What luck! I've had 9 of 14 cleft grafts take so far on grocery story rootstock. I'm still hoping for the other 5. I had zero luck t-budding. I had one stay green all winter long and it promptly died when I unwrapped it. My budwood is from a bearing seedling mexican type in Lake Jackson, TX. I've also had luck with a mexicola blooming in a large pot. The tree is about 4 feet tall. I've cleft grafted gainesville to it and mexicola to gainesville in the hopes of only needing one tree.

On another note. I had 38 of 40 t-buds take on the 10 gallon citrus trees I bought last fall for $7.50 each at Houston Palm Nursery (large trees but unknown varieties on sour orange.) I had only 2 of 10 lisbon lemon buds take on sour orange. Those citrus in 1 gallon pots seem to be difficult to bud. I get much better success, the bigger the pot.

Generally potted plants are harder to graft to because they are slow providers of plant juices. But the bigger the pots of course, the bigger should be the supply and buds would readily take. Bark grafting works well even with smaller sized pots because you are forced to take out whole branches which reduces the demand, making the supply side plentiful, and the graft much likely to take. If T-budding on those plants in smaller container, chances are they would not even take. And if they do, forcing them to sprout would be a challenge at times.

The secret to cleft grafting avocadoes even on mature trees is to do them on the green soft wood near the tip. Seedlings have those.

I have bark-grafted avocadoes last weekend on my friends older tree and did it on mature wood as an experiment. Let's see what happens.

How long should it take for a avocado bark graft or t-bud to take? I bark grafted and T-budded onto three avocado trees about two months ago. (Thanks for the budwood help.) Following your techniques, two of the bark grafted pieces are still entirely green (one is brown at the tip), but they have yet to grow. The t-buds are still green, but likewise haven't burst through their parafilm yet either. Am I being impatient? How long should I keep the bark grafts cover with a plastic bag? Thanks again, Jack.

If it gets really in the low 90's for several days they should start pushing out.