oh yea, forgot to mention - I tried looking for a graft sign on the trunk and didn’t find any. It could also be that its been a while and it won’t be visible anymore. You are right, I’ll take any avocado too. I just want to get it to some reliable fruiting cycle 
I was hoping, if I identified the variety, I might be able to get more specific info on fertilizing, watering, etc to improve productivity. I guess the best course of action is to let the tree do its thing this season and graft other varieties if there is no change.
Very nice tree. I’m over in Livermore and would love to have a tree so large and healthy looking.
If it was grown from seed could take 10+years to fruit.
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i agree and do keep everyone posted.
A very nice blog on Avocado pollination in Northern California from Epicenter nursery
Blog | Epicenter Nursery & Fruit (February 17, 2019 - Pondering Pollination)
I don’t live on the coast but the night time temperatures aren’t too different here.
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Your tree sounds like a Mexicola based on the anise smell of the leaves and the free stone of many of the avocados. I’ve planted mine15 years ago and it took 8 or 9 years for the first fruit, which almost look like small eggplant, with smooth purple shiny skin. The flavor is exceptional, though the pits are relative large. We’re near the ocean so during the blooming period, I have a lot of anxiety when the 25 mph and over gusts start. When the blossoms get knocked off entirly, the tree keeps trying, so it has produced fruit throughout the year. Good luck!!
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Thanks Greg. Mexicola wouldn’t be a bad guess, the only negative being that the fruit doesn’t have a shiny skin. All the fruitlets (except for one) on my tree dropped off which leads me to believe this year is not any different except that I kept a close eye on the flower-to-fruit process. I am convinced by the epicenter nursery blog above and my own experience that B type would be difficult to fruit in my zone (9B). I am planning to graft a few A type scions (Reed and Greengold based on availability) to the tree to see if the behavior changes
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Check out this site. He lives in southern California, but posts a lot about Avocado trees and has a ton of knowledge that may be of help to you.
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The tree produced less than 3 fruits last year and birds only left one for me.
The taste is pretty good, soft skinned and less fibrous. However, the poor productivity doesn’t justify the premium spot
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Today, I chopped down the limbs and reduced the height to less than half of what it was before.
Before:
After:
I am hoping that the tree will send out lower shoots that I can graft with varieties known to produce in our area, like Bacon, Greengold and hopefully Reed
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Wow, that’s quite drastic. Paint the trunk white and good luck!
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Ellen at epicenter nursery suggested this. Well, she recommended cutting down even further but I left it at a longer height. There is a chance it won’t produce any shoots and die, I have to replace it then. Good point on the whitewash now that the trunk is more exposed.
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If it were me I would cut way lower and bark graft the stump. If bigger than 3-4 inch stump I’ bark graft several scions around the stump so half of it won’t die.
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I painted the trunk white which also covered up the buds. Thought it might affect them popping out, but doesn’t seem to be the case.
Now that I see some lower buds, its likely I didn’t kill the tree. I’ll probably bring down the height even more and try forming a balanced canopy with these shoots. Hopefully they’ll be ready for grafting next year.
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This thread is due for an update. After I chopped the tree, it produced quite a few shoots throughout the trunk. I grafted the following varieties
From @Marta (reallygoodplants.com):
- Royal Wright
- Second Red
From Ellen (epicenteravocados.com):
- Reed
- Jan Boyce
- Ardith
- Lamb Hass
- Phoenix/Carmen Hass
- Pala d’Oro
From a local friend:
- Bacon
The final franken-avocado tree
I don’t expect to be growing all the varieties. Keeping them balanced would be a nightmare. I heard the success rate is low, so I was hedging my bets. I could have waited for another year and cut the trunk even lower to get more branches lower down but went ahead with what I had.
After 3-4 weeks now, I see some initial successes with Second Red, Royal Wright, Bacon and Reed
Second Red
Reed
Bacon
I will leave the scions partially covered until we get through the hot August summer.
Both Marta and Ellen couldn’t be more helpful, sharing knowledge, tips for grafting and shipping more scions than what I asked for. @Marta ran out of Second Red scions but searched again for some new growth on her tree to send me a few cuttings. I visited Ellen’s epicenter nursery and it was an avocado heaven!! They really figured out how to grow these finicky trees very well and all her trees were bursting with new growth and fruits. In the back drop of Santa Cruz fog rolling over the hills and beach on the other side, that was one beautiful orchard! I highly recommend both of them for scions and plants!
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Have been misting the young graft shoots to withstand this >90F heat wave here.
It ended today and I started opening up the grafts. Many of them have healed nicely but some did girdle the scion/rootstock.
Healed up Reed
Girdled Second Red scion
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I am hoping 2022 is the year I see some of those elusive avocados on my tree 
I see some bud swells across all the varieties, specifically Reed, Pale d’Oro and Jan Boyce which have grown quite big. Interestingly, the tree doesn’t push much of rootstock growth anymore. The buds on the sunny side are more developed than the ones on the other side
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How old/big is the tree? Avocados are notorious for developing fruit a bit and then dropping them all. Wishing you the best. 
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The tree is quite old (may be 15 years!) and was there when we moved into this house. It never produced any fruits though, so I top worked it in 2019 with varieties based on the recommendation here
All of these are known to perform well here. That doesn’t mean they’ll fruit in my backyard, so yes, counting chickens here at this point 
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Good luck, I’ll stop by to help you harvest
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