Infected avocado leaves

When the biochemists came last week, they told us that we would have to remove the infected leaves from each of our avocado and citrus trees. We have to leave 25% of the leaves on each tree (infected or not, but preferably not). Some of our avocado trees are almost a lost cause, but we're willing to experiment and see if they will bounce back. This morning, I started the task of removing as many leaves as I could... as I could reach. The leaf above shows brown spots, which we thought might be some kind of mould, but in fact, they are microscopic insects eating the veins on the leaf. And they spread from one leaf to another. The organic solution that Kevin will be spraying on the tree trunks and leaves is supposed to kill all the insects. I managed to tackle nine trees today. It's not difficult, but very time consuming. And of course, because the leaves are infected, I have to be careful to bag them and throw them in the fire pit. We cannot use the leaves as green manure around the base of the trunk, that would defeat the purpose. We have to get rid of the leaves and burning them seems the most efficient way to ensure they don't survive. Hopefully, next year we'll see some results. Good results. We're crossing our fingers.

---