I would have waited a couple more weeks probably to try one (I’m in Santa Barbara) but in a few days I’ll get to have one.
Did any other “numbers types” like me actually see a larger crop? I know my friend who has a small avocado ranch in town did get a record yield.
Hi Matt,
I’d like to hear the same. The reason I didn’t provide an update on my own harvest was that I had a very cold night in February that killed a lot of the flowering wood near the outside of my trees’ canopies, and therefore my trees had a poor bloom. But I’d love to hear how others did in better (warmer winter) climates.
Hope that fallen fruit is good!
We had it with pollo asado tonight, it was yummy! Maybe time to pick a few more.