Cold hardy avocado scions for spring grafting

[D-Grower]

I saw jabo45's thread looking for scions and wanted not to hijack his thread. I need to find the cold hardiest varieties such as Joey and Fantastic. Have several seedlings to graft. They are bacon hybrids from Kaz, Jonah, or spaugh(one of them anyways) and some Stewart I think from spaugh. If I can't find  what I'm looking for I guess I'll  just keep letting  these grow. Be cool to see what they end up producing but not wanting to wait. Wasn't acquainted to  grafting when I started them but now I am so might as well speed the process of fruiting. Maybe I'll  let a Stewart avo seedling just grow but idk.

It usually only gets to the high 20s here but once every decade or so might hit the mid teens. Want my trees to handle those years preferably with minimal damage.  Fantastic avo is the one I want most. Hear Joey isn't that great but I'm not picky and any avocado is better than none. Know there's others out there that are nearly as hardy as Fantastic but any hardy to the mid 20s or lower will be good.

Looking to put this out there now so I can have arrangements  made for spring in advance. Know they are out there but hard to find. Had a fantastic tree at one point but root rot got it one rainy winter. What can you do.

Anyone out there with any cold hardy avocado hit me up!

[Avoman]

I have Duke and others but not the kinds you mentioned, but won't have scions till fall or later

[D-Grower]

Cannot find a definitive cold hardiness for Duke but saw something  that suggested the low 20s. Is that correct?

Here's some I would like:

Del Rio (Pryor) sometimes also sold as Fantastic  but supposedly  there are two different cultivars too
Mexicola Grande
Opal(Lila)
Wilma(Brazos Belle)
Joey
May
Poncho/Pancho
Gloria
Martin
U-la-la

[Avoman]

That list you have is good, the Duke trees grown in northern cal do well in cold but like any young avo tree I'm Sure they were protected the first several  years of young life, arivipia avo out of az is also reported to take cold but that's up for debate the mother tree is suppose to be in a very cold area in a canyon one guy tells me no that's a banana belt area so I really don't know for sure. I've had  first year mexicola die on me in 23 to 25 degrees with only a cover on them, so when people talk about lower temps they should talk about how large the tree is to take those temps under 20. And also no matter what take extra care to keep the graft warm so it can come back after a hard freeze

[D-Grower]

I've read that most of these varieties cannot take the cold they are rated for until like 5" diameter at the trunk. Seems reasonable  to assume that is true. The seedlings I currently  have which are bacon hybrids and Stewart lineage don't seem to mind near 30F. They are up under an overhang of a porch though. They do have that anise smell to the crushed leaves. One tree I have is from an unknown random tree and the leaves look like a green skinned type with no anise smell and it seems just as hardy as the others. I'm gonna graft that one but it's interesting to note.

What's the recommended grafting method for avocado? Some of my seedlings are still like under 1/2" diameter but some are significantly thick. If I were to top them and use a cleft or whip and tongue would it possibly kill the rootstock? I F'd up a loquat tree bad with cleft grafts that failed and nearly  killed the whole tree. It was a fair sized tree too with lots of branches due to hurricane damage and regrowth. I figure I should have side veneer grafted instead and allowed them to definitely take before cutting of the original tips. Should I try to side veneer graft these avocado is what I'm getting at?

[varocketry2]

@DGrower:
There are many YouTube videos - especially IV Organics - demonstrating those graft techniques on avocado.  I'd say absolutely, go for it.  Check out IV Organics' videos.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abAy78LTW6I&t=48s

[D-Grower]

Cool thanks

[sc4001992]

Derek, you can do matching size cleft graft of the avocado but make sure you have some leaves/buds/branches growing below the point you cut and graft the scion. If after 2-4wks the scion is not green and looks like it is drying out, cut off the rootstock (with bad graft) right below your graft union and you can still save the rootstock and prevent it from dying to ground. If you leave the bad/dead graft on the rootstock to long it may kill back the entire rootstock if it's a small plant.

Yes, you can do the side veneer graft and leave the top alive and don't cut it off until you see growth from the scion. I like the cleft graft since the graft union disappears after a year if it's done right and to me it is a stronger union than the side veneer (sometimes breaks off at union).