80% of avocado dropped, so far..... help!

[kc_moses]

I have a 2 year old Wurtz Avocado that fruit for the first time this year. As of right now, only 10 fruits are hanging on the tree. I collected some that fell on the ground and they look perfectly healthy:



A couple weeks ago there were 50-80 pea size avocado. I don't have experience growing avocado so can anyone comment on what could go wrong?

I also notice there is a lot of new branch/foliage grow while the fruits are growing. Could this be nutrient competition between foliage and fruiting? What would be the common practice, like cut off new foliage grow until fruit mature? Or this won't be a problem until the tree is established and older?

Thanks!

[Vernmented]

Avocados go through shedding periods. My Bacon has dropped a bunch of fruit as well. I am not sure if it is anything you are doing a normal reaction. How thick it the trunk?

[kc_moses]

Hi Josh,

The main trunk is about 3" diameter. The tree do spread out like crazy. I was told this is a dwarf tree but it's almost 7' tall now. Wurtz supposed to be highly productive so I'm just surprise so many fruits drop.

[Bush2Beach]

10 fruits could be considered highly productive for a 2 year old tree with 3" trunk.
I'm seeing hundreds of fruits drop now from bigger tree's . It's part of it.

[gnappi]

When I had avocado trees they ALWAYS set far more fruit than the tree could hold and they aborted many. As a matter of fact, two I had I even had to thin the fruit more but the trees cracked under the weight of the excess fruit.

[kc_moses]

Thanks! I guess I just have unrealistic expectation comparing to mango trees. Hopefully the remaining 10 will stay on the tree so I can at least try it out. At what age does Avocado tree mature?

[Mark in Texas]

Yeah avocado trees go thru at least one drop after blooming, sometimes 2.  Last year I lost about 50 or so Reeds and it was a mature 10' tree.  Come to find out that the main culprit could have been that it self pollinated.  Apparently Reed does that even though it's touted as being self pollinating.  It's my last tree to bloom in April and it's usually the only one.  The others have finished.

[gnappi]

Thanks! I guess I just have unrealistic expectation comparing to mango trees. Hopefully the remaining 10 will stay on the tree so I can at least try it out. At what age does Avocado tree mature?

You have two year old mango that set more than your avo and hold all of their fruits?

Lower your expectations on both avo and mango or you'll be pulling trees out like grey hairs.

[spaugh]

Wurtz is a dwarf tree also.  Its probably never going to making loads of fruit.  Unless the wurtz there is totally different.  Is there a photo of the tree available?

[kc_moses]

You have two year old mango that set more than your avo and hold all of their fruits?

Lower your expectations on both avo and mango or you'll be pulling trees out like grey hairs.

I discovered some information just in time, so I top prune my mango tree even though the nursery said I don't need to. The avocado tree is 3x the size of my mango so I thought around 20-30 avocado would be what I get. I probably should stop watching Avocado tree videos in Youtube since many of them have full tree of avocado so I thought that's how it supposed to be. Ahh..... the joy of learning to grow fruit trees.

[kc_moses]

Wurtz is a dwarf tree also.  Its probably never going to making loads of fruit.  Unless the wurtz there is totally different.  Is there a photo of the tree available?

I was told today that the Wurtz we have here is not a dwarf, grow up to 15-20 ft.

Here are the pictures of my trees. Ignore the PVC support as it's my grow light stand that I use it temporary to support 2 avocado to avoid them touching the ground. One of the branch get very low so I'm tempted to cut that off. We also have 2.5 weeks of daily rain so I haven't had the chance to clear the grass at the base of the tree. Heck I barely can keep up with the lawn mowing so please don't scream at me about the lawn 

The Wurtz spread a lot:


The right branch is very low to the ground:


Main trunk and branch:


Tree is taller than the fence now.


Also, I counted again, I have 8 fruits now......

[spaugh]

Tree loos nice and healthy but probably can only hold 5 or so avocados now.  If you cull it down to 2 or 3 it will have a lot more new growth an be able to hold more next year.  The tree will probably double its size over summer if its holding a lot of fruit.

[kc_moses]

Tree loos nice and healthy but probably can only hold 5 or so avocados now.  If you cull it down to 2 or 3 it will have a lot more new growth an be able to hold more next year.  The tree will probably double its size over summer if its holding a lot of fruit.

I'm going to wait and see what the tree does in next couple weeks. The size of the existing fruit are almost as a small California Hass now, so may be they're getting close to mature? How do I nkow when the fruit is ready to be picked?

The branch that's too long to the side and too low to the ground is the weakest branch for now. I suspect if we have some sort of hurricane this year, that's the branch that has to go first so I'm not eager to trim them for now.

