John: An avocado tree grown from seed will not come true to type. That is, it's fruit will not taste like the avocado from which the seed came. This is because the new tree is the result of sexual reproduction - some genes from the male part of the flower and some genes from the female part of the flower. The new tree is just that - a new individual not identical to either parent. That is why all trees at nurseries are seedlings grafted over with a scion of the desired variety. The grafted nursery trees are clones. It's the only way that they can guarantee that a Hass tree will bear exactly Hass fruit. And so on for the other varieties. Furthermore, a seedling can take upwards of 7 years to start bearing. Whereas a grafted tree can start bearing in as little as 3 years. In California, most types of avocado are self-fruitful. They don't need pollination from another tree. Avocado flowers and pollination are complex. The same flower opens as male one day and then re-opens as a female the next day. And vice-versa. You can get increased yields by having a "A" type avocado planted next to a "B" type avocado. But in California this is not necessary. You can grow and enjoy your avocado seedling but don't expect its fruit to taste like the best avocado ever that your wife had. The genetic odds are way up there that you would get even good avocados. But then...there are people who win the lottery. juniorpilot

i have the same issue with leaf loss regarding my avacado tree, i germinated the seeds last year started in early april, and had stocks by late may. i or the 2 have done great althe way threw while one, the seemingly healthiest one suddenly started loosing leaves, first i suspected my cat of foul play due to the spots that developed in the leves .ends up avacados dont do well in direct sunlight and im told this could have lead to the leaf loss. my 1 yr old tree now has one leaf and has help dearly onto it for the last 3 months and now all sorts of new leafs are starting to pop out, im sure with in amonth i will have a small avacado bush, you should have no worries just keep it warm and out of direct sun for the time

HI everyone This may look like a late reply but I've just come accross this post! I'm from paris France and an avocado tree lover too!! Most people will shoot graft a very young avocado tree, about eighteen inches tall. Just cut the top off the tree, split the trunk in half for about two inches, cut the scion in a long vee shape, and insert it into the cut. Wrap the graft with a long 1/4 inch wide rubber band. The scion is best when it is the same diameter as the trunk. You can do it with a bigger tree but then you'll have to graft onto smaller branches!!! Now if anyone has access to an avocado tree (Mexicola, HAss, Bacon.... ) and could help me out and send me some cutting so I can try grafting my trees started from seed I'd definitely be grateful!!!!!!!!! Let me know... feel free to send a mail!

Not sure what the answer you got was, but a great many of use don't use a weed blanket in our beds, but substitute a layer of cardboard or sections of newsprint to suppress the weeds long enough for the remaining seeds to rot away and then the paper rots too. That way things that need to go deeper can punch through (or we can punch a hold for them when first putting the bed in).