Discover the top reasons why your avocado plant might be dying and get expert tips on how to revive and care for it.
Is your once-thriving avocado plant now looking sad with drooping or brown leaves? You’re not alone, and there’s hope! These symptoms can be due to various reasons like dry air, underwatering, or nutrient deficiencies. In this guide, we’ll explore the top reasons your avocado plant might be struggling and how to revive it.
Avocados are one of the most nutritionally and tasty fruits known. Many people like growing them in their gardens, but they necessitate some special care and attention. Several varieties affect avocado trees, and if not tackled quickly, they will take over and die the avocado plants. But how do you identify when something is wrong with this plant?
Warning Signs of a Dying Avocado Plant
If your avocado plant exhibits any of the following symptoms, it might be in distress:
- Have you noticed that your avocado plants’ leaves are becoming brown and dropping off?
- One clear sign is when the upper leaves of the avocado plant turn pale green, become smaller, develop brown tips, and fall off easily.
- Any new shoots become brown and fade away from the tip, leaving just barren branches.
Decoding Avocado Leaf Problems: What Are They Trying to Tell You?
Many issues leading to an avocado plant dying can be detected early by closely observing the plant’s leaves. Are your avocado plant leaves having many small spots or are they getting curly? Are there any small insects or mites crawling on the plant?
These are just a few of the common signs that your plant is not doing well.
Identifying the Issue
Avocado plants that are dying can be rescued if the main cause is identified and the appropriate treatment is applied. Depending on the problem, it might take many weeks or months for an avocado tree to die completely. The process of elimination is the best technique to figure out what’s wrong with avocado plants. Examine one possible problem at a time, and if it appears to be resolved, go on to the next.
Let’s look at the top 7 causes of dying avocado plants and how to cure them to assist.
The Top 7 Reasons why your Avocado Plant is dying
Common issues with avocado plants can be easily spotted by monitoring the leaves. Watching for avocado leaf problems can help with a fast reaction in time, and your avocado plant can be saved.
1. Under-Watering: The Silent Killer
Avocado trees’ leaves may quickly droop, brown, and fall off if not properly irrigated. The most common issue with avocado plants is underwatering. You can easily spot this issue by checking which leaves fall down. If the leaves first turn brown and then fall off you don’t water the plant enough. The tree can’t keep up with photosynthesis with it’s large leaves. Note, that avocado leaves don’t curl as much as other plants leaves to protect itself if there is too much sun.
Overwatering or a lack of nutrients can produce yellowing leaves, suggesting iron deficiency. Avocados do not like hard water; they prefer more acidic soil with fewer minerals; therefore, soft tap water is perfect. However, tap water can be hard depending on the source, and chemical treatments added to potable can make it harder. Browning leaves can also be caused by hard water, especially when combined with dry air.
Water avocado trees only when the top 2-4 inches of soil are dry, as a general rule. To boost water retention and prevent evaporation from the soil, apply 2 inches of compost and mulch. Water avocado plants by pressing a finger into the soil up to the second knuckle and watering liberally. If the soil is saturated 1 hour or longer after watering, the tree’s soil will most likely need to be changed to improve drainage. Do the finger test suggested above to determine if you need to supply more or less water. Water avocado trees every 1-2 weeks in general. While this may appear to be insufficient water, utilizing compost and mulch, especially in drier places, will assist in keeping moisture in the soil.
A simple hack is to set reminders on your phone or mark your calendar for watering days. This ensures you don’t forget, especially during busy weeks.
2. The Importance of Humidity for Avocado Plants
It would be best if you tried to increase the humidity as much as possible to maintain the leaves in good form, and the best method is to use a humidifier. It will make a tremendous impact if you keep the humidity between 45 and 55 percent (which is also an excellent level for people and dogs). Of course, this is significantly less than the 70 to 80 percent that the plant requires, but it should prevent all but the oldest leaves from browning at the margins.
Make sure that the humidity, in any case does not fall down to 20% for more than 1-2 days. Otherwise, there is a high chance the leaves will fall of in the coming weeks.
A humidity tray can also assist; however, it’s better for shorter plants. Before reaching the tall leaves of interior trees like the avocado, the humidity it emits frequently diffuses into the air surrounding it. Spraying water on the leaves to boost humidity is useless. One of those garden misconceptions that refuse to die is the idea that spraying helps plants deal with dry air.
Grow your avocado tree in a humid greenhouse or seal it inside a large clear plastic bag throughout the autumn and winter for “ideal” development. Even if the humidity increases, the injured leaves will not turn green again; nevertheless, fresh leaves will not become brown. To put it another way, excessive humidity doesn’t repair browned leaves; it merely protects them from further harm.
