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Old Potted Avocado Tree in Zone 8a

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Moomin:
Hello everyone

I was lucky enough to find an 18 years old, potted, seed grown Avocado tree for sale (for a really low price, too). This is quite amazing, because it is impossible to buy Avocado trees from nurseries here in Switzerland, let alone named cultivars. I know seedling trees might not bear good quality fruit, but they might as well do, so I wanna try my luck. I can take it home this Saturday.
The catch is, it apparently never fruited before, and hasn't even flowered, as the guy who sells it told me.

Does anyone know a trick to make it flower? It should be more than old enough already... Do you guys think putting it in a greenhouse will help? Apparently it is 2m tall, so I'll have to trim it a bit, but I have a self-built greenhouse available.

I will have to keep it potted so I can bring it indoors when it gets too cold, because our winters can get as low as -15° Celsius (rarely though, mostly it is more like -7°). Would a bigger pot help? I can't tell the size of the pot it has now yet, I will have to measure it when I bring it home.

Also, I somehow managed to kill every Avocado seedling I tried to grow during wintertime indoors, so I'm a bit concerned that it won't survive as well... They almost immediately get root rot whenever I water them during winter, even though I always try my best to be very careful and only water when they are dry. It's probably due to the lack of sunlight... In the summer they grow okay.

What do you experienced Avo-growers think? Is it even possible that it will flower, given the circumstances?

Greater Good:
The trick to make it flower is to acquire scions of a known variety and graft onto your seedling tree.

dorian:
"18 years old, potted"
Wow, I can't imagine how root bound that must be. Have you asked them if they've done anything to prevent it becoming too root bound? Maybe that's why it hasn't fruited.

Moomin:

--- Quote from: Greater Good on February 10, 2025, 05:50:32 PM ---The trick to make it flower is to acquire scions of a known variety and graft onto your seedling tree.

--- End quote ---

I would, if I could... But impossible to find scions here.


--- Quote from: dorian on February 10, 2025, 06:08:36 PM ---"18 years old, potted"
Wow, I can't imagine how root bound that must be. Have you asked them if they've done anything to prevent it becoming too root bound? Maybe that's why it hasn't fruited.

--- End quote ---
That is an interesting thought, will definitely check the roots when I get it!

Avofan:
You can’t save an avocado tree with that much trauma.
But you can learn how to grow an avocado from seed.
Start in a moist paper towel in a plastic bag and then move to a very tall pot with sandy soil like for a cactus. Under ideal conditions and with some luck in the seeds genetics you could have a seedling that’s 2m tall after two years. That would only be the best seed out of 100 and very good conditions. Once an avocado gets really rootbound or stressed it never recovers. I have tried to save a lot of them. So it’s better to make a new one and try to have it grow as fast as possible.

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