Forum home Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Avocado plant problem

phildigphildig Posts: 55
Hello and thank you for reading this message. Can anyone help with this?

I've grown an avocado plant from the stone of a supermarket avocado. The plant is about a metre high now and two years old. I'm a no ice and to start with I mixed garden soil with compost. Not the best, I know!

A few months ago I reported the plant with the existing soil tightly bound by roots and then potting compost in the majority of the pot. Problem is that for about a year the leaves have been gradually turning brown starting at the tips then going crispy and dropping off. Since re-potting the plant there has been rapid leaf growth at the top but some of these leaves are already going brown and the tips.

Any ideas on this will be of help, thank you.

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Avocados want to grow into big trees and need temperatures between 16 and 30C to do well plus a fair amount of humidity. 

    I suspect yours is too cold, in too dry an atmosphere, poor light conditions and possibly over or under watering.   Have a look at this info and see if it helps you improve your growing conditions - https://www.californiaavocado.com/avocado101/your-own-avocado-tree  
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • phildigphildig Posts: 55
    Dear Obelixx and Philippa,

    Thank you for your replies. Hopefully it will keep going a while. It makes a nice tall green indoor plant. How big should the pot be then? At the moment it's 27cm diameter and 25cm height.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    If there are roots poking out of the bottom it needs a bigger pot.  If not, it's fine.  The more important things to get right are temperature, humidity and light.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • phildigphildig Posts: 55
    Dear Obelixx, thank you for your reply. I see. In the new pot the roots are fine. I water it with about three litres once per week. It's indoors with temperature around 20 degrees C. It could be nearer a window, I'll plan to move it. Any ideas about the browning leaves? Thank you again for replying.
  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 37,906
    The browning tips of the leaves could be due to a dry atmosphere in your house - I'm assuming you have central heating? You could try misting the leaves with a fine rainwater spray occasionally to increase the humidity, as hinted at by Obelixx.
    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited January 2019
    Ladybird4 said:
    The browning tips of the leaves could be due to a dry atmosphere in your house - I'm assuming you have central heating? You could try misting the leaves with a fine rainwater spray occasionally to increase the humidity, as hinted at by Obelixx.
    Also creating a constantly humid microclimate by grouping pots of other plants around the avocado’s pot ... plants like ferns which enjoy moist roots and need regular misting, will help to maintain a moist atmosphere around the avocado. It worked really well when I grew avocados as houseplants. 

    I also found they made better plants plants by reducing the height of the plant by up to two thirds to stimulate the growth of side shoots so that it formed a ‘bush’ rather than a ‘tree’ 

    Good luck with yours.  :)



    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





Sign In or Register to comment.