Avocados grow very quickly once they have germinated and taken root. However, they have the habit of growing upwards and hardly branching. With the help of grafting you can force your plant to branch further, and this measure also has another plus point.
How do you graft an avocado plant?
To refine an avocado plant, you need a tree (rootstock) that is at least one year old, an unrelated avocado branch (scion), a sharp knife, raffia and tree wax. Cut diagonal cuts in the base and scion, assemble the pieces, wrap the interface with raffia and seal with tree wax.
What is refining and why is it done?
In most cases, annual pruning can force avocados to branch out and thus become bushier. However, this doesn't always work, because sometimes after capping only a side shoot forms, which then develops into the actual main shoot - and the plant only grows upwards again. Through refining, i.e. H. If you graft a foreign avocado branch onto the actual trunk, you kill two birds with one stone: on the one hand, your tree will probably now branch out and, on the other hand, this measure would theoretically make it possible to fertilize the tree even without a second tree, provided that it is on the grafted one Branch of opposite-sex flowers form.
This is what you need to refine your avocado
- a “rootstock” (i.e. an existing avocado tree that is at least one year old)
- a “scion” (i.e. an avocado branch from a plant not related to the “rootstock”)
- a sharp knife (preferably sterile, therefore cleaned and boiled)
- Bast
- Tree wax
- a lot of sensitivity
How to refine your avocado
The “rootstock” and “scion rice” should be at least pencil thick. Make an oblique cut into the trunk of the “rootstock”, this should be around four to six centimeters deep. Do the same with the “scion rice”. Now put the two parts together and wrap the interface tightly with raffia. Then seal the whole thing with tree wax and give your avocado the rest it needs.
Tips & Tricks
The best time for grafting is in spring, immediately before winter dormancy ends and the plants sprout again. Then there is a very high probability that the avocado will accept the new shoot and it will grow.
