Help- Avocado tree not looking good

[john9797]

For about a week, the leaves have been brown on my avocado tree. We had a very bad tropical storm where water pooled up in my backyard for days. It was a pretty bad flood. I live in sunny Florida, and the water is more than gone at this point. Did this tree drown? I didn't see any obvious insect damage or anything, and the surrounding trees did not die.

This was planted from seed and has not produced fruit yet, it's only few years old.

is this tree dead? Drown? In trouble some other way? Could it bounce back?

Images during the flood and after below

Thanks

[jegpg1]

Sad to see a beautiful tree die. I think it's done.

[john9797]

It's sad, this tree was very strong before all of this.
It really thrived back there

[Tropicalgrower89]

Sad to see a healthy tree just die like that. Looks like the flood killed it due to root rot. Avocado trees are not known to be flood tolerant.

[OCchris1]

Sorry for your loss. We feel your pain. Best regards, Chris

[CTMIAMI]

My condolences.

I never had a flood like that one. If I had it I would prune the tree to reduce the canopy and drench large amounts of Phophorous acid or inject. Then pray for the best. 

[simon_grow]

I barely see any green on it, I would do as Carlos recommended and pray for the best. It's probably from the flooding or fungal disease as you probably already guessed.

Simon

[palmcity]

I've had it happen to a lychee tree about 6 -10 feet tall that had red lychees on it one day and a flood came and it died with the lychees still on the tree within 1 week. That happened about 25 years ago.

The problem is if you get it to come back to life is just the first step. Then you will have to increase your drainage if possible with ditches or pvc pipes etc or dig up your yard making a lot of big holes to hold the occasional flood water if you think this may happen again.

You may just want to start again with a big big mound of dirt and a new tree as it may be easier or look for a higher spot if available in other sections of the yard.

[Mark in Texas]

Sorry for your loss.  My recommendation is to plant a carefully selected grafted variety in a raised bed or choose different trees that tolerate wet feet.  Apparently mango can tolerate floods for days, no way with avocado.

I laid 2 courses of concrete tree liners to give me a rise of about 20". I put the first course scallop side down.  Here's a young, bearing, Don Gillogly avocado tree 2004 in Corpus Christi.  It was not unusual for us to get tropical storms/hurricanes dropping 18" of rain over a few days with prolonged flooding.

[StPeteMango]

Sorry for your loss, John. I lost an avocado tree last year. No visible flood, but the tree was planted in the ground and the rain coming off the roof probably caused the ground to become saturated. Another avocado planted in the same spot but in a raised bed is thriving. Even if you manage to nurse your tree back to health, you will could face the same problem next time we get heavy rains in Pinellas. May be better to dig it out, created a raised bed and planted a grafted variety.

Mark in Texas, your avo looks good! How old was the tree when the picture was taken?

[Lory]

Good drainage is a MUST for avocado since they don't tolerate wet feet and they are prone to Phytophtora root rot.
Sorry for your loss, it's so bad because your tree looked really super healthy before 
By the way how wald was it?

[Orkine]

Help:

I have a related problem.
I have a great tree (avocado) that got blown over during Matthew.
Is there anyway to save the tree?
The roots arent exposed but the tree fell down all the way.

I looked this up but could not find information specific to avocado.
If I dig close to the root ball and pull the tree straight then tie it down, can the tree be asved?
Anyone has experience doing this?
I am in the Jupiter Florida area.

Orkine

[Lory]

Orkine a picture would be a great help to give you the right advice

[Mark in Texas]

Help:

I have a related problem.
I have a great tree (avocado) that got blown over during Matthew.

Sorry to hear that.  How big is it?  If not too big I'd winch it upright and support it with three 6-8' t-posts and wire.  It's the shallow roots you have to protect.

Good luck!