Grafted avocado plant

It has been difficult to get one grafted avocado plant in Singapore. If you are lucky, you may find one grafted avocado selling at around $80 in one of the nurseries. I have checked World Farm and they are selling avocado trees grown from seeds. It is around $100 and at least 5ft tall. Well, if you follow my blog posts, you will know that I have grown avocado from seeds in end 2014. The trees that I have now are about 6ft tall (coming to 3 years old).

Most articles said that it will take 7 to 13 years for the avocado trees that are grown from seeds to bear fruits. They may not even fruit even after 13 years. Even if the tree bears flowers, it will not be able to get pollinated without the different types of flowers (Type A and Type B).

However, I have come across lone tree bearing fruits in Singapore. From the FB group posts, there is someone who has a fruiting avocado tree outside his house. The variety is unknown but it was bearing fruits even without other type nearby. He was trying to do air-layering to propagate the avocado tree. However, he was not successful. I have not done air-layering to my avocado but I have successfully rooted a cutting. I think rooting via cutting maybe a better option if air-layering failed. There is another matured avocado tree in Singapore. I will not disclose this location openingly but if you are interested, drop me a comment or message. It is at least 2 stories high and it is in a compound. I saw a couple of fruits around the canopy. Well, I was hoping that if they ever prune it, I can get a scion or two from them for me to graft on my seedlings. However, I think it is NOID type.

Avocado Tree in Singapore

The lowest branch I think is above one storey high. It is a big tree and if you zoom in the picture, you can see a couple of avocado fruits.

Grafted avocado trees are highly sought after in Singapore and especially if the variety is known. I happened to chance upon a seller in JB who has grafted Miki (fr Indonesia), Si Pendil and Kendil. But it was quite expensive and you got to bare-root them to bring them across the customs. There are also sellers that can help to courier the trees to Singapore. Since the seller is in JB area which is very near to Singapore, I contacted the seller and purchased a grafted Miki.

The seller has many grafted avocado tree and I chose the best grafted Miki. This Miki has many side buds which will develop into branches. The leaves are green, big and healthy. The seller had just repotted and fertilised it. The seller also advised on how to take care of the young tree. I will leave the tree in its black plastic bag until it has acclamatised to its new location. I bought this Miki avocado tree on 9 July 2017. Hopefully, in a couple of years from now, it will be able to bear flowers and also fruits. The seller told me that this Miki avocado is Type B flowers. I hope it will not need Type A nearby for pollination. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Grafted Miki

The master grafter tied a plastic to state the variety. The grafted area is very clean cut and fused completely. I had placed a pole beside it to stack and strengthen it. 

10 July 2017 - buds appearing

You can see that there are many side buds on the tip. I guessed the seller had pinched away the terminal bud to promote lateral branching. I chose this because I can tell from it that many side branches will propagate soon.

After 2 weeks in its new location, the Miki has grown very well and you can see the branching taking place. I will wait until the branches have at least 8 to 10 leaves and I will pinch away the terminal buds to promote more branchings.

Branching in progress

This Miki is not under direct sunlight as I don't want to cause sun-burn leaves. The seller mentioned that it is better to place the young avocado under a big tree so that it can get shaded sunlight. When I have more branchings, I will be experimenting on grafting Miki onto my young seedlings. Stand tuned for the grafting of avocado.