Climate area?

Zone 9B, Sunset zone 15.

I don't grow or know much about avocado trees, but it looks thirsty.

is it supposed to be that yellow ...

give us more info ... from the point of buying it.. was it root bound in the pot ....how you planted.. any amendments in the hole ... etc ... how you water.. etc ... is it on drip???

take a hand trowel and dig a few 3 to 6 inch holes .. in the gob planted.. and in undisturbed surrounding soil ... and tell us what you find... this is how i figured out how to use drip on my sand ...

you need to provide water. .thru the hole root mass ... with my sand.. that meant i might have to run the irrigation to the tree for 6 to 8 hours ..

also ... if you find it dry at depth.. you might be better off just running a hose on a trickle.. rather than providing it by drip.. since you might drown other things on the zone ...

trees usually need a good deep drink of water.. full drainage.. and then near drying before the next time ... i never figured out how to accomplish that on a drip zone ... since non tree plants dont need that kind of watering ...

besides .. once fully established.. the tree should not need to be watered all that often.. so they should probably not be on the drip ... as they will have put their roots all around your yard .. and get whatever they need from where you are watering other plants ...

what did you put in the planting hole?

ken

I'd check where those ties hold it to the stake. Some of them may have been there since you planted and might be cutting off the trees circulation.

Is that a pot I see sticking up around the hole around the plant? Hope there's no bottom to that. Anything around the root zone may be cutting off proper root growth.

Avocados do not like extreme heat and are native to semi-humid climates, where they grow as understory trees with some protection from hot sun. They don't do very well in hot, dry summers, and since you noted a Sunset Zone, I'm guessing that you are West coast and that's what you have. Around here (SF Bay Area) they seem to do best in places like Berkeley, which has much milder summers than even a few miles inland, and cooler, moister air in summer.

Especially since they are a California commercial crop USDA Cooperative Extension Service branch covering your area should have plenty about growing them and what problems can occur there. With like other plants these having definite environmental parameters. Including soil conditions. Otherwise what reading on the subject I have done in the past always leads to specific disease and pest issues having become significant factors in California. As often happens when large scale production of a crop is undertaken, thereby producing lots of concentrated host material for nuisance organisms to build up on.

Thank you for all the replies here! Now I have more clue.

The brown circle around the root is the drip line.

I dug a few places into the soil yesterday and it was dry.

When I planted it last May, the tree was root bound, I cut off the root bound and dug a shallow hole, then mound it up with half native soil half potting soil (native soil is a bit clayish). I covered the tree with shade cloth for the whole summer.

I think there might be three problems now: the mound around the roots is too steep so water ran off; it needs more water additional to the drip; the past few months we have several frost days (front yard mulch was covered with frost) and the leaves may have frost damage, so does my neighbor's trees.

Horticultural techniques for successful plant establishment

Microsoft Word - Planting fact sheet.doc (wsu.edu)

A tree planted last May, will have roots several, if not many feet out from the trunk by now, so that drip ring won't do what the tree needs to expand it's root system. Keep that in mind and water out far enough to cover that area and then some.

Yes, could be frost damage causing the yellow leaves.

And please come back and let us know how this all turns out. :-)

An update here for the avocado tree. It's doing great so far! Lots of new growth. Maybe next winter I'll give it some sort of cover for the frost days...

Very Nice))

Hey there, I see your tree is looking better. Im in SD county, I grow multiple avocado cultivars, and I grew up in an area known for commercial avocado crops. Your tree is fine, no worries. Normal leaf drop before the spring/summer flush of new leaves looks just like this.

Your planting technique gets full marks with the mounding etc. Avocados have a network of shallow roots that do a lot of their moisture acquisition and LOVE a thick layer of leaf mulch to keep their soil moist but not wet (rot). So I would not get rid of its leaves, just let them compost at its base. Here inland SD, we have a majority soil composition of decomposed granite. When mulched, the DG is great avocado/citrus media, if not mulched...concrete.

-s