Any avocado tree experts? What is up with my tree?

[scottmandue]

The tree usually gives fruit every other year but has not in the last three years. The house and tree has been in the family for about thirty years and the tree was mature when my brother bought the house. It has very strange fruit, large round and hard, the size and shape of grapefruit. I have automatic sprinklers so it gets watered three time a week in summer. Typically it buds, flowers, the old leaves turn brown and fall off while new leaves and fruit grow out. The last three years all the buds fall off so we get no fruit. I am not sure what the best pruning procedure is, I just cut off the dead branches ever few years but someone told my dad we should leave them on.

Can anyone help me with the care and feeding of an old avocado tree?

Thanks,
Scott

[mikester]

Hmmmm...were there any other trees around that have been removed? We have two and both bear fruit but the larger one bears quite a bit more. So far we've had avocados every year (2 years now).

[tabs]

It takes another Avacado tree to pollinate the one U have. Everyother year is about right. I have seen them go many years without producing fruit, and then all of a sudden they explode with Avacados.

Avacado trees are grafted from a bearing tree, or they won't produce...so one needs to be carfull which branches to trim. I also think they don't like to be trimed and might stop producing because of that.

I grew up in a house that had 14 or so Avacado trees in the yard. They were of the Fuerete variety, so the only knowledge I have is from watching them for a period of 30 years. My last house I had a Hass Avacado which would produce everyother year. I believe that tree needed to have all the Avacados picked before the Spring or it would not Bloom again till the next year.

I truly do like Avacado Trees.

[scottmandue]

Hmmmm there are several other avocado trees in the neighborhood and I have seen bees working the flowers so I am pretty sure it is getting pollinated. Maybe it is just taking a few year off.

Problem is when you own a avocado tree you become like a drug dealer... people keep asking you if got any.

[nota]

feed the poor thing it is hungry
over watered soil lose the food value quickly
sheep or cow manure works
ask the store guys [6-6-6 I think

prune as needed dead wood is bad for the tree
you can and groves do extreem prune the trees
just to keep the fruit eazy to pick

we had old trees that were 80 years old
storms did most pruning along with the eltrick corps
from 50+ feet to stumps sometimes [hurricanes]
but they grow back quickly
feed them they will grow and produce

[tabs]

I agree with Nota...feed the poor thing...btw I was gona mention that but well just didint

[scottmandue]

Thanks, Dad put some chemical fertilizer that is supposed to be for avocados down (have the burn spots in the lawn to prove it... note to self, get fertilizer away from dad and tell him I will take care of it from now on). Too late for it to do any good for this year

Cow manure will work? I prefer that to the chemicals stuff.

Okay so I will take off all the dead wood and fertilize the tree.

Thanks again guys,

This time next year I will be pimping avocados fo sure.

[fastpat]

Originally posted by scottmandue
The tree usually gives fruit every other year but has not in the last three years. The house and tree has been in the family for about thirty years and the tree was mature when my brother bought the house. It has very strange fruit, large round and hard, the size and shape of grapefruit. I have automatic sprinklers so it gets watered three time a week in summer. Typically it buds, flowers, the old leaves turn brown and fall off while new leaves and fruit grow out. The last three years all the buds fall off so we get no fruit. I am not sure what the best pruning procedure is, I just cut off the dead branches ever few years but someone told my dad we should leave them on.

Can anyone help me with the care and feeding of an old avocado tree?

Thanks,
Scott

I used an Avocado and Citrus tree fertilizer on the one I sprouted from seed. Unfortunately, it hadn't reached maturity (about 9 years of age) before I moved out of CA. But, the symptoms you describe applied to my citrus until I began fertilizing them once a month from about January through June or July. The phosphorus in the fertilizer is what holds the blossums and fruit on a tree. Check out this site.
http://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/solver/fertilizer.html

[TerryH]

When we bought our older home, we had two gigantic avocado trees that were big fruit producers all summer long. What we couldn't eat, would get bagged and given away to neighbors, friends or taken to work.

Unfortunately, the down side is fruit rats had invaded and you could see pits and gnawed avocados under the house and trees. We really liked the shade and fruit they provided, but not the vermin. I removed both trees about 3 years after we moved in.