[johnb51]

My Wurtz tree is about the same size and age as yours.  It did the same thing this year, setting dozens of fruits and dropping most of them.  Now there are three left.  Honestly I was happy to see it lose the fruit, as it's still such a young tree.  It will be great just to taste those three.  I was told they are fully ripe around Sept./Oct.  Did you get it at Excalibur like me?  I'm wondering how the Florida Wurtz came to be so different from the California Wurtz.  Could it be that Excalibur is actually selling another cultivar, which they have been propagating as Wurtz?

[pineislander]

You could do your tree some good if you remove the grass around it and mulch well at least outside the outer branches. The tree is competing with grass in the yard. The natural environment of avocado is within a forest. In the forest it is an emergent or under story tree among other trees. That is the type of ecosystem avocado evolved in. It didn't evolve in a field of grass. In that under story, it was among other trees which gives it protection from wind and moderates it's sun exposure to about 75% sun. It evolved to have a typical tropical ground cover of leaves and decaying vegetation. That ground cover allows it to have a dense network of fine feeder roots to absorb what it needs. The closer you can duplicate the conditions the avocado tree evolved in the happier it will be.

[johnb51]

Speaking of protection from wind, the Day avocado seems to be particularly sensitive to wind.  I have one in a windy spot and each year it dies back and starts all new branches in the spring.  I'm going to replace it with another tree, something other than avocado.

[Cookie Monster]

My pinkerton did that. Dumped about 80% of its fruit, which are about the same size as those that your wurtz dumped. Not sure why? Too much rain?

[artfusionfab]

Mine is dropping too,Its definitely to much rain

[pineislander]

Speaking of protection from wind, the Day avocado seems to be particularly sensitive to wind.  I have one in a windy spot and each year it dies back and starts all new branches in the spring.  I'm going to replace it with another tree, something other than avocado.

"dies back and starts all new branches in the spring" is fairly normal for avocado if followed by good bloom and healthy green regrowth.
This trait may be stronger in the West Indian x Guatemalan or Mexican varieties like 'Day'.
See this, (in California):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPnCKQkG2bw&t=6s

The recommendation is raised beds, good fertility, mulched well outside of 5 feet, regular irrigation. Anything less is a problem.
Wind is a problem for most fruit trees.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg213

By the way the original picture leaves looks to show some deficiency:

[Paquicuba]

I agree with pineislander, your tree shows some signs of iron chlorosis and that could be one of the reasons why it's dropping so many fruits.

[johnb51]

It was confirmed to me by the most expert person I know that our Wurtz is indeed the one from California.  It just grows differently in our climate, not dwarfish.  Also, its season is mid-October through November here, improving as they stay on the tree like most of our avocados.  So don't get impatient, and pick them too soon.

[kc_moses]

My Wurtz tree is about the same size and age as yours.  It did the same thing this year, setting dozens of fruits and dropping most of them.  Now there are three left.  Honestly I was happy to see it lose the fruit, as it's still such a young tree.  It will be great just to taste those three.  I was told they are fully ripe around Sept./Oct.  Did you get it at Excalibur like me?  I'm wondering how the Florida Wurtz came to be so different from the California Wurtz.  Could it be that Excalibur is actually selling another cultivar, which they have been propagating as Wurtz?

Thanks John for confirming the behavior of Wurtz in our area. Yes I got my Wurtz from Excalibur. I think the Wurtz in our area is different from those in California because the one in our area is a hybrid of Wurtz and something else, which make it not true dwarf. I hope the remaining 8 fruits will stay on my tree, but I'm not that optimistic since we are still a long way to September.

[kc_moses]

Speaking of protection from wind, the Day avocado seems to be particularly sensitive to wind.  I have one in a windy spot and each year it dies back and starts all new branches in the spring.  I'm going to replace it with another tree, something other than avocado.

"dies back and starts all new branches in the spring" is fairly normal for avocado if followed by good bloom and healthy green regrowth.
This trait may be stronger in the West Indian x Guatemalan or Mexican varieties like 'Day'.
See this, (in California):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPnCKQkG2bw&t=6s

The recommendation is raised beds, good fertility, mulched well outside of 5 feet, regular irrigation. Anything less is a problem.
Wind is a problem for most fruit trees.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg213

By the way the original picture leaves looks to show some deficiency:



Thanks! Will have to look into fixing iron chlorosis. We finally get a break from Alberto and the rain. Will have to do a thorough walk through of the back yard to see what else need attention now that the soil is so saturated.

[edzone9]

My Holiday Avocado tree is holding many fruit , no dropping as of yet crossing fingers!

Ed

[johnb51]

I think the Wurtz in our area is different from those in California because the one in our area is a hybrid of Wurtz and something else, which make it not true dwarf.

I was told quite emphatically that it is not a hybrd, but the same actual cultivar.  It simply behaves differently in our climate (and on the rootstock we use here, I would imagine).