Larger than Usual Crop Loads Can Stress an Avocado Tree

Once the avocado trees in your groves begin flowering, examine your trees for signs of stress. In particular, assess avocado trees that had a larger fruit load than usual.

• Leaves that are light green to yellow in color
• An excessive drop of leaves
• Sparse leaf cover
• Thin "weedy" short shoots pushing flowers only from the tips

The above symptoms suggest the trees may have been drained by a large crop and despite having a very light crop to harvest this year, have not yet fully recovered. If you think your trees look unhealthy or stressed contact your farm advisor about potential cultural management activities you can undertake to best support your trees as they go into flower opening and fruit set. Doing nothing to help trees in poor condition at this time of year and over the next couple of months will generally not be helpful in getting good yields of fruit.