“I wanted to ask about your avocado tree,” I said.
“Everybody wants to pick my avocados!” the man replied. We were standing in his driveway next to an old Fuerte.
“I don’t want any avocados, actually,” I said.
He looked disappointed.
“I’ve been picking avocados off this tree for a long time, since long before you lived here. They’re very good. It’s a good tree. So I was just wondering if you minded if I cut a small twig off the tree so I can graft it onto a tree at my house,” I said.
“Oh, OK. That’s OK. Go ahead.”
Asking someone for a stick off of a tree is one way to get avocado scion wood. More on that below. But first, here are three other places from which to source avocado scion wood:
1. California Rare Fruit Growers
Each winter, local chapters of the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) hold special meetings where they exchange scions of various fruit trees including avocados. You’ll want to find the nearest chapter and get a date and location for the year’s scion exchange. (Note that the 2021 scion exchanges may be cancelled, unfortunately.) The best way to find your nearest chapter is to do a web search for CRFG plus your county, e.g. “CRFG Orange County.”
By the way, the Orange County chapter is known to have excellent availability of avocado scions. So I’ll link to their web page here.
Don’t expect to find a smorgasbord of avocado scions at every CRFG exchange, however. You might get lucky, you might not. It depends on the members participating that year. Not all of them grow many avocados. The first year I attended a scion exchange down in San Diego there were few avocado scions.
2. Tropical Fruit Forum
In the Tropical Fruit Forum you have access to a large group of fruit growers, some of whom grow many avocado varieties and are willing to sell scion wood. Attempt to find what you’re looking for by heading to the section called “Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade.” Register to create an account, and then make a post titled, for example, “Wanted: Queen avocado scions.”
Your best chance for finding a seller is to post at the right time of year. Winter into spring is when most people cut most avocado scion wood in California. At that same time of year, you can check for posts by sellers offering avocado scion wood.
3. Buy a young tree
In some situations it can be smart to buy a potted tree of the variety of avocado whose scion wood you seek. Then you’ve got a source of grafting material that will replenish itself. This can be useful if you’re inexperienced because grafting failures will be less consequential. And this can be useful if you’re planning to graft many branches or trees.
See my post, “Where to buy an avocado tree.”
4. Find an old tree
If you are looking for a certain variety whose fruit or foliage you can identify, then you might spot it growing in a yard around town. Knock on the door. I’ve found that most people are flattered that you’re so interested in their tree as to want to clone it, and they willingly share a cutting.
But don’t procrastinate. I’m glad I acted when I did on getting the scion wood from that old Fuerte. Wouldn’t you know that the fellow who acted so proud of his tree and its fruit (that he had merely inherited when he bought the house) cut it down soon after our interaction. He replaced it with artificial grass.
Avocado grafting help
For help with the next step, check out this post: “Grafting avocados: the best how-to resource”
All of my Yard Posts are HERE
OMG that is so sad about the tree. People don’t realize that cemented soil can’t take up CO2 in addition to the fact that it adds to the problem when created.
I feel bad that I cut down an avocado tree because the geologist told us we should water as little as possible.
Last year we discovered we had an apricot tree (half fallen down at the edge of a cliff) after living here for 25 years, and we got 5 lbs of fruit, but this year nothing. So this year I got 2 bare root apricot trees which arrived totally dried out in June. Nothing happened with them yet, and I hope they will come to life in the spring. What are the odds? I also tried to clone that apricot tree of ours and I think I should try again, but when is the best time, and what branches and sizes are best to take (it is hard to reach on that cliff edge).
Thank you for your newsletter, I really enjoy it.
Hi Laurie,
Scratch a branch on those apricot trees. If it’s green underneath, then it’s still alive.
Check out this post on grafting deciduous fruit trees like apricots: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/grafting-deciduous-fruit-trees-in-winter-in-southern-california/
Hi Laurie Λαυρέντης, are you from Hellas?
I wound like to tell me about the water to the old avocado.
I have an old avocado maybe 40 years and more. My grandma maybe didn’t water it. But I water it for 2 years now and it’s get yellow leaves and less fruits.
Tel me please.
I love your post. We read it every week.
Do you have favorite You Tube posts on gardening? We watch several but our favorite is Josh Sattin.
Our tree has beautiful, larger than normal, fruit but less in number than usual. Is that what others are experiencing? I think my tree is a “Lamb”.
Hi Susan,
I’m not a good person to ask about YouTube videos on gardening because I don’t watch many. I’ve never watched Josh Sattin. I’ll have to check him out.
But I do enjoy the videos made by Charles Dowding and Dave Wilson Nursery, as well as Justin Rhodes. And I enjoy any video that features Joel Salatin.
Lambs can get very big, especially if there are few fruit on the tree. I wouldn’t know this year though. A freezing night last winter damaged my Lamb (and many other varieties) so much that it didn’t bloom last spring! I’m really looking forward to 2021 now.
