Year 2

OK, went a while without updating this blog. The remaining avocados dropped off the tree last summer, so there wasn't much to post about.

Tree has just finished blooming, starting around the same time as last year. Until ~2 weeks ago there didn't seem to be any fruit set, but all of a sudden little fertilized avocados started popping up. Whereas last year I counted at most 4-5 blooms that set by the time the flowers dropped, this year I've counted up to 3 dozen at any one time. Exciting!

At the end of February I grafted three scion branches of other avocado varieties onto my tree, being awed by the "4 in 1" trees you sometimes see in nurseries and being eager to learn about how asexual reproduction is performed on fruit trees. I grafted a scion of "Hellen", "Sharwil", and "MaGoon" onto various branches on the tree, scions that I got from Julie Frink at the California Rare Fruit Growers scion exchange in Orange County. As she warned me, none of the grafts actually survived, but it was a learning experience, and next year I think I will try grafting onto a seedling.

That's all. Hopefully a small handful of fruit will stick this summer, though I am expecting most to drop when it starts to get hot.