The
seeds will grow into a nice tree, but it is uncertain what type of fruit the
new tree will produce, even if that seed came from a great tasting fruit. The
best way to propagate an avocado tree is through grafting.
Most commercial avocado trees are
grafted. The grafting material, called a scion, is basically a green twig
taken from a tree of known, good quality fruit called the mother tree.
This scion is then grafted onto a young seedling, perhaps a year old. All
the fruit that is produced from this new tree will be identical to the fruit
borne on the original mother tree. When a grafted tree is purchased, the
exact type of fruit is known. On the other hand, when planting an avocado
seed, the type of fruit that will result is unknown due to gene mixing. In fact, it is through the gene mixing that new varieties are discovered. It is possible to produce a high
quality fruit, but unlikely. What usually occurs is the seedling tree will produce small fruit with a large
seed.
For instructions on grafting, go to the
University of California website, http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu,
and search avocado. There is an excellent
publication called Budding and Grafting
Citrus and Avocados in the Home Garden.
