My mature avocado tree is dropping all it's leaves

[Rob Tucker]

I haven't seen it do this before like this. For a week its been a steady flow of leaves hitting the lawn. I raked it off five times now. What is left on the branches are a massive amount of buds which look healthy as can be.

Is this normal? Anyone?

[Carey]

Ours are not losing leaves..
Have you looked for evidence of the Queensland Longhorn Beetle?
It kills trees by tunneling the sap-wood just below the bark & can girdle limbs or trunks very quickly (days to a week)

[EightFingers]

I have one that drops almost all it’s leaves every year and they always come back. It doesn’t produce any avos, I keep the tree only for shade (when it decides to provide it). I don’t know the species since it’s only produced one avo in six years.

Puna: Our roosters crow first

[Mangosteen]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Tucker

I haven't seen it do this before like this. For a week its been a steady flow of leaves hitting the lawn. I raked it off five times now. What is left on the branches are a massive amount of buds which look healthy as can be.

Is this normal? Anyone?

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Do you mean you raked the leaves out from under the tree? Best to leave those leaves where they fall. They are mulch and contain vital nutrients for the tree.

[Rob Tucker]

The tree is maybe 50 years old. I have some lawn under about 25% of it's canopy. There are avos nearby with full leaf.

[kalianna]

Look at the leaves still on the tree. The longhorn beetles seems to kill the leaves from the inside out, so centers would be green and edges brown.

[terracore]

I would test the soil and see if the pH is off enough such that the tree is unable to uptake nutrients.

[Rob Tucker]

The leaves that are down are brown from the stem following the veins in the leaf. It's an old tree. If beetles are getting it I will just have to watch it go. I did find that a banyon was rooting on it and cut that back.

Thanks for your input everyone. Since no one else seems to have the problem I am resigned to watch it and just see what happens. There are massive buds on it which look fine.

[spencerw]

on our property we have about 8-10 50' avo trees all in one cluster. seems every other year each tree drop all their leaves during flowering. they still produce abundant amounts of avos year after year. and begin to produce leaves again as normal, and will be fully vegetated again soon. i think they are just giving themselves a mulching. been noticing it almost 4 years in a row now. ive also been noticing it a lot as i drive around. some trees are completely leaf-less others with drastic reduced foliage and some looking pretty normal. maybe just genetics?

[ElysianWort]

This is probably what is happening to your avocado tree unfortunately:

https://www.biisc.org/qlb/

I'm seeing it in some of my trees and so are many of my neighbors. They are attacking some of my older citrus too. Look for damage on the trunk with holes from the boring larvae and what might appear to be sawdust coming out of the holes.