The Tropical Fruit Forum

I recently got two avocado trees. Waiting for them to get acclimated before I plant it. But one tree is turning dull. The leaves are somewhat folded, rough and yellow tint. Even the branches turning bit yellow. on the other hand the other tree lively green, flat, leathery, shinny. Though same size but next to each other two look like two different species!

I know turning leaves yellow seasonally is ok for avocado. But when i see them side by side, i can't help but to wonder if something is wrong with it. Please let me know if anyone has any idea. or have seen something similar


on the left green one is Joey and on the right yellow one is Lila

The Jan 29th(night) 30th(morning) 2022 cold spell probably was one of the coldest in decades in central Florida. Though I only see few topics on the forum with documented damage report/stats. I’m in zone 9b, it’s not exactly tropics… but let’s add my sob story for the record!

I know its been a while. I waited a month to confirm if any tree comes back from root/trunk.

Location: Zone 9B. Central Florida. About 5 miles south of I4 & 45 miles East of Clearwater beach. Somewhat opened area. Microclimate wise, I would say my property is generally bit colder than neighboring area (no clue why!  ). Following is my observation on January 24th and 30th.


January 23-24th

Nearest weather station reported, Low 26.5F.

Dead trees (brown/dried leaves/ no green under bark after 5 days):
Elephant Apple (Dillenia indica): Multiple 4+ years old seedlings
Sugar apple: Grafted 7ft tall. Planted on ground 3 years back
Guava (pink): Two years old
Jackfruit: Unknown variety 5 years old seedling.
Imbe (Garcinia Livingstonei): one years old seedling:

Partially damaged:
Logan: 5 years old Grafted. 7ft tall
Mango: 5 years old grafted Valencia pride variety was mostly ok. 3 years old grafted Mallika variety decent amount damaged. Few other 3 years of tommy atkins seedlings were also ok
Jabuticaba: Unconfirmed variety. 4ft bushy tree. Bought it as 3 gallon tree. Put it on the ground 3 years ago. Dropped leaves. Still has green under bark.
 Guava (wild Florida variety): Partly damaged leaves.
Moringa: All leaves/flower died. Still green under bark
Canistel: 3 years old, 6ft grafted tree. Partially damaged. outer leaves turned brown
Wampee (Clausena Lansium): 2 years old seedlings. Leaves turned yellow. Potted one, seated under a oak tree was ok.
Manila tamarind: Majorly damaged: leaves turned brown. The one, Potted and protected under oak tree was ok.
Wood apple (Limonia Acidissima): Some leaves turned yellow
June plum (Spondias Dulcis), leaves died. Still green under bark
Guajilote (parmentiera Edulis): Outer leaves turned brown
Jacafruit: Golden nugget variety.  4 years old grafted, outer leaves turned brown
Sapodilla (Achras Zapota): 4 years old air layered. Outer leaves turned yellow
Star fruit: 5 years old grafted. Previously died back to 2 ft in 2018. Most Leaves turned yellow/brown. Still had few leaves on one tree and green under bark.
Black Sapote: 4 years old grafted. Partial damage on leaves. Outer leaves turned brown.
Lemon Bay Rum: 4 years old. Outer leaves turned brown





January 29-30th

Nearest weather reported, Low 22.4F. But it definitely was much lower. at least on my property. I put my Acurite room thermostate on the porch for few minutes at around 11PM and it reported 20F. Keep it in mind that temperature kept dropping till morning. and on open yard its colder than porch. My DIY temperature sensor recorded ~16F! at 6AM Jan 30th! My sensor was located on the open yard. 6” above ground. Official weather station usually record temperature at 4 Feet above ground.

Confirmed dead (brown/dried leaves & branch/ no green under bark/No grow back. Observe after one month, no sign of life)
Everything reported dead on Jan 24th, plus….
Logan: 5 years old Grafted. 7ft tall
Mango: 5 years old grafted valencia pride. 3 years old grafted Mallika. Few other 3 years of tommy atkins seedlings. All dead.
Jackfruit: Golden nugget variety.  4 years old grafted. This Jackfruit tree survived cold of 24th januray. But died on 30th.
June plum (Spondias Dulcis), 3ft tall. 4 years old air layered. It had some protection on the north side from large oak trees.
Canistel: 3 years old, 6ft grafted tree.
Starfruit: Two trees about 4ft bushy
Tamarind: 5 years old air layered. 8ft tall, branchy trees. Sour variety. About 3 inch trunk diameter at the base. It had some protection on the north side from large oak trees. Died. After one month observation, no new growth. no green under bark. I had one more smaller tamarind, sweet variety. It was planted surrounded by oak tree. That tamarind tree lived.
Manila Tamarind: Multiple two years old seedling.
Black Sapote: 4 years old grafted.
Sapodilla (Achras Zapota): 4 years old air layered.
Lemon Bay Rum: 4 years old.
Limoncello: 1ft, 1 year old seedling.
Pitomba: 2 years old on pot
vegetable hummingbird: 2 years old 7ft tall