Thanks for this post about scions. Two months ago I grafted a scion from my sisters Pinkerton tree onto a Hass seedling I grew. It’s growing fast and it was easier than I thought it would be. It’s kind of fun starting from scratch like that. I want to find some less common scions and make a tree with multiple kinds of avocados. Thanks for the Ideas!
I feel the same, Monty. The trees in my yard that I’ve grown from seed and grafted feel more special than the rest. Plus, I feel a bit like a pro when I make a tree from scratch, as you put it. It just feels cool, and slightly magical.
I’ve grafted multiple varieties onto one rootstock a few times. Such a tree is far more challenging to maintain in the long run compared to an avocado tree of one variety, but the challenge is part of the fun! I think I’ll write a post on multi-grafted avocado trees sometime soon.
I agree. Grafting is easier than it sounds. I grafted 20 avocado trees for the first time. ( I never grafted any other fruit tree as well). Out of them 15 of them were successful. So, I would say Avocado’s are easy to graft.
I live in 92120. I have Nabal, Reed, Fuerte, Hass, and my own that I grew from a seed I named after myself – Cadway Cado. If someone is close enough and has a variety other than mine and would like to trade budwood please contact me.
Mr Richard, may I asked how many years did it take before your avocado trees started bearing fruits? I also grew my avocado from seed too, I’m thinking if I should graft them or not. Your input will be well appreciated. Thanks.
-Maria
I grew the seed in water and the planted outside in 2005. It grew fast and I think it was 4 years for first fruit. I think it was one or two years after the first fruit that I evaluated the fruit to determine it I should graft or not. I liked the fruit taste, color, skin thickness, no strings, etc. and decided to keep it and also graft it to other seedlings. When you put your seedling outside determine the direction of the hottest sun of the day and protect it from that with partial shade. It needs sunlight, but intense sunlight will burn the stem and it will never grow well after that. If there is a quality you don’t like from the fruit then graft something you do like to it.
About 4 years to flower and in the fifth year it gave a few fruit
I am small farmer in India, would you help me to graft my Avocado seedling plant. If you give me Scion of any A type and B type it will great help to me.I am travelling on 14th January2023. Please reply via email
I love your posts too, can you do a post on how to avoid Rats eating your avocados? So far they are getting all of mine. thank you
Hi Robin,
I see two best options: trapping and cats. If you have a good cat, you may never need to trap. If you don’t have a good cat, then those classic Victor traps work great, in my experience. But the work never ends. Wherever there is habitat and food for rats, they will keep reappearing so you have to keep killing them. If you’d prefer, you can get a pest control company to do the trapping for you, by the way.
I have had rats coming into my garden but I heard that they do not like mint so I put some spearmint and peppermint plants around my garden and now they stay away. I have cameras in my back yard that pick up movement and the rat came near the plant and then suddenly left. I have not seen a rat in my garden for a few weeks. I am hoping that they stay away for good. I hope it will help you with your rat problem.
The cost of poison is so very high. I already spend plenty to kill the gophers and now that the trees survived and now produce fruit , now the rats come and eat the fruit!
I am trying something new for killing the rats which is hopefully less expensive. A 50/50 mix of Baking Soda and Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. Left as a dry powder, do not add water. Placed out in plastic food storage containers with a hole cut in them on the side for the rats to crawl into. Watch the Youtube video by “Pine Meadows Hobby Farm A Frugal Homestead” callled “Kill Rats Dead With Cornbread Mix & Baking Soda”.
Totally not poisonous to animals, pets or kids. But deadly to rats.
Did the rats eat the mix and did it work?
I would say that I have had some success with the Baking Soda and Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. I did see rat footprints and droppings inside of the containers of mix, followed a few days later by the aroma of dead rat. But I still see some indication that some are still around. It is at a reduced level. Maybe it attracted and killed one variety but not another variety. Or it could be new arrivals which do not live long enough to multiply. I wish I had a solid answer for you.
I learned a lot by using a trail camera when I put out traps or wherever the rats were active. The Norway rats are really hard to get and my camera video showed that they go and sniff the bait in the trap but they don’t take it but I did notice that they like to runaround and party as they’re eating my fruit. So I set up three traps without bait and I caught two rats but they didn’t stick their heads in the trap they got a leg caught or something else caught and then I had to take them for a swim.
Hi Everyone! Really enjoy reading Greg’s blogs! I wanted to let people know that this year, the Orange County and other CRFG groups are strongly considering having online scion exchanges for their members only due to COVID. Other groups are still having in person scion exchanges, most likely San Diego, and North San Diego. I strongly urge everyone looking for scion wood to contact the club before making your plans, as scion wood of avocados will probably not be available in the winter. There may be a spring meeting where subtropical scions like avocado will be available. Again, due to COVID restrictions, many public venues are closed.
