If you are a fitness enthusiast and have found avocado’s nutritional value, you might want to get yourself an avocado tree. If you are planning to have an avocado tree and wondering if it will be losing leaves, you might want to have an answer.
Do avocado trees lose their leaves?
Avocado trees lose their leaves occasionally. Except for winter, they lose leaves throughout the year, as avocados cannot tolerate frost. Although losing leaves rapidly is a good sign, many consider it bad for trees’ health. Adequate watering can save trees and leaves regrow from flowers eventually.
Avocado trees drop their leaves at different rates at different times of the year.
In the fall:
Leaves fall off trees after completing their life cycle. As it is different from the life cycle of trees, falling leaves do not indicate trees’ health.
In fall, usually leaves complete their life cycle and drop their leaves rapidly. As avocado trees usually grow leaves in spring, they heavily fall in autumn. Rapid fall of leaves does not indicate bad health of the trees.
In winter:
The layer of ice that covers the surface of leaves, fruits, and tree branches during winter creates an adverse condition for avocados. Thus, avocado trees will not drop their leaves during that season.
Although, significantly lower temperatures such as 20° F can freeze the leaves and turn them brown. However, leaves will not fall off until the winter is over.
In spring:
Spring is when avocado trees start flowering. During this period and pollination, avocado trees usually drop their leaves. This is also important to know; new leaves are born from the flowers.
That means, even though the tree is losing leaves, new leaves will grow simultaneously.
Losing leaves in the spring for the avocado tree is a natural phenomenon and does not indicate the bad health of the plant. Also, falling leaves do not affect flowering or pollination.
Although avocado trees keep losing leaves throughout the year, it is unlikely that a tree would drop all its leaves. The avocado tree is not an evergreen tree, but if it loses all its leaves, external factors should be identified and treated to save the tree.
Is it normal for avocado trees to lose their leaves as they grow?
Avocado trees have a slow growth rate; as a result, it takes a while for a tree to grow fully. While growing, some leaves can turn brown or fall off the trees. This is often assumed as bad health of the tree.
But, in reality, every leaf has its life cycle and, it is much different than that of trees. That means, even though an avocado tree is growing, it can lose its leaves.
However, if your avocado tree is losing its leaves while growing, you should not worry at all. It is a normal and natural process. And new trees will eventually be born from the flowers.
Do avocado trees lose their leaves when flowering?
Flowering plays a significant role in a plant’s life. Avocado trees usually flower from March to May. When most plants pollinate in the spring, avocado flowers also go through the process, but only 1% of the flowers can become fruit.
Many people face their avocado trees losing leaves while flowering and start worrying whether the tree has become sick or their flowers will be pollinated. But this is a natural event, and falling leaves have nothing to do with pollination.
Moreover, leaves can fall independently without being affected by any surrounding circumstances. If leaves start falling off, it will not affect flowering or pollination.
Although avocado leaves do not fall off at the same rate throughout the year, many can find it unusual. But, during the flowering season, avocado trees losing their leaves is a common phenomenon.
How often and when do avocado trees lose their leaves?
Avocado trees lose their leaves occasionally. During some months of the year, the tree loses leaves at a normal rate, but they lose leaves rapidly during some months.
Avocados can lose leaves due to low temperature or lack of water. Also, salinity in water can affect the rate of losing leaves adversely.
As leaves falling off is a natural phenomenon, it only indicates that the leave has completed its life cycle. So, you should not worry about it if your avocado tree starts losing leaves.
Avocado trees lose their leaves rapidly during the fall. It is unlikely for the trees to keep their brown leaves.
During the flowering season, spring, the rate of losing leaves might be lesser than that rate of autumn.
In winter, as avocado struggles in the frost, leaves are less likely to fall off during this season. Although if the temperature is low young leaves can become dry. Usually, avocado leaves will be completely brown or dried at a temperature less than 20° F.
But the trees will not fall off until the winter finishes.
Why is my avocado tree losing leaves?
Avocado trees lose their leaves due to many reasons. If leaves turn brown in your avocado tree, you should look into the matter deeply so that you can avoid any unwanted outcome.
Temperature and Weather:
Avocado leaves can fall off trees due to shallow temperature and dry-humid conditions.
Light and air:
Light is an essential attribute for healthy leaves. If your tree cannot get adequate light, leaves might fall off.
The right amount of water:
leaves can turn brown if the tree gets little water. Also, overwatering can clean the roots, and no contact with soil can make leaves fall.
Salinity:
Using tap water can sometimes be inappropriate as it may contain salinity, making avocado trees lose their leaves. Natural water from other sources can solve this issue.
Soil quality:
Soil must contain nutrients and an appropriate solid-state. Too dry or too moist soil can affect leaves’ health. Also, if the tree has been shifted between pots, leaves can fall due to inhabitable adaptation.
Using fertilizers can be a solution to maintain proper soil nutrition.
Dried branches:
Drying branches can make leaves fall from trees. Prune your trees to ensure the best tree health.
What to do when an indoor avocado tree loses all leaves?
As an outstanding source of nutrition, many grow avocadoes in their home. As indoor avocado trees are getting popular, more and more tree owners are facing many problems. Falling leaves can be regarded as healthy, but losing all leaves can turn anyone worrisome. Here is what to do when an indoor avocado tree loses all leaves-
Water till the soil gets moist:
dried up soil can allow the tree no nutrition which can make trees lose all the leaves. But watering the soil can give the tree access to water and it will help it grow leaves naturally.
Use fertilizer:
Fertilizers can be a great source of additional nutrition for the plant. In this way, trees get to access various nutrients to grow their leaves. If added in adequate moisture, the soil will support the tree to grow trees
Cut off dried branches:
Dried-up branches cannot grow trees, so you should cut them from the intersections, and it will allow the tree to grow leaves from those sections.
Change the location of the plant:
The plant is extra sensitive to lights and air circulation. Change their location so that they get extra light and access to air, it can help the tree to grow leaves.
Dried avocado leaves and branches can harm the overall growth of the tree. Leaves eventually fall off the tree when they have reached their optimum life cycle. Dried branches can still be in place and don’t grow any leaves or flowers in the tree.
That’s why you should regularly check and remove brown leaves from your avocado tree. Cutting them from the core or intersections will help the tree keep good health, and it will allow the tree to grow other branches and leaves.
But it would help if you waited when you are sure that the leave is no longer healthy. So, it would be best if you cut the brown leaves off my avocado tree to maintain a healthy tree.
Final thoughts
In a natural process, avocado trees lose leaves. This is not an uncommon incident. Although avocado trees lose their leaves all year round, as the avocado tolerates less frost in winter, the tree loses fewer leaves during then. Leaves grow back from the flower, so losing leaves isn’t a problem.