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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Of course this is before the potential fruit drop but still better than any previous year 
Pala d’Oro has the most fruit set and Reed is still in bloom stage. Others are in the middle. Second Red has only 1-2 fruitlets even though it bloomed profusely. May be not as productive
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Time for another update. There has been decent fruit drop but many are still hanging on and getting bigger.
Lamb - very productive, but less vigorous. I need to thin the fruits to protect the graft.
Jan Boyce - very vigorous but not productive (yet). I will put SecondRed in the same category
Pala d’Oro - extremely vigorous and super productive/precocious
Reed - just starting to form fruits, so too early to comment on productivity. Very vigorous but upright growth. I need to head it off (even losing a few fruits), otherwise even my ladder won’t reach the fruits
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Have you harvested fruit from any of the varieties you grafted yet, or will this crop be the first?
I also grafted Palo d’Oro from Ellen and it looks just like yours – vigorous growth and incredible fruit set. I’ll be thrilled if the fruit make my mouth happy!
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Other than the pics above, the only other one that’s surviving is Phoenix/Carmen Hass. It’s neither vigorous nor precocious. I should probably plant another tree for that variety as I read that it makes two crops in coastal areas.
This is the first crop for all of these varieties grafted in 2020
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Time for another update - probably the most exciting one. First avocado from the grafts from 2019. This is my first experience in picking avocados. So, I cut open a couple before they fully ripened and I had to throw them away. This one was harvested two weeks back and ripened on the counter. Creamy flesh, papery skin, no fibers and mild flavor. Excellent! The scion is from an unknown tree at my friend’s backyard. It was a huge tree when my friend bought their home 25 years back. It’s closer to bacon but definitely not the same and likely a seedling. So, we call it “Pat’s Bacon”
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Nice looking fruit! I’d love to include Pat’s Bacon in my avocado project if you ever want to trade or sell scions or seeds. Especially if the leaves have the anise scent.
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The leaves don’t have anise scent. I don’t sell any plant materials. I can send you scions from my grafts or from the original tree. PM me your address. You seem to have a nice collection. I may ping you in April-May to see if you have any varieties that you can share.
Do you want both scions and seeds? I asked my friend to save the seeds from fruits he harvested between Jan-March last year. I forgot about them until early summer and many rotted/dried out. I threw everything in the ground and forgot about them. I then planted Magnolia x Alba in the same spot. By fall, I saw one seedling pop out. It survived a heat wave and the whole winter here without any care (even with less watering). I’ll let it grow and see what happens.
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Second Red (from @Marta) avocados turning red. Can’t wait for these to ripen
This is the ugliest graft I’ve done in my experience. Given that its vigorous, it turned itself around to grow up
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Grafted some Royal Wright scions today (earlier ones failed). Also took the opportunity to harvest some Pat’s Bacon and pick up some I knocked out during the process - 1 Second Red and 1 Pala d’Oro
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Second Red avocado ripened today. Very pretty skin color. The flavor is more stronger (but still mild overall) than Pat’s Bacon with more oil content. Great find from Marta.
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I pulled down a lamb hass fruit this week, to see if this is the right time for picking. It ripened well and was ready to eat today. The color turned from green to almost black. Definitely much more discernibly nutty and oily compared to Bacon or SecondRed. Also much thicker skin. Compliments the milder varieties well
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Palo d’Oro, Lamb Hass and the first Reed. You can compare the color of the Lamb Hass when it is picked (dark green) vs when it ripens (almost black)
Palo d’Oro ripened today and it’s a great avocado in the same class as Lamb. Only nit is, the skin is not easily peeled. The skin is thicker than Bacon but has the same characteristic. Given its precocious and productive, I highly recommend it for Bay Area.
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That’s interesting about the skin, Epicenter said it peels easily, I wonder if they just misspoke or if the skin varies a lot depending on the weather that year. Here’s their discussion of it (emphasis mine):
In the cold spring of 2022, it stood out among our varieties as the one most eager and able to set and hold fruit through long periods of inhospitably cool weather. Once the weather pattern changed in May, the other types began to hang onto their fruit, while the Palo de Oro boasted months-old clusters of various sized fruit formed while all other trees had tried but failed. This is a crucial attribute for us northern California avocado growers! The avocados themselves peel easily, have a small seed, are creamy and delicious, with a very high oil content. Excellent in every way.
So wait, is that ripening now from this year, or is this a really late variety (last year’s flowers)? I assume it is a late variety, but if it is early, I’d be very interested in trying it out here in my greenhouse at least. The ability to set fruit in cool spring weather is a trait I’ll want in our breeding pool even if they aren’t quite hardy enough for here!
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Thanks for the reference. My scion comes from Epicenter and the photo of the fruit matches what I see from my tree. It does have a thicker skin but not easy to peel. May be I need to let it ripen longer on the tree, not sure.
These are fruits set from last year and it’s a late ripening variety here just before/along with Reed. Your query also reminds me that I still owe you what I called then “Pat’s Bacon”. Sorry for the miss. With more evaluation (with side-by-side comparison) this year, I am convinced that this is the regular Bacon. I need to update my posts above. Do you still need it?
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Ah, I had also forgotten about that! I don’t think that’s necessary in that case.
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Interesting. I have it directly from Epicenter, too, and for me (in southern California), Palo d’Oro ripens at the same time as Hass, even a little earlier, and peels easily. It is very productive, the fruit are large and tasty. But the skin is prone to some sort of fungal infection that works its way into the fruit a bit. I’m guessing this is unique to my very damp, cool, coastal environment, where fungi thrive! (But most other avocados don’t seem to get it.) So, for me, Hass is better overall (though less productive).
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