Do not fear if, in the spring, your avocado tree turns many leaves yellow and drops them to the ground. It’s natural!
Look at my trees:
For other ways to “read” avocado leaves, see my post, “Reading avocado leaves.”
All of my Yard Posts are listed HERE
Have you ever had any of your trees not flower? I’m up in Visalia, near the GEM avocado grove that was planted, but so far only 1 of my 7 varieties has flowered this year. The Stewart flowered really early, but the GEM, Hass, Sir Prize, Mexicola Grande, Reed, and Fuerte have yet to flower and it’s nearly June.
I’m wondering what the deal is.
Hi Nathan,
Oh yeah. Some of my trees didn’t flower too. A few of them are young (two years or less in the ground) so I give them that excuse, but a few of them have been in the ground for at least three years. Why those ones haven’t flowered or flowered much is a mystery to me.
For yours, I’d say it’s too late for any to flower except possibly the Reed. I have a young Reed that only started opening flowers a few weeks ago. For the others, I’d guess that they skipped the bloom this year. Unless you had some really cold nights this past winter, then my only guess as to why is that they’re young. Are they?
Greg, yes, they are pretty young. They’ve been in the ground less than 2 years. I bought them as 5 and 15 gal. trees from Louis Nursery in Riverside. The GEM was a sleeve I bought in Fallbrook.
Hi Greg! Thanks for this post…one year into my NorCal avocado journey and trying to chill as some yellowing/leaf drop has occurred on my flowering baby Pinkerton, Reed, Hass, and Sharwil. The Reed in particular I’m worried about as it was absolutely covered in blooms (apparently it’s a precocious variety?) and then it dropped the top half of its leaves. I brought out the fertilizer, sunblock paint, and burlap to shade it but am wondering if you have any other tips to help it rebound. It’s planted on a mound and on a slope with some gypsum, and surface roots appear healthy.
Hi Ashley,
I’ve seen Reeds do that. Usually it turns out fine as long as you can prevent sunburn before it grows new leaves. You might remove some of the flowers or fruitlets too if it has set more than it seems it can handle for the tree’s size. And hope for no heat waves in the next couple weeks!
Hi Greg, great post on yellowing. I have I have a trickier issue, that stumped all the local nurseries.
Please help me figure out what is happening with my Little Cado (Wurtz) avocado?
As you can see, on all my new growth the leaves are curling up, and turning brown around the edges. Also, something appears to be nibbling on some of the new growth as well.
I’ve liberally sprayed this tree numerous times with Neem Oil and and have coated the trunk with Sticky Foot.
I’m concerned if all the new growth is getting damaged/eaten the tree will not get enough photosynthesis and will eventually die. 
https://imgur.com/a/UxdIaU8
Thanks, Ron. That happens sometimes on small, young trees or even on certain limbs of old trees. I think it’s usually due to some type of water issue. On young trees it seems that enough water is not being transported to the extremities (the tips, the newest growth). This could be because there’s a problem with the roots, which are supposed to be taking up the water. Or it could be a brief spell of hot and dry weather when enough water wasn’t available in the soil. And on old trees it often happens on a limb that is about to die, only you don’t know it at the time. A couple weeks later you see that all of the leaves on that limb are drying up and the tree sheds that whole limb.
I had new leaves drying at the margins on a newly planted Hass in my yard a few weeks ago. I worried about it at first. I checked the soil moisture often in order to make sure that wasn’t the problem, but after some die back of those leaves the tree is flushing new ones in numerous spots and it appears to be fine.
For your tree, I would just pay extra attention to watering, especially if the weather gets hot. Avocado trees in containers do not handle heat well if the soil inside gets anywhere near dry, and the first sign of heat stress is the wilting and then burning of the margins on new leaves. It may be that the soil just went a little dry during a warm spell some weeks ago and only now you’re seeing the results.
As for the bug munching, that’s very minor. I wouldn’t worry about it unless it gets a lot worse.
Thank you so much Greg.
I’ve been very diligent on watering carefully as I’ve root rotted a couple of small trees. This time I’ve been using a moisture meter almost daily. What’s funny is I actually stopped watering for a few weeks as the reading was showing between moist/wet before, so I gave it a few weeks to dry out. And then it pushed out lots of new growth, only to encounter this new leaf browning/curling. I expected older leaves to get a salt accumulation over time, but couldn’t figure out why new growth has this issue.
Do you think I need to increase watering?
I’m located at a pretty hot inland location in NorCal (Livermore)
Hi Ron,
I can’t say whether you need to increase watering, but if that pot has ample drainage holes then you can just make sure that every time you water you give it enough to see a little drain out the bottom. And then make sure you water before the top gets too dry. I just scratch and poke my fingers into the top a knuckle or two deep to check the moisture at that depth. I don’t use moisture meters, as I don’t find them as reliable as my fingers and eyes.
Thanks Greg!
Yes, it has drain holes. I usually give it about 3 gallons every few weeks. Even though it’s quite hot here (101° Monday) I keep the pot under a tree that keeps it shaded throughout the hottest part of the day for the first year to build a canopy to protect from sunburn.
Will keep you posted. Thanks again, and I love your blog updates, and look forward to them. Even though I’m in NorCal it gives great growing advice.
Cheers!
Ron
Hi Greg,
many thanks for the wealth of information you shear.
I have an avo orchard in southern Turkey, planted two years ago. Most trees are healthy, but some fail to develop. Last winter an apparently healthy tree dropped all it’s leaves and died. It rains quite a lot during the winter, so there is no lack of water.
This spring all healthy trees produced a lot of flowers and fresh shoots, and are now showing some fruit. Three trees had a lot of flowers, like the other ones, but no fresh leaves. Now these trees are naked. There are fruits, but no leaves.
What’s the problem? ( No water shortage )
Thanks / Erik
We have a beautiful Hass avocado tree planted on a bit of a hill and it is 20′ high and about 6 years old. Its been a great producer over the years and this season it was full of avocados. In May I fertilized, put some gypsum around the drip line, added open flax fabric on the steep part of the hill (I wanted to add redwood bark but the hill was so steep it wouldn’t have stayed without erosion control fabric), covered with redwood bark medium sized chips and now about 2 months later the tree looks horrible. The leaves are small, yellowed and sparse. It still has many avocados on the tree but they are very dark and at one point about 120 avocados dropped from the tree in a matter of 2 weeks but still edible and delicious. I’m worried about the tree though and if it will make it through this summer. I am watering about once a week since it has been terribly hot. Any suggestions on what I can do to bring it back to health?
Hi Greg, big fan of your site, a wealth of advice on here.
I have a Mexican Criollo variety avocado I am growing in a pot from seed. The tree is about 18 months old, and its leaves have started turning brown from the tip over the past three months. Can you advise what it might be? It also exudes what appears to be sap from the leaves, almost like perspiration. A link to images of both issues can be found below:
https://imgur.com/a/Ocim7Pa
I have fertilised the tree with a blood/bone meal when I first potted it a year ago (40cmx30cm pot), and since then it has infrequently received a standard water soluble fertiliser from time to time. Gets a good watering once a week or so. Many thanks and welcome your advice or thoughts.
Hi Greg,
We were on the edge of a tornado that tore through our town recently and our avocado tree which had almost fully ripened fruit was ripped out of the ground. We replanted it in another spot however three days later the leaves are limp and the fruit soft and going brown. I have given it fertiliser, coffee grounds and sprayed the leaves with water. When it was blown out some of the roots were broken. Any advice on reviving it? It was quite a magnificent tree before