Hi Viper - I came to that conclusion too! I will try to return it sometime this week. I was in SoCal and picked up a beautiful Reed. It was just up potted form a 5g to a 15g but wasn't a full 15g size yet. The nursery gave me a discount. I'll post a pic later.

Viper what would cause the shock cycle? It's been in the shade most of the day. It gets early sun. I see some new buds forming.

I got the last Reed from laguna hills nursery. I will plant this one soon and will prolly cover with a shade cloth.

That looks better. So the shock can be from many different factors. Transplant shock is typically from (in avocado's case) either messing up the root ball, letting roots dry too much (can be air pockets in the planting soil) or poor timing (as in a heat wave).

You soil looks kind of clayish and slow draining. Make sure you have GREAT drainage. Add lots of organic material and mulch heavily with leaves, wood chips or commercial mulch. Press the planting soil firmly as you place it in the planting hole and soak the soil after planting every day for the next 3-5 days. Provide noon-evening shade by plant, structure or shade cover. Do not plant in the mid day heat nor before or during a heat wave.

I am in Livermore, zone 9b so I have to be a bit more careful since the climate is already slightly against me, but the soil mix should include a good amount of gypsum as well. Very sandy soil or crushed granite is good.

If you have hard water, add 2-3 pounds of gypsum every month to counter the salts. It is an anti fungal, so you can benefit from gypsum anyways.

And fertilize on a citrus schedule. I try to do lots of organic fertilizer since avos are salt sensitive and add extra nitrogen via blood meal/ aged chicken manure.

Avocados have very stringy shallow roots. So MULCH! And do NOT dig around the tree and disturb the roots. Best thing is add leaf mulch and fine wood chips or micro bark and every 3-4 months add onto it to top it off. As it breaks down, it creates a heavenly environment for micro organisms.

Your citrus in the background is suffering from no mulch as well. It will stress really bad from the heat and too much water. (I know because I did the same thing)

sorry to ramble. Hope it works out for you!

Left one thing out. The shade cloth is necessary if the temps ever go over 95. If you are close enough to the coast and you never get over that, it is not needed. Mine are 100% fine will that upper 90 mark. You do not get a day grace period with avos. So shade cloth during the summer if you are over 95 for the first 2-3 years IMHO.

lol. Now I'm done. (I think)

I am in Newark. We have been having a heat wave this week. Tomorrow is supposed to be super hot. I will push the cado into a shadier spot and plant it when the weather is cooler.

Good eye on the citrus. I have 2 other citrus along the same row that are doing better. That one in the corner was stressed before planting and it took longer than the others to get established. The new leaves came out very small. I think i need to add more nutrients or move the tree. My soil seems to be draining well everywhere. But i will dig the hole and test the drainage.

Thanks for advice! I will pick up some mulch while its on sale.

just checked my 1 year old avacado trees in pots this morning , unfortunately some of the edges of some younger leaves are sunburned , this crazy heat wave we are currently having in the bay area, can't believe over a hundred in
San Francisco.

102 is SF right now. We were 95 at 10:15 am... I basically tented my avos with frost cover blanket. They are doing just fine.

I finally got around to returning the sad cado. There was new growth and it looked nice. I kept the tree in shade and it got some early morning sun.

The nursery first didn't want to take it back because it was over 30 days and they do not 'warranty' their trees. I told them it was sold to me in that condition. The guy said it was sun burned, just to cut it off and it will grow back normally. The guy complained that they would have to throw it away and tried to talk me into keeping it. Didn't offer a discount. Finally mentioned I bought another one that's healthier and I don't want two. After he agreed to the return, I found that that it was marked with blue paint which meant it was supposed to be 50% off. They never once offered a partial refund or discount. Which is fine, because I really did not want 2 reeds. I was not happy to find out that it should have been marked down. It looks like it was on it's way to be thrown out anyways. Kudos to the nursery for taking it back, points off selling a 'burnt' plant at full price.

Junk4us, At least they did the right thing... eventually. Most reputable nurserys will not even keep the damaged good near the quality trees for that reason. And they are very clearly marked to be discounted. But glad it worked out.

If people are willing to take on a stressed plant, more power to them. If the discount is good, I even will participate. But if I am going after one item, and looking for quality... it's not the way to go.

I am curious, was it a local nursery? Or chain store?

Viper - They are part of ACE Hardware, which is individually owned. They do have a good selection of plants and trees when its in season. I did see the Reed a few months ago and it looked better but still on the skinny side. I was busy buying/planting citrus trees back then. I was thinking keeping it for $20, but I already said I didn't want 2 of the same trees. I need to save space for other fruit trees.

Laguna Hills nursery, where i got the nice Reed from, is independent. The main guy there knew exactly what he had in inventory and could answer all sorts of questions. I had a feeling that if he wasn't busy talking to another customer, he would talk more to me. I did get a few basic questions answered. If you ever make it down to SoCal, I would recommend Laguna. They will have Sharwill back in stock in spring.

Do you have any pics of your cados?