Prune avocado plant?

[Bamboozled]

I grafted this avocado about a year and a half ago and it's going great, even starting to bud. It's about 30" tall in a 15 gallon pot, and will be planted in my sister's yard in a few months. Seem to recall that it can be beneficial to prune side branches early, but just thought I'd double check- thanks for any feedback.

 

[oneeye]

The avocado tree is a tree that does well topping in the first year of growth.

 

[cpp gardener]

Where is the graft? I would shorten, not remove, the side branches. Use them as 'nurse' branches to help strengthen the trunk. Since it's going to be a big tree let it grow. Unless you want to spend a lot of time pruning it to keep it small-ish. They're not trees that typically need a lot of pruning to help with fruit production.

 

[Bamboozled]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like some minor trimming could be beneficial. The graft is near the bottom, I usually graft higher up but my success rate is low (about 33%) and my neighbor suggested grafting lower, which worked out. Cheers!

 

[MiTmite9]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like some minor trimming could be beneficial. The graft is near the bottom, I usually graft higher up but my success rate is low (about 33%) and my neighbor suggested grafting lower, which worked out. Cheers!

If you're successful with any grafts my hat's off to you. I took a 2-hour grafting course at our local nursery. The instructor was a local long-time and highly respected master gardener. The one thing I learned in that class: I will never be any good at grafting.

 

[Bamboozled]

Cheers! Watching vids on grafting makes it seem easy, but that's not been my experience. One thing that helps is that if a graft doesn't take it can be cut off and another graft can be attempted on the same plant.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

We usually graft low because trees look funny if the rootstock grows faster than the scion. Grafting is a numbers game, 33% isn't bad, and you'll get better with practice

A lot of stuff has a short window for optimum success, and the care you take after, has a huge impact on the success rate. You don't want them to dry out with an open wound

 

[Bamboozled]

Makes sense, I'll continue grafting lower going forward.

Not sure if it helped, but after I started wrapping the graft tighter, and keeping it out of direct sun for about a week, my success rate improved.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

---

Not sure if it helped, but after I started wrapping the graft tighter, and keeping it out of direct sun for about a week, my success rate improved.

You're on to something there

 

[Bamboozled]

Thanks for the positive vibes. It's very cool watching things grow.