Reed Avocado Tree

[Rebecca Lantz]

Reed Avocado Tree dropping premature fruit. It is an older tree and has had great production for the past few years. It is dropping lots of fruit, which has never happened before. They are the size of lemons. Any ideas on why this may be happening?

 

[coffeecraver]

FRUIT DROP



In all varieties of avocados there are two periods during the year when a certain percentage of the fruit that has set will drop. This is particularly evident during years when there is a very heavy set of fruit. “June drop” has been identified in other fruiting trees as well as avocados. At this time, many pea-sized fruits will be found on the ground. Later, after the fruit has matured to walnut on up to lemon size, there is another period when a lesser amount of fruit will drop, usually during the month of August. Any estimates of the crop for the following harvest year should be made after the August drop, which is the last drop that can be expected before the fruit matures.



The reasons for these two drops are not well understood. The June drop may be due in some way to improper pollination when the nights were too cold for the pollen to be effective. The August drop is probably due to a self-thinning by the tree, which may have set more fruit than it can comfortably carry. When these dropped fruits are cut open, the seed is black and dead -- hence the fruit will not mature further and is aborted. The Hass variety is particularly subject to fruit drop. In any event, fruit drop is no cause for concern because the tree will still carry a good crop to maturity in spite of the drop.