Avocado Tree Question

[MarinFla]

At first I thought it was a problem specific only to my Avocado tree but it seems many people in my area are experiencing this issue..... The avocado trees are blooming but at the same time that this bloom cycle started the trees all are experiencing a huge amount of leaf loss. The trees are very noticeably shedding a lot of foliage. Is this a normal event not worthy of worry or could this be a problem???

[Adacaosky]

How interesting... I see the same thing going on. I'm not sure about FL conditions and the avocado issues there but in my location (13 n. lat.), avocado season is starting to roll around. Most trees have lost tons and tons of leaves in place of flowers and fruit.

There's a tree down the street which looks like it died and lost all its leaves...but you see tons of small fruits all over. A month ago my neighbor's mature tree was very lush and full. Now it has lost so much leaves that it looks sickly. I'm pretty sure it's not sickly because this month there are small fruit all over the tree.

I hope this is just a natural phenomenon where you're at. 

Chris

[bsbullie]

At first I thought it was a problem specific only to my Avocado tree but it seems many people in my area are experiencing this issue..... The avocado trees are blooming but at the same time that this bloom cycle started the trees all are experiencing a huge amount of leaf loss. The trees are very noticeably shedding a lot of foliage. Is this a normal event not worthy of worry or could this be a problem???

Normal for cados to shed some of their leaves, don't worry about it....unless of course it sheds all of its leaves and you see signs to otherwise point to an outright problem.

[JeffDM]

My in ground avocado trees have also lost a lot of leaves and the ones that didn't drop are brown tipped.
My Holiday was looking so sparse that I surrounded it with shade cloth on the sides to protect it from the wind.
The good news is that the Hass and Fuerte planted together are gaining lots of new leaves along with some flowers.
The Holiday is covered in flowers, but only a few branches are tipped with new leaf growth.

[intel415]

interesting i thought my sharwil is sick lol its pushing a lot of flowers out, just few new leaves at the tips and its all naked, only covered with flowers 

[Zambezi]

I think it should be okie, as long it's pushing flower spikes and not completely bald.

It's concentrating on flowering and setting fruit, with very little other growth. I know my avo's do that, and once this flowering is done for the season (the temps don't fluctuate much in summer), they will then work on growing, and setting new leaves.

[HMHausman]

The loss of leaves on avocados at my house is somewhat different every year.  There is always some loss of older leaves when bloom is beginning to push.  In some years, with some trees, they can actually lose almost all of their old foliage and in the matter of a really short time, the trees are covered with bloom and the new foliage that is pushed after bloom occurs. So, in short.....completely normal....here in Florida anyway.

[JF]

Same in SoCal. I have two trees totally naked, full of flowers, pushing new leaves and setting fruits. The others with little leave loss.

[fruitlovers]

Avos don't like wind and can drop a lot of leaves when it's windy. Didn't you just have windy gusty period in Florida?

[MarinFla]

Avos don't like wind and can drop a lot of leaves when it's windy. Didn't you just have windy gusty period in Florida?

Yes, it has been very gusty here. I am surprised I didn't lose a lot of the small developing mangoes

[PltdWorld]

I'll chime in from San Diego as well... seeing the same thing - lots of flowers popping and almost completely defoliated.  No wind.  Strange weather with multiple cold/heat cycles over the last couple of months.

This on three different varieties, all equally affected.

[fruitlovers]

I'll chime in from San Diego as well... seeing the same thing - lots of flowers popping and almost completely defoliated.  No wind.  Strange weather with multiple cold/heat cycles over the last couple of months.

This on three different varieties, all equally affected.

Seems to me potentially devastating as fruit without any leaf cover could easily bake if weather suddenly turns hot.

[MarinFla]

I'll chime in from San Diego as well... seeing the same thing - lots of flowers popping and almost completely defoliated.  No wind.  Strange weather with multiple cold/heat cycles over the last couple of months.

This on three different varieties, all equally affected.

Seems to me potentially devastating as fruit without any leaf cover could easily bake if weather suddenly turns hot.

Interesting thing is that NOT all the leaves that are defoliating. There is actually new leaves growing/developing. It is mostly older leaves. The branches have leaves on the ends all around where the flowers are but as you follow towards the trunk they are significantly defoliated.  I will post a before and after pic tomorrow so you can see the difference.

[simon_grow]

Here in San Diego, my Reed avocado started dropping leaves when the flowers started showing up and eventually all the leaves dropped off when about 50% of the flowers were left.  My tree had only blooms for one or two weeks and now leaves are developing. I was worried about my tree getting sun burned because we did have a couple of hot days but luckily no burn. Kind of odd. On a side note, the strange weather caused most my lychees to have partial blooms.
Simon

[fruitlovers]

Here in San Diego, my Reed avocado started dropping leaves when the flowers started showing up and eventually all the leaves dropped off when about 50% of the flowers were left.  My tree had only blooms for one or two weeks and now leaves are developing. I was worried about my tree getting sun burned because we did have a couple of hot days but luckily no burn. Kind of odd. On a side note, the strange weather caused most my lychees to have partial blooms.
Simon

I've never seen this type of defoliation happen here on any of my avocado trees. Deciduous trees act this way, but not avocados.

[PltdWorld]

I've never seen this type of defoliation happen here on any of my avocado trees. Deciduous trees act this way, but not avocados.

I grew up in California and remember avocados being essentially evergreen, with some shedding of old leaves during flushes of new growth.  My trees and those of my neighbors dropped all but a handful of leaves this year - the new leaf growth follows the flowers, but usually the old leaves stay on until that cycle is more or less complete.  Not this year, at least not for me.

[fruitlovers]

Yes avocados do drop a lot of leaves, but not  usually all their leaves. I don't think that is normal. I wonder what is causing this? Could it be insect or disease? Brown mites can cause this kind of leaf drop.

[PltdWorld]

I'll take a closer look at them tomorrow - I just figured it was the weird weather.

[intel415]

leaves at the tips are growing we should not worry about.

[CTMIAMI]

Do not worry about it. Trees do drop all their leaves. We have had cold temps in March.  To me is normal I see it every year in my 20 acres. This is specially noticeable in the trees I don't fertilize a lot. The trees that I heavily fertilize the transition is a lot smother. Either way the trees will come back.