The Tropical Fruit Forum

Great collection. My dragonfruit looks even worse for probably the same reasons.

Is an everbearing white sapote unusual?

I don't think that's box stores doing that. I cruise as many nurseries as I can on a regular basis (3 or 4 a week all year) and the nurseryman that cares a lot about the success of the trees out the door is not as common as you're projecting, at least in san diego county. My experience is the following. The best local nursery in terms of selection is the worst labelled, staffed by the owner's deaf mother (forget about instructions on planting depth, lol) and will sell you seedlings as grafted trees . The second best is somewhat better labelled and has great trustworthy trees but is staffed by non-english speakers. Don't bother going if you don't know exactly where your tree is. Same with the 3rd best. The best (not exactly local) in terms of citrus and landscape has incredibly knowledgeable staff who are always busy with more important customers. Want help with planting instructions? The two most helpful in terms of knowledge and advice have the worst selection. Both practically shut down in winter. There's one not too far away that's a pretty good compromise in terms of selection and service (and has an excellent seed section), but more often than not doesn't have what I want.

The HD has a surprising good selection, plenty of help finding stuff you want, but not much for planting and fertilizing (with rare but real exceptions).

While its fashionable to bash the big box stores, in my experience they're doing a damn good job. Which is probably why they're big.

You (patrick) are no doubt incredibly helpful and I wish your nursery was near me, but you seem exceptional and not the typical local nurseryman.

P.S. I do buy more than half my stuff at local nurseries.

www.avocadosource.com/cas_yearbooks/cas_42_1958/cas_1958_pg_102-105.pdf
http://ucanr.edu/sites/alternativefruits/files/166373.pdf

First one has a pretty extensive table of compatibilities.

And another
http://www.avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_36_1951/CAS_1951_PG_107-112.pdf

Once looked for the answer to this myself without success.

As far as I can tell, most grafting has to do with proximity, not actual contact of the right tissue types. Cutting induces an injury response. The rootstock (and scion?) sends out cells to repair the damage and if its close enough and protected enough, finds the partner tissue in the scion. Then starts building (or converting to) the appropriate bridging tissues. I think this is why grafts that don't really make sense probably work.

My response with the italics reads really snotty. Sorry for that. Was just trying to clarify a confusion that I and many others have had regarding the recent releases.

Can't speak to the second part. Perhaps the only thing he's really done different is to plant out a lot of seeds instead of trying to grow from turpentine or manilla rootstock. Although you'd think that that experiment would have been done in many parts of the world already. Don't know. At the very least he's doing the hard work of promoting his trees while those mythical floridians and indians are keeping their cold hardy seedlings secret.

I think he's only started breeding to create the second generation. The ones he's selling now are [grafted from] first generation seedlings from established indian type mangoes (e.g. kent, haden).

edit: added clarification

For looks i like pineapple guava and loquat.

Ive been enjoying the kents from peru all winter. Better and more consistent than the keitts from cali i had last year.

Nice work. Now we just need a post at the end of every month reporting on the avos and mangoes from that month.

Awesome.

Related to my interested in heirloom plants, i.e. fixing genetics, do you think these are self-crosses? Were there other flowering avos in the area when the parents flowered? And what are the chances that the parents had already gone through several generations of self-crossing in Cuba?

Dave's Garden has a couple members offering cuttings. I've never gone that route, but might be worth a try.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/127458/

Plant those seeds for a third generation!

What variety rootstocks did you add? I've got a hass seedling and a lamb hass seedling growing next to my hass tree i'll inarch next summer.