I grafted several avocados last yr and had a Ms Holland and a Duke that survived grafting and the cold. I had one other variety that survived the grafting, but got broken by the dog. I was impressed with how well the Ms Holland has grown and how well it did in the cold. It is now over 4 ft tall and only the growing tips were damaged in the freeze (it was protected by covering with sheets.)

I actually put 2 grafts on that tree--one cleft graft at about 18 inches high and a T-bud just a few inches above the ground--both took, but the T-bud is beginning to dominate the tree--it is now much taller than the cleft graft.

The Duke grafts have survived (both were cleft grafts just inches above ground), but have only grown about 6 inches.

Was the T-bud on the trunk of the tree or on a branch? If you're not able to lop off the part above a T-bud will it grow just as well?

The T-bud was on the trunk. The trunk diameter above the T-bud is still about the same size it was before grafting (about 3/8 inch), but now the trunk size below and coming out of the T-bud is over 1 inch in diameter. There is a bit of a crook in the trunk, but I believe that the part above the T-bud will eventually just wither and die.

BTW--I just planted the seeds directly in the ground--I had several new seedlings coming up, but most have frozen--I did see one that was only frozen about 1/2 way down.

Does anyone here have any experiance with a variety of Avacado called "Day" (persea americana)? I was just looking around Logee's website and saw this variety was one of their new offerings. It sounds appealing because it supposedly is easy to grow in a container and has some cold hardiness. Just curious.

http://www.logees.com/prodinfo.asp?number=R2129-6

Joe

Does the first two buds being blind refer to avocados as well? Or a more general question would be are citrus the only fruit with blind buds?

You don't need to worry about blind buds in Avocados. When budding Avocados, only healthy, fat buds should be selected, and those that grow near the end of the branch are usually the best. Further, unlike most other budding, when budding an Avocado, only the top one third of the seedling should be cut off four or five weeks after the bud is inserted. The new bud should be allowed to complete a season of growth before the rest of the top above the bud is removed. - Millet (1,082-)

For taxonomic accuracy here -- it is "Mrs. Holland," named for the lady in Dallas who grew it in her garden. I'm sorry I don't know her first name.

One thing you do have to be careful of when budding avocado is that it is in the weird group of plants that can absciss their axillary buds, after which the node becomes useless for propagation. You can easily see if the bud is missing.

In my case, I cleft grafted the top--probably cutting off about 1/3 of the top to match the size of the scion and then T-budded the base. The cleft graft was the first to grow and grew pretty well at first, but after about the 3rd or 4th growth flush the bud was bigger, now it is twice as tall as the cleft graft and it looks like the cleft will just wither and die.

After having several seedlings in containers and seeing how cold sensitive they are, I am very impressed at how cold hardy this Mrs. Holland is--making it thru 2 weeks of freezing nights as low as 19 with just cover and with minor damage. Thanks Dr Manners!

My potted avocado is about 4 feet tall and has lost all of its leaves. Its all twiggy now with some branches extending beyond two feet. I'm starting to see some new growth flush.

I'd like to cleft graft onto some of these branches. For the ones I don't intend to graft, should I prune the branches back or leave it as is?

Has anyone experience with Little Cado or Holiday?