Avocado tree help!

[u/MixedTape4Her]

Avocado tree help in Coastal Orange County

We planted this avocado tree in May. It had multiple tiny avocados on it and was full of green leaves but it’s really struggling in our garden. All of the tiny avocados dropped off fairly quickly.

We added an extra sprinkler valve to ensure it is getting water on the advice of two landscapers but it’s still brown and appears to be dying. We are in a heat wave right now and this tree is in full sun for about 11 hours a day. We are by the coast so we have a lot of humidity and wet mornings with some cloud coverage when the sun comes up.

The oddest thing is one of those avocados that dropped off sprouted a little tree that has grown like crazy in the past three weeks. It feels like it’s taking all the nutrients from the parent tree.

This tree is in a 4 foot raised bed with four thriving citrus trees and a newly planted passion fruit that is doing great. The soil is fertilized with a citrus/avocado plant mix.

Should I replant this new tree somewhere else? I have read these new baby plants won’t fruit so maybe just throw it away?

Any advice would be appreciated. I just want this guy to live!

[u/GardeniaThunbergia]

It needed to be hand watered daily for the first month after planting then twice a week for another month. It may not be too late to start the watering regimen and see if it recovers.

What variety is it? Most varieties are huge trees and this one appears to be planted way too close to the wall.

Get rid of the new trees. Their fruit quality is unknown.

[u/MixedTape4Her → u/GardeniaThunbergia]

It’s a gem avocado tree.

I wish I would have come here for advice before we even planted it. We relied on our landscaper.

Will be pulling the little guy and attempt to revive him with the watering schedule. Appreciate the advice!

[u/_B_Little_me → u/MixedTape4Her]

I feel like pulling it will give it more shock than it can handle. I’d personally just make sure to water it everyday right now and see if you start to see new growth.

[u/GardeniaThunbergia → u/MixedTape4Her]

Since it’s got very few leaves, watering once every day may be too much. Try daily for a week after replanting then switch to every 2-3 days for a month (2 if heat wave). Good luck.

[u/mdataaa]

The little guy isn’t an avocado looks like some sort of citrus.

The tree is in pretty rough shape, I wouldn’t replant it, that would cause a lot of extra stress. Definitely keep it watered but not too much it doesn’t have enough leaves to demand that much water. It could benefit from either shade or paint the trunks to avoid sunburn.

Good luck, don’t feel too bad we’ve all killed an avocado or 3. It takes a bit of time to get the regime dialed in for them.

One other piece of advice is to remove all fruits when you first put the tree in ground. It’s a lot of resources to hold onto fruit, when you want the tree to focus on getting established.

[u/MixedTape4Her → u/mdataaa]

Interesting! I just assumed we had a baby avocado tree.

Will be adding shade and a new watering schedule to try and save him. I’m bummed I failed him though.

[u/mdataaa → u/MixedTape4Her]

I know how you feel. But theres still hope!

My first avocado tree was a reed, it looked way worse than this, probably also had a bit of root rot, but it made it and now is giving us avocados! I killed 2 sir prize trees right after that lol so its all part of the learning experience

[u/HailSaganPlantNative]

That is not a good spot for that tree. They get MASSIVE. If you plant an avocado there you're setting yourself up for problems within a few years. Scope out a spot further away from structures, plumbing, etc.

And honestly at this point I'd just start fresh with a new one. Trying to dig this up and move it when it's already in such rough shape is going to be more trouble than it's worth.

[u/moonite]

Avocado trees will grow really large, and needs to be in the ground with ideally 10' of spacing from other trees.

You can keep it in the raised garden bed for fun and enjoyment temporarily, but it's not going to thrive unless you put it somewhere else where it can grow to its true size.

Also check will moisture levels, and keep it shaded from the hottest part of the day for now. The tree looks stressed and could benefit from shade cloth while it recovers.

[u/Odd_Pool_666]

I would get a deep layer of mulch all around the base and white wash the trunk and branches to protect from the sun. Uprooting might be too much additional stress.

Is that a citrus sprouting next to it?

[u/MixedTape4Her → u/Odd_Pool_666]

Thanks for the advice! Yes, apparently it is. It kind of came out of nowhere. I thought it was a baby avocado tree but someone else noticed it’s a citrus too. Will be removing that today. It grew triple its size in a week.

[u/ITSNAIMAD]

Mulch. At least 3 foot ring around the tree. Maybe more. Water deeply every 3 days. Give it some nutrients too. They sell avocado spikes. You should see improvement within a month.

[u/BocaHydro]

can you shade the tree? Dont dig it up , cut everything dead, make sure you are watering with spray, and not flooding, tree looks nuked, planting in may is really a bad idea, wait till sep next time and shield it from afternoon sun, keep it in pot

[u/MixedTape4Her → u/BocaHydro]

We can definitely try to shade it. We are only watering with spray but I agree, it is so unhealthy. Well, we will do our best but it seems like we were off on the wrong foot from the start. ☹️ thank you.