Quick Tip: If you’re unsure about the humidity levels in your home, consider getting a digital hygrometer. It’s an affordable tool that can give you accurate readings, helping you adjust conditions for your avocado plant.
3. Sunburn caused the avocado plant to die
If your avocado tree’s leaves are falling off or its branches are become turn green to black due to root rot, the bark may be exposed to direct sunlight, causing sunburns. Avocados thrive in direct sunlight, but since their roots are so near the surface, they could get sunburned. Avocado trees don’t grow well in temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). Consider putting measures in place to keep them cool during the warmest days, such as sunscreen or shade covers. Paint the trunk and bigger limbs white to preserve the fragile bark. Dilute a white latex paint with equal parts of water and apply liberally.
If you keep the plant indoors, sunburn is unlikely to be an issue. If you live in a very warm area with strong sunlight, I recommend keeping the plant a few feet/ meters away from the window. If you plant the avocado tree in the garden consider planting it next to other trees or close to a house or other source of natural shadow during a few hours per day.
4. Fertilize your avocado plant properly
In 90% of the cases you won’t have to use fertilizers. Only consider using them if you checked first the previous three points above (underwatering, humidity, sunburn).
Fertilizer is essential to avocado plants because it compensates the soil nutrient deficiencies. Avocado plants are frequently deficient in nitrogen and zinc. If you’re concerned about the health of your avocado trees, have your soil analyzed and then fertilize for these nutrients. I generally suggest fertilizing them when they require it. You can use a citrus tree fertilizer as an avocado fertilizer or organic. Organic fertilizers are derived from home wastage like coffee, banana and potatoes peel, egg shellfish emulsion, etc. Fertilizers Avocado trees respond well to fertilizers with a 2:1:1 NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) ratio. A fertilizer with a 6-3-3 NPK, for example, works nicely. Compost can also be used as an alternative. The compost’s high-quality nutrients benefit the tree and the beneficial soil organisms.
5. Adverse Climate caused to the avocado plant dying
Avocado trees originated in hotter areas with strong rainfall and sandy soils that drain efficiently. You shouldn’t have to do much else if you can offer all of these for your avocado tree. Avocado trees are more difficult to cultivate in other zones because they are native to zones 9-11(California, Florida, Texas, and other southern areas in the United States). While they may still be grown in certain colder climates, they will most likely require additional support. Most avocado trees, for example, can withstand temperatures as low as -2°C, but this varies by variety.
6. Pests and Diseases
Avocado trees are sensitive to a range of pests and illnesses, the most frequent of which are grasshoppers and borers and diseases including root rot and Verticillium wilt. Root rot is the most likely cause of these alarming symptoms. There are three types of root rot, and you’ll need to figure out which one your tree has since one is always fatal.
- Rosellina root rot causes white areas on the trunk or limbs and purple growths near the soil.
- Large collections of tiny yellow or brown mushrooms along the soil level indicate oak root rot.
- Large collections of tiny yellow or brown mushrooms along the soil level indicate oak root rot. It is also known as Amarillo root rot.
Brown tips on leaves, black/rotting feeder roots, and maybe dead branches on the top of the tree are all signs of common avocado root rot. Pests can be controlled by attracting predators, while fungal diseases can be treated by pruning infected leaves and using natural fungicides. While diseases are less likely than watering, nutrition, or the environment to impact your avocado tree, they can still be a problem.
7. Avocado need special care and maintenance
Your avocado tree’s health is mostly determined by the environment in which it grows. If you take care properly, you can reduce the possibilities of your avocado plant dying and other issues throughout the year. It’s best not to water it throughout the day because it will evaporate and produce dry soil. It would help if you also made sure that there is proper drainage, as previously mentioned.
Want a Fruit-Bearing Avocado Tree?
While the health of your avocado plant is paramount, many enthusiasts also dream of seeing it bear fruit. Whether an avocado plant bears fruit or not has usually not directly to do with its health status. The two main reasons why your plant might not bear fruit is because it’s either too young or not getting pollinated.
Avocado trees can take up to 10 years until they produce fruits. Furthermore, they have a rather complex flowering pattern, which usually requires more than one plant in order to get high enough chances to bear fruit.
Conclusion
Caring for an avocado plant requires attention to detail and understanding its specific needs. By addressing the common issues highlighted above, you can ensure a healthy and thriving plant. Remember, a happy avocado plant can be a rewarding sight, so invest time in its care!
Every avocado plant has its unique quirks and needs. Have you faced challenges with yours? We’d love to hear your stories, successes, and even the mishaps. Share your experiences and questions in the comments below, and let’s grow together!