May is usually an easy time of year for an avocado tree in Southern California. Therefore, signs of ill health now should be taken seriously and, if possible, remedied before the potential stress of heat or drought during summer arrives.
In my yard this May I have some healthy and some not -so-healthy avocado trees. I walked around with my video camera showing examples of each and explaining the five signs that I look for when assessing avocado tree health.
Join me:
Again, these are the questions I ask myself when I look at a tree:
1. How long do the old leaves hang? (The longer, the better.)
2. Are the peripheral branches green? (Yellow or gray or brown is not good.)
3. How long are the new shoots? (The longer, the better.)
4. How healthy is the top of the canopy? (Dense is good; sparse is bad.)
5. How big do the new leaves get? (The bigger, the better.)
I think that an important take-away is that a tree’s overall health is primarily determined by the health of its root system.
We only look for signs in the canopy because we can’t easily see the root system.
But when we look to improve a tree’s health, we should mostly think about what’s happening underground. Think about competition from nearby plants, improper watering, infertile soil, shallow soil, bad rootstock, and improper planting.
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