1919.] 125. 



BUDDING THE AVOCADO. 

 By R. O. Williams, 



Curator, Royal Botanic Gardens and St. Clair Experiment 

 Station, Trinidad. 



The varieties of A.vocado (Persea gratissimd) like the majority of 

 cultivated fruits do not come true from seed, and therefore to keep a 

 certain variety true to type it is necessary to use vegetative methods of 

 propagation. The most successful and practical method so far adopted 

 is budding. 



Till recent years this on a large scale was thought to be very difficult 

 and even at the present time some persons report that they are unable 

 to bud the avocado successfully. In the annual report on the Hawaii 

 Agricultural Experiment Station for 1912 it is stated "Thus the 

 avocado which a few years ago was thought to be difficult or almost 

 impossible of asexual propagation is yielding to many methods of 

 propagation." 



In the annual report for 1903-04 of the Jamaica Agricultural Depart- 

 ment the method employed in budding Citrus is recommended as the 

 one to be employed in this case, and in 1905 it is reported that avocados 

 are budded successfully with scarcely the loss of a bud. 



In a special pamphlet issued by the Lamoa Experiment Station 

 Philippine Islands it is recommended to " use tender to mature but 

 green, smooth, petioled budwood, cut the buds 3-5 to 4-5 centimeters 

 long.(l) Age of stock at point of insertion of bud unimportant." 



Reports from Florida state that there is no difficulty in getting the 

 buds to grow after the union has been made. 



As regards the budding of the Avocado at the St. Clair Experi- 

 ment Station it was not until the year 1915 that it could really be said 

 to have been successfallj' accomplished as before that date old stocks 

 were used for budding upon and the percentage of successes were very 

 small indeed. On December 15, 1915 budwood of a special Avocado 

 was sent to the station and having no old stocks at that time in the 

 nursery 12 buds were inserted on to very young ones of which 10 were 

 successful. Since that date young stocks invariably have been used 

 and only occasionally have old stocks been experimented with. 



The following table gives a record of the results obtained when 

 young stock viz : six weeks to four months old were used as compared 

 with those of from 10 to 12 months. The percentage of successes when 

 stocks were used ranged between 58 and 94, with an average on the 

 total of 74, and when the older type of stock was used it fell to 17-1. 



(1.) 2'5 centimeters = 1 inch. 



