Avocado Tree
Persea americana
Through the year 🗓️
🍂 Fall now
Taper feeding and bring it in before nights drop under 50 °F.
❄️ Winter
Slower growth: water when the top inch dries, keep it bright and away from heaters, no feed.
🌱 Spring
Repot young trees, pinch the tips to make it branch, and start feeding.
☀️ Summer
Fast growth: water often, feed monthly, and give it as much sun as you can (outdoors is fine above 50 °F).
The details
Light & placement
- Light
- Bright light with several hours of direct sun; in dimmer spots it grows tall and spindly
- Ideal PPFD
- 300–600 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹
- Grow-light distance
- 12–18 in below LED
Water & feed
- Watering method
- Water deeply when the top inch is dry and let it drain. It likes evenly moist soil but rots in a soggy pot.
- Fertilizer
- Balanced feed at ½ strength monthly in spring–summer.
Home & habit
- Soil
- Loose, well-draining potting mix with perlite or bark; pH 6.0–6.5
- Humidity
- Average (40–60%)
- Temperature
- 60–85 °F; damaged below about 40 °F
- Mature size
- 3–6 ft indoors with pruning (a 30–60 ft tree outdoors)
- Repotting
- Yearly while young, in spring, into a deep pot
- Propagation
- From a pit: wash it, push in three toothpicks and suspend it broad end down in water, or plant it half-buried in moist mix. Roots and a shoot appear in 2–8 weeks.
When something looks wrong
- Overwatering signs
- Yellowing, drooping leaves with brown patches; soggy soil
- Underwatering signs
- Brown, crispy leaf tips and edges; wilting
- Common pests
- Spider mites, scale, whiteflies
Common problems 🩺
The usual suspects when Avocado Tree looks unhappy. Most houseplant trouble is watering or light, not disease — see all plant problems if you are not sure which plant is the culprit.
Brown, burnt-looking leaf tips
Likely cause
Salts building up in the soil, from fertilizer or hard water.
What to do
Flush the pot with plenty of water until it runs clear every few months, and feed less.
One tall, bare stem
Likely cause
It was never pinched, and it's reaching for light.
What to do
Cut the top back to just above a leaf to force side shoots, and give it more sun.
Drooping leaves
Likely cause
Usually overwatering in a pot that drains slowly; sometimes thirst.
What to do
Check the soil an inch down: water if it's dry, wait if it's wet, and make sure the pot drains.
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