“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/
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 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.
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.
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!