Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I had an avocado plant; it was growing good it was already 8 feet tall, but one day I went out and when I got back home my plant was cut. They cut the top part off where the leaves were growing. What can I do to get it to grow again? The steam is still green!
Hello !
Don't worry an avocado is a tree and it will start new branches from its trunk. Some people "pinch" or cut the top of the avocado shoot at a very early stage of its growth so that it will start new branches and get stronger. You too would have had to cut it anyway. Just relax and watch it grow.
Catherine
Our avocado tree is dropping its fruit too early. They are small, milky once ripened, and tasteless. We have watered, but not fertilized her for a few years. Help?
By Gabs
Dude, you HAVE to fertilize! With nitrogen in fall or winter.
My avocado tree is about 12 years old. It's planted in the ground, in Orlando. Each branch is turning brown and looks like the tree is slowly dying. It gets adequate water and fertilizer. I am not sure why it's dying. Is the root rotten?
By Sabrina b
When you are seeing your avocado die back immediately stop fertilizing and cut back majorly on the watering, water ever is normal schedule do 1 third of it for example if once a week then once a month if once a month than once every three weeks because over fertilization can happen and root rot. Since there is no way to check just do those to steps and pray it recovers if not then next time you'll have this experience as a tool, happy growing and don't worry it may recover and things happen.
I have grown an avocado tree. I would like to know what people mean by pinching back so as to get a rounder fuller tree. Do I pinch the top off the tree or just the leaves?
Hardiness Zone: 4a
By Martha from Dexter, NY
Pinch the newer growth at the top of your tree.
I have a tree which is ten year old. It is not flowering. So I assume it is not old enough for flowering. Is there anything to do for that, like pruning or something else? My place is a hilly region with a tropical climate.
By P Thomas from Trichur, Kerala, India
I have a 5 ft tree in a pot. It has branches growing about 8 inches above the soil. It looks like where it was grafted. Are these suckers and what is the best way to get rid of them?
By Mikema
Can you tell me if I need to feed my avocado? It is about 15 inches; high, also the leaves are drooping, but are very green.
By Mary
i have grown an avocado plant from the stone in the fruit. Once I planted it, it grew really quickly for some time, and then just stopped. I moved it into a better sun position and it grew some more. It's still in the same spot, but it hasn't visibly grown for months now, not even sprouting new leaves. It still looks healthy. Its presently about a foot tall. Its an indoor plant, also. What's going on? Do I have a plant that's afraid to grow or something? =)
By Kelly
Should I cut back my avocado? It's 2 feet tall with 9 leaves on the very top, but none anywhere else. The ones further down on the stem don't grow at all and just fall off. Should I cut it back to 6 or 8 inches and hope for the best?
By Mary Ann D
I have a 40+ year old avocado tree. It has always done very well, but this year the avocados are smaller than usual and seemed to have stop growing. The tree looks fine. I tried to pick one to see if it would ripen, but no luck.
By Billie O
This page is about growing an avocado from seed. A fun and rewarding indoor project can be starting an avocado pit.
If the leaves on your avocado plant are dying, it may be a sign of serious stress from something like a fungus or parasite. Leaves dying on an avocado plant is not a sign of good plant health.
In order for an avocado tree to thrive there are a number of growing requirements such as light levels, temperature, pot size if in a container, and available moisture. This is a page about avocado tree not growing.
Keeping the height of a potted avocado tree under control requires careful pruning to increase fullness and reduce overall height. This is a page about pruning an avocado plant.
Whether your tree is outdoors or being grown inside, browning leaves indicates a problem you will need to identify. This is a page about avocado tree leaves turning brown.
Avacado trees can be easy to grow but they can sometimes have problems. This page has advice about the tips of an avocado tree branches turning black.
In general avocados thrive in fertile, well-drained soil. Although they adapt to most soil types, avocados prefer a light, sandy loam. This is a page about soil advice for avocado plants.
When growing an avocado from a pit it is possible that the stem can be damaged and break off. Whether that spells doom for the plant or not may depend on the degree of development of you plant below the soil.
There are a number of reasons your avocado tree may lose its leaves, from pests to lack of nutrients. This is a page about avocado trees losing leaves.