A “super” avocado tree is one that make lots of fruit, more fruit year-after-year than other trees of the same variety in a particular grove.
The most important question is why a tree is super. And secondly, can you make a copies of it? (I want one in my yard!)
But before we look at those, look at an example of a super Fuerte avocado tree that I videoed for you in South Africa:
Why super?
Why are some trees super? It can be so many factors, including the dirt in that specific location (it’s especially deep and fertile), the micro-climate, and the irrigation. But it can also be something inherent in the tree.
If it is inherent in the tree — “genetics” — then can you make a copy?
Yes. You can make copies of super trees.
Researchers have been studying this topic and making copies of super trees for many years. Avraham Ben-Ya’acov made a study of “copy trees” in Israel in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. See this comprehensive paper that he wrote with Esther Michelson: “Avocado Rootstocks.”
You can also only clone the rootstock and use it as an engine for different varieties. An example of this is the rootstock called Merensky 5, also called Zerala.
Zerala came from a super Fuerte tree discovered in the same orchard in South Africa as the super Fuerte tree shown in the video above. The rootstock on the super tree was then copied and grafted to Hass and tested in different locations, including in Riverside here in Southern California. It showed itself to be especially tough and fruitful compared to other rootstocks when irrigated with salty water.
(See here for some details on Zerala.)
(See page 6 of this slideshow for more on super avocado trees.)
(Also see my recent post, “Stewarding special avocado trees, with Stefan Koehne.”)
What can super trees teach us?
Here is an important lesson that home growers of avocados can take away from observations and formal research on super trees: just as super trees exist, the opposite of super trees exist.
Does your avocado tree not make fruit? Does your avocado tree not grow well?
I’ve had some such trees in my yard. And I’ve seen them in other yards and groves. They are trees whose poor performance can’t be explained by the soil conditions or irrigation or micro-climate or competition from surrounding plants. It seems to be something inherent in the tree that is the problem.
What to do? If you have the time and curiosity and land space, you can test to figure out if the weakness lies in the rootstock or scion (or the combination of the two). And then you might be able to do some grafting to make the tree productive with a different variety or source of scion. I did this experimentation with a dud Fuerte tree in my yard some years ago and discovered that the problem was the Fuerte scion (the top part of the tree that makes fruit), and I now have a tree that is productive but with other varieties grafted on.
Otherwise, I suggest you cut your losses and remove the dud tree. If your best guess is that the tree itself has an inherent problem, especially in the rootstock, then that can’t be rectified. Plant a new tree.
Some other posts and papers you might like to read:
“Young avocado trees can’t handle competition.”
“Why no avocados on your tree?”
In research done in South Africa by Smith and Koehne, super trees were called ‘A’ and “un-super” trees were called ‘E.’ See this paper by “Production potential of Fuerte on seedling rootstocks.”
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Hi Greg,
My beautiful reed trees that are in 20 gallon pots have gotten brown tips in their leaves and fallen. There is new growth but some small new leaves are doing the same thing. It is in bloom and 3years old. We got 4 avocados off it this year. Unfortunately the leaves are very scares. We live in Southern California and water it 1-2 times per week. It gets solid sun. Not sure what we are doing wrong. Need advise.
Hi Laura,
Sounds like they don’t have happy roots. Is it possible that they’ve outgrown the 20-gallon pots?
Hi Greg,
The trees are three years old and about 5 ft tall. The trunk is about a 2 inch diameter. We used Laguna Hills nursery “top pot soil” supposed to be the best. They seem to be getting new leaves that are looking healthier now. There’s many flowers and the bees are all over them so hopefully we’re past this brown tip leaf drop. Would you say watering them twice a week since they’re in pots should be sufficient?
Perhaps it was a fluctuation in weather ? we had hot weather and then it got cold again and now it’s back to hot again.
Thank you, Greg for your advice as always you’re the best
This is a really cool concept. I have a garden trade partner in Santee who has a super mango tree. After making two (expensive!) failed attempts to start mango, I was literally stunned into silence when she showed me the size of hers. I didn’t think they grew that big in east county. She has had at least one year without fruit (I think she said it did set fruit, but she lost it all in a storm), but overall just insanely productive. The bummer though is she thinks it’s grafted, so although the fruit is the yellow polyembryonic type, I might not get the same results starting seeds. But I’m certainly gonna try 🤣
Very cool, Jessica. A super mango tree around here would be so welcome and valuable. Too bad it might be grafted, but I would start some seeds in case it’s not, too. Please keep me updated.
So happens that I started seeds of Ataulfo mangos today.
Thank you for emphasizing a very important point. Life is too short for “dud” trees. Rip that band aid off and start fresh. Unfortunately, this is a lesson I’m learning first hand with some avocado trees here in the Bay Area. Just yanked a long underperforming Hass in my backyard. Friends and neighbors for years had been saying, “be patient, give it time, they take a while here.”
