Monroe Avocado questions

[naturelover]

Its in the ground for about 2 years - it exfoliated this winter- now growing back leaves. This is the second time the tree has lost all of its leaves.
 I have seen one fruit - which disappeared off the tree while still small ( squirrel?)
It is about 8 feet tall .
 I have been lax about fertilizing - but it does get Excalibur's fertilizer every 2 or 3 months
I have not watered the tree this winter and its planted up on as small mound. It does get plenty of sun.
I have had a Day avocado tree in the past which never defoliated like this tree does and did give me fruit the second year.

 Any suggestions? Should I have been seeing more fruit at this point?  Fertilizing issue ? Disease?

Ill post photos later

[fruitloopy]

I have had a Monroe for 19 years.  I have never seen it completely defoliate.  If there were any air pockets left in the planting hole, that would cause problems.  Sometimes I push a running hose down into the ring around the tree where it was planted to eliminate air pockets.  Just a suggestion.  I never fertilize mine.  Not that that is a good idea, just that fertilizer probably won't eliminate your problem.  Just my 2 cents.  I did kill a little avocado overwatering.  Nothing likes to stay constantly wet.  Can you form a crater around the tree so you make sure it is getting water and not simply running off the mound ?

[CTMIAMI]

May be a little water?

[bsbullie]

Being up on a mound, the water will drain off quickly.   If you tard does not hold water or have a high water table, it may be starving for water.  Avocados like water, they just dont like to sit in water or have wet feet.

[naturelover]

finally able to upload  .







the leaves developed big brown blotches before they fell off

any thoughts here?

[kingoceanos]

I've heard many different things from sunburn to waters P.H. I've seen the same thing with some of mine in pots and some avocados do lose some leaves seasonally. I started adjusting the P.H. of my water when I didn't have any saved rainwater and it seemed to make a huge difference for me. But I am a novice so hopefully someone who really knows what they are doing can give you some advice.

[johnnydo]

When a Monroe avocado gets ready to flower it can lose its leaves.
Mine does so every year and scares me until I do a little research......forget the memory thing.