Partially damaged:
Moringa: I had bunch of moringa/drumstick trees. Thin trunk one’s died and didn’t grow back. The one’s had over 2 inch trunk diameter. I notice new growth from trunk after 3 weeks. Thin brunch died back.
Jabuticaba: Unconfirmed variety. 4ft bushy tree. Bought it as 3 gallon tree. Put it on the ground 3 years ago. Dropped leaves. Initially appeared dead. New leaves started grow on 4th week. Total branch loss about 5%.
Guava (wild Florida variety): 3ft tall. Two years old seedling. Dropped leaves. Initially appeared dead. Observe new growth after 2 weeks. Most outer and thinnest branch died back. I would say 15% branch loss.
White Sapote (Casimiroa Edulis) : one years old seedling. Dropped leaves. Tender branch died back. Started vigorous new growth after 2 weeks
Wampee (Clausena Lansium): 2 years old seedlings. Less than 2ft tall. Dropped all leaves. Observed slow new growth few inch above root after a month.
Wood apple (Limonia Acidissima): 3ft tall. 5 years old seedling. Dropped leaves. Initially appeared dead. After 3 weeks, observe new growth at about 6 inch above the base. Total branch loss I would say 60%.
Guajilote (parmentiera Edulis): was 3ft tall branchy air layered tree. About 2 inch trunk diameter. It died back to root. After 3 weeks new sapling grow from root.
Neem: 12ft tall, 3+ inch trunk diameter.4 years old seedling. All leaves turned brown/dry. Initially appeared dead. Started slow new growth all over the tree after 4 week.
Jamun (Syzygium cumini): 5years old seedling  5inch trunk diameter. 20+ft tall. Endured decent damage on outer leaves and thin branch. But the tree is ok. Total branch loss, I would say 10%
Amla ( Emblica Officinalis): 10ft tall, 3+ inch trunk diameter.4 years old seedling. All leaves turned brown/dry. Initially appeared dead. Started fast new growth all over the tree after 3 week
Barbados cherry(Malpighia emarginata): 5years old. 7ft tall bushy. Was fruiting last two years. Sustained major damage. Dropped most of its leaves. 70% tree/branches died back. As of after a month, it still has some green leave and few new slow grow
Lychee: unknown variety: 5 years old air layered. Survived with some leaf and young branch damage
Macadamia: unknown variety: 2 years old air layered. Survived with some leaf and young branch damage
Jamaican Cherry (Muntingia calabura): Potted. 4ft tall. I moved it inside a metal shade. Leaves softened overnight. (lesson: unheated metal shade isn't any better than unprotected). Full tree turned brown after few days. After 4 weeks i see new growth from the root.


I uploaded two videos recording the damage in case anyone interested. The video was only after few days of cold. Report here confirmed after a month.
Youtube
Tropical Tree cold damage 24th January 2022 Central Florida
Tropical Tree cold damage 30th January 2022 Central Florida

I have an avocado tree. I bought it from local nursery about a year and half ago. Its Lila variety. It was on a 3 gallon pot. After I bought it, I transfer it to a 25 gallon pot. I wanted to make it little more matured before I plant it on the ground. I also wanted to see how this year winter goes. I’m on 9b.

The tree grown pretty well since in transferred to the larger pot. It become about 5ft tall and 1+ inch trunk diameter. With good brunching. Around February the tree flowered heavily. And I mean really heavy.



Pictures in February

About few dozen become fruit, eventually some dropped and about 20 become larger than 1 inch. Around April  we had few windy days. the supporting stick broke and the tree leaned down. believe it or not... It happened twitch … means stick broke two times! And between the times I fixed the issue... few days the tree was rattled good by the wind. 

Started round May I see the leaves becomes yellow. Fruits are falling down. New leaves try to come out but not success. Eventually defoliated branches stared dying and drying to black stick. Last few days I see the remaining fruits on the tree (about six of them) started withering and wrinkled on the tree.
More dead branches, more yellow and withered out leaves.




Current photos


I applied some tropical fruit tree fertilizer few weeks ago. Didn’t help.

The symptom look like root rot but since it on the pot and good soil, I don’t think that’s the case. Could be due to that wind stress, but not totally convinces either.

Anybody has any idea whats happening? Any suggestion on how to save the tree?

Thanks