The Tropical Fruit Forum

that is true for large mature trees.  For the small trees like these, I just lop them off and bark graft them in December.

Here's some pics of the 3 year old trees that are blooming.  They were kind of slow growing and the better looking trees got topped at 2 years.  The brown looking one is almost a reject tree but I guess I will let it keep going for now.  These trees both had weak growth and salt intolerance compared other trees planted at the same time. 

Brad, I had my Hawaiian seedling tree (grew out 2 seeds), one fruited in 7 years, tasted good. The other seedling took 18 years and only had 2 fruits so that is my multi-grafted tree now. It is very vigorous so anything I graft on it grows fast. This rootstock will grow at least 10 in height every year. so I can it back to 12 feet.

Kaz, the lineage of the Hawaiian avocado may have been the reason it took 18 years.  If it had west Indian genetics, sometimes they don't flower or produce well here.  I had a few Hawaiian avocado trees of known grafted origin that would never flower here even though they were grafted and trees got very large, they refused to flower here. 

I have the "Pura Vida" trees grafted on a few trees here also and they have gotten pretty large but still not flowered yet.

Why not grow some stone fruits that will actually make a good load of fruit for you?  I am not trying to pee in your cheerios but even here in a hot area of San Diego mangos are a stretch. 

The rootstocks I have that are flowering now are only 3 or 4 ft tall.  The fuerte seedling was around 10ft tall.

Ive got some rootstocks in the field that have not yet been top worked that are 3 years old and flowering.  I also had this volunteer tree fruit after just a few years.  The fruit were not great so I top worked it.  https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=49912.msg482917#msg482917

I would say 4 or 5 years to get fruit off an avocado seedling is not too unusual.  Going 20 years would be way more unlikely. 

How many pieces did you want?  I dont have the green gold for sale but i have the others.  The sharwils are already blooming so it may be hard to get good pieces.  I can try though if you just want 1 or 2. 

I don't think white sapote would ship all that well.  Maybe if you overnight it.  It goes to mush pretty fast.  Like shipping peqches or somwthing is not going to work out that well. 

This year I have one tree with last years fruits that is about to break a really large branch full of fruit.  That is a bad thing about reed.  The branches weep and break if thry get too full of fruit.  Even after heavy thinning, it is still too much.

Dont buy 1/2" parafilm, it is too small.  You want the 1" nursery tape.

Its smart to get the 800w one Simon.  The unit I got is heavy too but it has wheels to move it around.  Can't tell if yours has wheels. 

I swapped out the phillips screws with stainless thumb screws that don't require a tool to remove.  So you can remove the cover and clean it out without a screw driver. 

Ill hook you up with some of those if yours can also use them.

Quote

Buddy tape needs to be removed after the union heals.

Brad, what happens if you don't remove the buddy tape?

If you dont remove it, it can girdle the scion and especially the graft union if there is multipke layers of buddy tape. The stuff is very strong and does not degrade and fall off on it's own.  Some plants may be able to grow out of it and bust out but i have had lots of pieces get girdled and choked even from just not removing it soon enough.

Here is a picture of a graft done in early December.  It made its first flush and now I have removed the buddy tape last week.  And loosened the flagging tape.  The flagging tape comes off clean and will go back on easily.  It won't stick to itself like electrical tape or grafting tapes.  And it won't dry up and Crack like a rubber band.  I keep re adjusting the tightness on the flagging tape for up to 6 months to keep the graft from failing before the union is strong.  Top working trees makes scions grow really fast and if the tape is not on the union long enough, the grafts can break in the wind at the union.

The timing is really important too.  All my avocados get done in December.  I have not started doing cherimoya yet.  I will wait until end of March to do them. 

What does it look like?  Post a pic?

If it looks really healthy go for it.  If you think it needs recovery time then just wait a few weeks.