The Tropical Fruit Forum

Haha, I would get 10 of each 'cause after all the quarantine years who knows what's left... 

How important is using a root rot resistant rootstock in SoCal? I want to plan a couple of plants in the ground and I'm in Santa Barbara county. Clearly phytophtora is a problem in the wider area, but I'm several miles away, uphill and generally upwind from the closest commercial planting. The soil here is totally sandy and on a slope, thus drains well. As far as I can tell the trees found in retail nurseries are on seedling rootstock (Laverne, which supplies a large fraction of nurseries here uses Zutano). I'm wondering whether it's really necessary for me to locate plants on clonal rootstock, any thoughts/experiences?

Due to the wildfires having affected some of the growers (Brokaw in particular) it's almost impossible to find any avo plants in the larger area. Commercial growers are telling me they haven't been able to get any plants either. If I have to get clonal rootstock I'm probably best off just forgetting about all this for a couple of years...

Why arent CA groves on west indian rootstocks?  If that were the case why wouldnt everyone use them?  Why bother with clonal stocks etc. 

By the way, I am not implying they arent more salt tolerant.  It just seems odd comercial groves arent all using it.  Maybe just lack of seeds here or is there some other downside to WI rootstocks?

Edit:  Google says they arent cold tolerant and thats why noone in CA uses it. 

Thanks for the question and the update! I just had an email exchange with Laverne nursery and they say they graft their avos on Zutano rootstock. I just ate 3 Macarthur avos I got at the farmers market a week ago and they were delicious (not like Haas, more like a Reed, i.e. less oil but more citrus and fruit flavor). They're apparently good rootstock, so now I'm trying to germinate the pits...

TVE, note that approximately only 50 percent of Flying Dragon seedlings are true from seed.  You will have to cull the non true varieties out.

Thanks for the reminder! I was just reading in an old citrus grower forum thread from Malcolm_Manners:

"FD is notorious for making lots of variant seedlings. I heard a good paper on the subject at the International Society for Citriculture's conference in Orlando, years ago, at which the guy recommended using only the zigzagged stem, curved-thorns types, and discarding the rest, if you wanted the typical dwarfing that FD gives." http://citrusgrowersstatic.chez.com/web/viewtopica4e2.php

I'm curious about what you all have noticed about the influence of the location where you grow citrus on its flavor.

My (home) orchard is in a borderline location in SoCal and my trees tend to be fairly stressed. Plus the soil is sandy and slightly alkaline. One of the results is a high level of acidity it seems and perhaps more intense flavor. Dunno...

Something I found striking is that I have had no luck finding a complement to my Bearss Lime tree. I have a Key Lime, but I would be incapable of distinguishing its fruit from the Bearss by taste. Maybe by scent, but I'm not sure. I suspect that if I could buy a ripe Key Lime coming from the Carribean it would be different. I also tried some Mexican Sweet limes but they just came out insipid. No acidity and no flavor, also not much sweetness. My Mexican friends who grew up with sweet limes tell me that what came off my trees ain't it. Well, the trees didn't get their native climate either...

When I read flavor comparisons between varieties I always wonder how much of that applies to my location...

I'm contemplating growing a handful of Avocado trees under some form of structure to provide a bit of protection from wind, cold, and dryness. What's not clear to me is how much space the trees end up needing in order to produce a reasonable amount of fruit.

I'm in the Santa Barbara mountains, just at the border line where citrus and avocado grows. We have the highest (in altitude) Laurel Soumac around on our property and that's an old indicator plant... I've had 3 AVos in the ground a few years ago and they did not make it. I ended up pulling them back out. The main problem seemed to be a combination of cold nights and strong daily 'sundowner' winds. All the leaves became damaged and in the spring all the trees ended up denuded. I want to try again but provide some protection with a structure. I'm not entirely sure exactly what and I'm trying to figure out whether it's reasonable size-wise...

I found a very encouraging report, which studied per-acre yield of Hass and Lamb Hass using high density planting in San Diego. They planted trees on a 10' x 10' grid and topped them yearly to 7', expecting them to stay ~8' tall. They achieved higher yields than conventional 20' x 20' planting with taller&bigger trees! https://www.californiaavocadogrowers.com/sites/default/files/Avocado-High-Density-research-trial-FINAL%20Report.pdf

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like it's gonna be a couple of years before I get to graft onto FD 
I ordered 20 seeds, I'll see how that turns out. Worst case I'm out $12...

Something I'm wondering, how long does it take at minimum from planting FD seeds to having a graftable rootstock plant? If I germinate the seeds asap can I hope to graft next spring?

Thanks for the info. My success rate at rooting C-35 hasn't been all that high (I don't have a knack for that, evidently) so I'm not sure I want to try rooting FD budsticks from the CCPP... I also recall reading that rootstock from cuttings makes for weaker plants than from seeds, but maybe that's nonsense.

I have a 17 year old Eureka lemon (rootstock unknown) and half of it broke off in a wind storm a couple of months ago. The tree grew a weak Y early on and cracked there about 10 years ago. Now one side finally broke off completely, well, actually, it was a mess of splintered stuff with the branch still attached and alive. A couple of days ago I harvested and then finished the cut and cleaned it up a bit. What now?

I've already grafted some Feminello Syracusano into the other side of the tree (but higher up) and would like more of that, so I'm wondering whether this is a good opportunity to put a few bark grafts into that open trunk. While I'm pretty sure I can make them take I wonder whether they will really grow or just sit there? Thoughts or other suggestions?