Not enough sunlight can cause the leaves to go black. However, cut off pieces you are trying to root out can't handle intense amounts of light, so if they are already blackening, they will likely not survive. Best advice: put somewhere cool or cold with moderate amounts of light and maintain a fairly high level of humidity to help get them through this difficult time. For the main plant, it needs full sun. lowering the pH of the soil a little bit might help, keep the roots moist but not waterlogged. Most likely all the leaves will go black, but if you're lucky the plant might send out some new green leaves later.

transplant shock.. lack of water in the heat of summer ... how did you plant it.. how have you watered ... are you in drought ... where are you ... big city name .... nothing is normal with a new transplant.. for the first year at least ... some leaf damage in late summer.. on a deciduous shrub.. who cares.. as you note.. it might just go dormant and lose its leaves early ... but it will still need good deep watering late into fall .. leafless or not ... dig a couple small hole with a hand trowel.. 3 to 6 inches.. AND FIND OUT ABOUT MOISTURE AT ROOT LEVEL ... water accordingly.. no guessing ... its stressed.. not hungry ... no fert. and imo.. ever ... shrubs dont need fert .. unless a soil test indicates you have barren soil.. which i highly doubt ... ken

FWIW - no plant likes or prefers to be rootbound, but some growers might choose to stress the plant by allowing it to become slightly root-bound as the stress of tight roots can cause a bit of an increase in bloom profusion. However, that shouldn't be interpreted as a signal the plant likes or prefers the stress; in fact, the opposite is true. The trouble is the Jobe's Sticks. They're notorious for allowing an uncontrolled amount of salts into the grow medium. I would 1) be rid of them completely (throw on ground around trees/shrubs) 2) Flush the soil thoroughly by slowly pouring a volume of room temp water = to at least 10x the pot's volume through the soil. This will flush the current accumulation of salts from the soil. After flushing, tip the pot at a 45* angle to drain excess water. Compare image B below to A to see what a difference it makes 3) get in the habit of watering on an 'as needed' basis, and fertilize regularly with a quality soluble synthetic fertilizer. It's unlikely you'd find a better fertilizer product than Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 for your plant. Al

Hi Everyone! Need some help on how to get my avocado tree healthy. I've had my wertz/little cado tree for 1.5 years. It is potted in a 20x20x12 planter and it gets about 8 hours of sun. I live in southern california. About 4 months ago i noticed a few leaves on the tree had black spots. Fast forward to today and it is on maybe 50 percent of the leaves now. I thought it might be pests so I have been spraying the leaves, but that hasnt done anything. Any ideas what is going on with my tree and what i can do to fix the issue? thank you!