Does anyone have experience with graft chimeras forming on your grafts? I’ve been on the lookout for the last couple years of avocado grafting for any candidates, and might have my first one. I’m curious what others think.
This was a really ugly, deeply split cleft graft that I did about a year ago, and I tied it pretty tightly with grafting rubbers. The two sides of the cleft mostly died, only the bottom of the V formed callus. Here’s what it looks like today (with another new graft on the rootstock shoot to the right):
One main bud grew from near the tip of the scion, but before I got around to cutting off the rubber, a second shoot emerged from the top of the binding. I couldn’t tell if it was from above or below the union, so I cut off the rubber band and it looked like it was from the scion, even though it was under the tip of the rootstock flap that had died back and not callused, so I left it. I also noticed that the leaves had an anise scent (like the Teague scion, but unlike the Hass seedling rootstock).
However, since planting the tree in the ground in the greenhouse this winter, I’ve noticed the two branches look different from each other in growth habit, flush timing, leaf color, and leaf shape (you may notice some aphid damage on the last flush from the upper branch):
Here’s a closer photo of the graft union and where the branch emerges (on the right):
