Has anybody here successfully grown an avocado from seed to fruit? We have a large avocado tree that was self sown amongst vege scraps about 25 years ago, and has been producing nice avocados for over 15 years.
The reason I ask is that I recently watched a YouTube video that claimed that most avocados grown from seed aren't palatable, along with a good explanation as to why they are never true to parent, and why commercial varieties are grafted. They claimed that only one in ten thousand will give palatable fruit. I have no idea how they got that figure.
Was I just lucky, or are there others out there that have nice tasting fruit grown from seed? I suspect that there are more nice fruit from seed than claimed.
tweake,
May 22, 8:02pm
i have heard of plenty of people who have non/low fruiting avo trees that grew from seeds. its when they are grafted that they really produce a lot of fruit. keep in mind that where in their original country where they grow wild, they produce very little fruit. i have not heard that the fruit is unpalatable, its just the amount of fruit that varies.
joanie04,
May 22, 8:18pm
I have one. From a stone that was just throw out onto the lawn. Once it was a reasonable size it was replanted into our "wilderness" area. After about 7 years we had three. The next year about 30, the following year well over 100. Then is died in the canopy. It was suggest spray drift but I am not sure. I had an arborist doing a bit of work here and he cut it down. A friend suggested I check around the overgrowth the next year and hello the stump had sprouted a side shoot. That was three years ago. It has about 20 fruit on it at the moment. It is not too hall so this short person can reach them.
oh_hunnihunni,
May 22, 9:34pm
My compost grown seedling is around three years old now, and it is a gorgeous tree. I have hopes of seeing it fruit, if the corporate LL doesn't get to it first, lol.
tygertung,
May 22, 9:43pm
I have never been able to get a seed to sprout.
budgel,
May 22, 11:13pm
Christchurch is probably too cold for them to grow anyway. I am in the Far North.
They sprout everywhere around here, in the compost, under the big tree, anywhere where one may fall.
apollo11,
May 22, 11:24pm
Some bloke on youtube mentioned that because the avo trees are grafted, you have a one in eight thousand chance of getting good sized and tasting fruit when you have a tree planted from supermarket bought seed. Don't know if that applies to NZ though.
oh_hunnihunni,
May 23, 12:02am
I believe all our trees are from limited genetics anyway, so the chances may be better than most. But it is certainly true that grafted trees fruit faster.
wasgonna,
May 23, 12:09am
So your children adopted?
budgel,
May 23, 12:11am
Grafted trees certainly fruit faster, but the YouTube item I saw claimed that you were never going to get a 'true to parent' plant from a stone. Mine arent Hass, which is what it came from. Apparently apples are the same, plant a seed and it wont be like the tree it came from. I was just interested to see whether the claim of having more chance of being unpalatable was borne out by people's anecdotal experience here.
harm_less,
May 23, 1:30am
The issue isn't so much with genetics as which other avocados were within pollination range of the tree that the fruit and seed came from. If like most orchards in NZ there were only Hass trees within bee's range then you may have an outside chance of a half decent Hass seedling but many older orchards were planted with other varieties to act as pollenators, which is now recognised as being unnecessary. If that is the case in the orchard (or locality) that your fruit came from the seedingly you end up with could well be a mongrel crossbred variety that has serious questionability regarding its flowering/fruitset seasonality and fruit quality (if it even produces fruit).
The other advantage of a grafted tree is not only its proven production potential but also that it has adult wood as the scion which will result n earlier reproductive maturity of the tree.
lovelurking,
May 23, 1:43am
🤢 I envy you guys who can grow them, especially from a random stone. 🥑 🤤
oh_hunnihunni,
May 23, 2:07am
But if our trees genetic pool is more limited than not, maybe our chances are better, than if we had a wider range of types out there in the neighbourhood. I'm going to stick with optimistic thinking when it comes to my tree. As I am about my chances of seeing it fruit!
oh_hunnihunni,
May 23, 2:09am
You could grow one as an indoor plant, if you really want a challenge. I have a banana palm in a pot, poor creature.
harm_less,
May 23, 2:18am
If by genetics you mean cultivars then NZ probably has at least 6 commonly grown ones and in some of the older avocado growing regions you could possibly add another dozen or so, plus there are now a few new hybrids finding their way into plantings. I had 6 varieties in an orchard I operated that was originally planted in the early 80s, and even amongst 200 odd (grafted) trees there was significant production variability.
