Hi Sherry Showing a picture of your tree will be extremely helpful! There are great instructions on the Conversations page. Once you get the hang of posting your pictures, you might get addicted to it, like me! Click on the link. Susie Here is a link that might be useful: photo insturctions

Ganoderma fungus produces the largest 'growths' that I know of but nothing like what you describe. The state may have an "Urban Forester" on staff who is the best resource I can recommend. On a lighter note, how I wish I could say, "in my research, I've come across many gals." My colleagues were all guys, many of us nerds.

I see a few problems: the spotted leaves are either a persa mite or fungus no a problem but the infected leaves will fall off. you should white wash the entire tree or move it to a shaded area until it starts to recover. how long have you had it were the brown tips there when you bought it? what have you fertilized with? i give even my new trees food. for small trees like yours if watering twice a week where i am its not super hot, i use a liquid b vitamin once a week for first month and make sure the ph of your water is below 7 i treat them like my blueberries and they love it more nutrient uptake. 5.5 - 6.5 is best. there are several ways to lower ph of water. twice a month i water with a dilution of ammonia sulfate which is 21-0-0 (2 tbs to 5 gal bucket of water.) that will push new growth. and once a quarter i add a little organic slow release avocado food, azomite. and i use a flower fert 2-10-10 before bloom time for heavy flowers... i have multiple trees in pots that are 10-15 ft tall and 8 ft wide heavely fruited. so you have to be on a good feeding schedule.

Sorry to tell you, but your tree is definitely dead - or at least in the process of dying. I see you have a bag of fertilizer there. Did you recently fertilize it? Avocados are very sensitive to salt build up and will experience salt burn when you fertilize them. Too much of it will cause necrosis to travel from the roots, up the stem and out toward the tips of the branches. From the looks of it, your tree is experiencing this as the trunk is dead and the extent of dead tissue is progressing toward the branch tips. This is even an issue here where we grow avocados in the ground. A friend of mine sprinkled fertilizer on the surface of the soil near his 10-foot avocado last summer. With all the rain we've had, the fertilizer dissolved and soaked into the ground, causing the avocado to burn and die - a whole 6 months later. It is best to not fertilize young avocado trees at all.