That unsolicited advice wasted three plus years of backyard space and water for zero fruit. Worse yet, two years of potentially vigorous growth since the problem was evident early on. If there’s any doubt, there is no doubt!
Sound advice indeed. Thanks Greg!
Hi Darren,
I learned this lesson the hard way too. I hate to think of all the water and yard space — and hope — I wasted on such trees over the years. Ouch!
Hi Greg,
I havent had avocados in 2 years…this year I DID. Sir Prize =12 avos. Haas =80 avos, Pinkerton =30 avocados.
So far….Sir Prize No flowers( produced flowers) no fruitlets
Haas- so far NO FLOWERS…. zero…. may I assume its now too late for flowers? Live on coast.
Pinkerton….3 fruitlets
So….will I get Haas flowers or is it too late?
Also, I have a 15gallon Gwen and 5 Gal Don Gillogly…. Should I/Can I place them in the same hole in the ground ? (My yard wont support two more ) Do you have any references on how best to do that ?
Any advice is very much appreciated
thanks very much
Leo
7 years ago I grafted sir prize to a small Hass tree. It flowered every year and produced nothing. I was close to cutting it down or grafting something else to it. Last year it produced one avocado. I was still considering cutting it. It flowered this year and for some unknown reason because there were very few bees it’s loaded with babies. I’m assuming that variety is very weather dependent for pollination.
Hi Leo,
It’s May 27, and I would say it’s too late for your Hass to start flowering but I do have one Hass tree that is about to open its first flowers of the year this week. So maybe yours will flower a bit this year. However, I would bet there won’t be many flowers. In my experience, whenever a tree starts to flower late (compared to the normal for that variety), it doesn’t flower a lot.
You can plant the Gwen and D.Gillogly in the same hole, but I would give the Gwen the south or west position since it is the slower growing of the two. Check out the second half of this post for some examples and advice on this: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/how-far-apart-to-plant-avocado-trees/
Funny you should write this article. We have a Meyer lemon that is three years old, looks great and healthy and has never produced a single fruit. 5 feet to the left is a Meyer lemon that is a few years older and is a fantastic producer.
I have wanted to dig the dud out and replant. This my be the motivation.
Also hoping at least one of the two Avocados produces someday. They are still young so I will give them some time.
I’ve noticed from planting lots of avocados seeds that some seeds just take off and grow fast and others just don’t seem to want to do anything and languish. It would be interesting to know the data collected from cloning rootstock and the outcome of all those clones and how they compare to each other.
As far as fruit production my experience with Feurte is a quick growing tree but in my area a very poor producer. My neighbor planted two Feurtes back in 2002 and they hardly ever produced anything but they were large and she didn’t want them anymore so I took them over. I cut one off at the trunk and did a series of Hass graphs and now they produce tons of fruit but the part of the tree that I left Feurte hardly produces anything or produces nothing. I have six pixie Tangerine trees. All but one grew normally but one tree grew like a super tree so it had the genetics to grow fast but it didn’t produce any fruit after 8 years. A couple years ago I grafted Tahoe gold, shiranui, gold nugget, supernova, and miho Satsuma to that tree. So far I’ve gotten about 8 Shiranui fruit and plenty of other growth and that’s it. All the other Pixies produce fruit.
Thanks for sharing this, Rick.
I have learned a lot from seeing your trees, especially your citrus since you have so many duplicates and so many different rootstocks for comparison.
Coincidentally, I have a Pixie tangerine tree that I grafted Shiranui onto. Somewhat similar to your fast grower, the Shiranui branches make plenty of fruit but the Pixie branches make almost none. The tree is about a decade old now.
I’m going to give up on that rootstock with Pixie. I’m going to graft Pixie onto a couple other rootstocks.
Hey Richard,
so, do we do away w the lower producing trees or NOT ? Ive grafted 5 Reed branches to my low producing Sir Prize and this year I had a fair number of fruitlets. I plucked each and every one of them… I learned the hard way that I should not let the new graft produce fruit the first year. I did and the entire branch died the next year. (on two grafts)…..
My problem is patience….
Hi Greg, enjoying your many articles on guacamole trees as my kids call them. I am wondering if you can recommend any varieties for inland Central Valley, with fruit in all seasons being my goal. Currently I have a bacon and mexicola starting to produce, and I just planted a Reed that I have high hopes for. Was condidering Gem maybe for early summer late spring before the reeds are ripe?? -Jim
Hi Jim,
Guacamole trees. I love that.
Check out this post, if you haven’t already: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/growing-avocados-in-californias-central-valley/
Depending on the microclimate, you might have success with any variety that can be grown farther south or coastal in California. So GEM is a possibility.
Between the Bacon and Reed seasons, in addition to GEM, you might try Hass, Sharwil, Pinkerton, and so many others.
I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the box of Shawil, Pinkerton and Fuerte avocados. They were all delicious and I had no trouble eating them all myself while they were still good. I hope to get some from you again some time.