Propagate Avocado – Graft a Named Scion

Propagate avocado by grafting a named scion onto a seedling rootstock, because a grocery seed will not make the named tree.

Graft a named scion onto a seedling rootstock

avocado does not come true from seed, so named fruit is a graft. In warm climates, cleft grafting on a young seedling is the usual home method, and veneer grafting is the fallback. [1] Cool weather from late fall into early spring is the Florida window. Where winters stay colder, wait until spring, when the bark lifts cleanly from the wood. [2] A grafted nursery tree can bear in about three years. A seedling is a new tree, and it may take five to ten years to flower. [3] Sow the pit as a curiosity start on How to Grow Avocado from Seed if you want a rootstock, not a named crop.

How to graft an avocado tree

Match the green cambium under the bark on at least one side, then keep the union from drying out.

1. Grow or buy a healthy seedling. Cut it off square a few inches above the soil, where the stem is about as thick as the scion.
2. Cut a 3- to 6-inch scion with several buds. Shape the base into a thin wedge for a cleft graft, or a long sloping face for a bark graft.
3. Split the stock, or lift a bark slit, and slide the scion in so the thin green layers touch. Wrap the union tightly with nursery tape. [4]
4. Seal cut faces with grafting wax. Whitewash exposed wood so it does not sunburn. Keep the plant in bright shade until the scion grows, then cut any shoot that starts below the union.

Graft a named scion onto a young seedling in cool weather, keep the union from drying, and do not wait on a grocery seed for the named fruit.