So as the saying goes "Are you feeling lucky punk?"
oh_hunnihunni,
May 23, 2:23am
I am indeed. But hey, consider the alternative.
artemis,
May 23, 2:32am
Just to let you know harm_less you gave me good avo advice a few years back for which I thank you very much. My Reed avo tree (grafted) is doing pretty well now after a slow start, not surprising since it is Wellington.
In the Hawke's Bay I saw Reeds the size of softballs. Mine are more like tennis balls (jealous) but they do taste great.
harm_less,
May 23, 2:57am
You're doing well for a Wellington avo. Well outside their comfort zone. Our 2 Reeds are coming up 5 years since we planted them here in the Naki and we've got a reasonable ~20 fruit this year with more already set for next season on one tree but the other is struggling only 20m from its mate, due to previous soil use we guess. A couple of fruit close to softball size but still well smaller than the record 750g monster Reed we had in the BOP.
Keep up the TLC on your one.
bethd754,
May 23, 4:36am
I remember my father plant avocado from seed back home. It takes many years before start fruiting but when it did, the fruit was amazing. Tasted good and fruited abundantly. The different with grafted is you do not need to wait long to get fruit because the branch that been use to graft is already fruiting and quite matured.
mark_g,
May 23, 5:05am
Hmmm. So we should right now be seeing new avo's setting for next season's crop?
Bugger! I've got an 8 year old avo grown from seed. Magnificent it is. Healthy looking thing. but no avocados. And I'm thinking now no avo's next season either. Could be the end of the road for this particular tree. I need the space for something that will fruit for me.
budgel,
May 23, 8:07am
Wait another couple of years, they usually fruit by the age of ten, then come on hard after that.
harm_less,
May 23, 8:30pm
The new crop should have been developing since late spring/early summer so are now about half the size of a mature fruit.
Did you have a flowering last spring? If so were the nights too cold at that time to allow a successful fruit set.
If you had a flowering and initial fruit set but these dropped off when very small try applying a dressing of garden boron fertiliser. This element is crucial during the flowering and fruit set period.
If you had a flowering but nil fruit set then your location may not be suited to growing avocados, which after all are a sub tropical tree.
If you're not even getting a flowering on an 8 year old tree then it is probably best to remove it and try with a grafted one. Even if it does flower in the next few years, and it manages to crop those fruit are likely to be of dubious quality.
mark_g,
May 24, 7:02am
No flowering at all. Quite the dilemma because although I tell myself that if it don't fruit then it's out of here, I don't like chopping things that want to grow down, so I can see it getting another couple of years yet.
It's really low maintenance - I don't spray it, at all. I water only when it hasn't rained for more than a week. It probably gets fed twice a year. I think I've pruned it lightly once, just to tidy it up. And for all that lack of care its a really healthy looking tree. No issues like my other fruit trees (bacterial canker on my plums and cherries, fire blight on apples and pear, scab on apples, and last season for the first time, blackspot on nearly everything).
harm_less,
May 24, 8:08am
Avo's are definitely a handsome looking tree when they're growing well. Almost worth keeping for their ornamental value if you have the room to do so.
The no flowering thing might indicate that it hasn't yet reached reproductive maturity, or the locality is too cold for it to even try. They are demanding of warm conditions, especially during the flowering and fruit set period but otherwise avocados are a strong and vigourous tree so long as they have free draining and healthy root conditions. They evolved in the leaf litter of Central American jungles which is a competitive environment and although being high rainfall areas have free draining soil conditions.
Afterthought is to not overdo the fertilisation thing as if your soil is reasonable this will feed it sufficiently but excess nitrogen rich fertiliser will promote leaf growth at the expense of flowering.
dutchess46,
Jul 24, 2:41am
[ Then is died in the canopy. It was suggest spray drift but I am not sure. I had an arborist doing a bit of work here and he cut it down. A friend suggested I check around the overgrowth the next year and hello the stump had sprouted a side shoot.
It will have fungal root disease. Phytophthora cinnamomi A common problem in avo orchards. Your regrowth will succumb eventually unless the tree is treated.
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