Thank you, Ellen, for this very important update!
Great site I wish I lived there!
I am seventy, just before I moved house I discovered an avocado growing in the compost heap, so potted up and took with me to new house. I consider it a challenge to grow it indoors and keep it ( and it’s sisters alive inside a centrally heated house in the UK. But I have a leaf problem and can’t find an exact match to your excellent posts on reading the signs. If I sent a pic would you help me identify what needs to be done? Can understand if not you probably get lots of requests.
I feel somewhat attached to this plant for lots of reasons!
Hi Ronald,
I understand how you could be attached to your tree. For one thing, you’ve watched it grow since birth.
I’ve been hearing from many people in climates similar to the UK over the last month who have been bringing their small trees indoors for the winter and have been experiencing browning leaves and leaf loss. The best thing to do is share a link to your photo on a service such as Google Drive (there are many others too). I’ll give you my best guess as to what is happening.
Hi Greg
thanks for replying, took me a while to work out how to do this and I hope it works!
If you have any ideas would be very grateful
https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive
Hi Greg
think I did it wrong, first time using ‘Drive’
apologies
Should work
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ET3BMt6E7vRkHmR7Fpqvc6S6zuFKuWRx/view?usp=sharing
Hi Ronald,
Please try again. That link didn’t work for me.
Hi Greg
sorry to waste your time. I can email and surf but this is new.
Try this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ET3BMt6E7vRkHmR7Fpqvc6S6zuFKuWRx/view?usp=sharing
Hi Greg,
I found your site very helpful. I have an avocado tree (that sprouted in my compost 7 years ago) in a large pot. I would like to purchase a scion of a Hass or Hass-like avocado to graft onto my tree. What recommendations can you give me about this process? I live in Ohio.
Thank you,
Cindy G.
Hi Greg,
Your website feel like a gold mine of information. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and expertise. I am learning so much.
I am just north of you in Lake Elsinore. I have very limited space in my yard. No more room for trees. Last Spring I started graft on my citrus trees to create multi variety cocktail trees. I had a lot of success.
I have a Hass staring its 3rd Spring, and a Fuerte starting it’s 2nd (both a little under 10ft part). I am for sure going to try grafting Reed to my Fuerte because the Fuerte is a bit smaller of a tree.
I will probably have to keep my trees pruned a bit smaller because of my back yard- maybe just over 10ft.
I was thinking about adding the Sir Prize on to my Hass too. You think I should be happy with these three varieties (Hass, Fuerte, Reed) to maximize fruit in my small space? I am not sure about production on multi budding cocktail trees. Would you recommend anything over the Sir Prize? I know I can easily get my hands on a Reed and maybe a Sir Prize from Lowes or Home Depot.
Thank you,
Reed
Hi Reed,
Thanks for the comments. Hass-Fuerte-Reed can give you fruit through most months of the year. Adding Sir-Prize would mostly supplement Fuerte and Hass. Sir-Prize tastes good about now (February), which is when Fuerte tastes excellent and when Hass is starting to taste good too. You could also add another summer avocado like Lamb (to supplement Reed), or another early variety like Stewart or Bacon (but these often don’t taste good much earlier than Fuerte).
Multi-graft avocado trees can produce well. I grow a few of them. They are tricky to maintain though, as each variety grows at different speeds and with different directions, so continual monitoring and pruning is necessary.
Thanks for always sharing Greg, your posts are tremendously helpful. I am wondering about the best method going forward with my tree.
I didn’t catch a shoot coming off the rootstock of my Hass tree. Its now grown taller than the Hass trunk and is about as thick as my finger and about 6′ tall.
Is it too late to attempt a graft on the shoot?
Is that even advisable?
Should I just trim it off?
We haven’t had any luck growing avocado in our suburban beach city, this shoot is actually the happiest of all the trees we’ve tried over the last 10 years.
Thanks again,
Hi Coby,
You could graft onto the shoot. If you can get good budwood, then you can do a side graft onto it down low and it will be shaded, which is important when grafting late in the spring. Otherwise, just cut it off at the base.
Hi Greg, I was contacted a couple weeks ago by someone who has a Puebla avocado in the yard of a house they will be selling soon. She wants to share scion wood from this tree so it isn’t lost to the chain saw if new owners decide they don’t want it. She told me it is one of eleven known trees of this variety, so it is quite rare. It ripens in October. Have you heard of this variety?
Hi John,
I do know Puebla. What a thoughtful and generous owner she is. And a wise one: Puebla has nearly become extinct.
You can find a short video profile of the Puebla avocado fruit that I did on this page: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/avocado-variety-profiles/
Hi Greg, Thank you very much for your posts. They’ve been very helpful. I already posted in tropical forum, but i was wondering do you also sell lamb hass scion woods. Thanks