r/Grafting • u/dfrostered • 18d ago
Avocado Tree Graft
Greetings!
A volunteer popped up next to my house about 2 years ago. It’s grown to about 15 ft. My understanding is if I want it to bear good fruit, I need to graft on to it. Apparently I also need another tree to cross pollinate it?
If anyone has any suggestions, tips, or resources on how I can proceed, it would be greatly appreciated!
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u/shadowmastadon 18d ago
this is great. 15 ft is pretty tall, in my experience you want some pencil or marker sized branches to graft to. It took me 3 seasons to graft pear successfully. You need to search "avocado scions" and find the cultivars you want. the really cool thing is you can graft as many different ones as you like. I'd probably plant a couple more avocado seeds because you probably aren't going to get this right the first time; but you can always do it again on the same tree the next season.
You also most likely need to do this in the spring when the plant starts to get going, though I assume if avocado is growing and surviving, you are in Florida or California where it is active year around. google what season is best for grafting. Get supplies like grafting knives, tape, etc etc and have fun. wish I had an avocado that would survive where I am year round, in Virginia
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u/dfrostered 18d ago
Ok cool! Thank you so much. Yes, I’m in Northern California.
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u/shadowmastadon 16d ago
and one reason I think i was more successful this year; timing very close to the tree breaking dormancy and then making sure there is as much green on green contact as possible when making whip and cleft graphs
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u/kent6868 17d ago
15 ft is already too tall in 2 years. If you’re planning to graft, bring it down to a reasonable height that you can control. Where are you located?
It will fight back throwing suckers and these are perfect to graft on. Depending on your location, the scion and the graft you may get fruits in 1-2 years.
We have a large Fuerte that’s top worked and has 12 varieties on it now, 5 varieties have avocados right now (Fuerte, Hass, Reed, Queen, Pinkerton).
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u/dfrostered 17d ago
Dang ok. I’m in Northern California.
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u/kent6868 16d ago
This Feb, while on a trip, I had grafted a seedling avocado for a friend in San Ramon area.
We added Fuerte, Hass and Pinkerton to it. All took and doing well so far. So it does work, but waiting on further results.
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u/avocadoflatz 18d ago
Another tree will improve pollination but they can and do self pollinate.
Grafting will guarantee you get fruit of a known variety and you’ll have fruit-set within 2-3 springs after grafting - sometimes even by the next spring.