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Many regular customers of large supermarkets have long been familiar with an interesting tropical fruit called avocado. After eating it, a huge bone always remains, which usually occupies about half the volume of the entire fruit. The most interesting thing is that this bone can be germinated with a minimum of effort, and a curious plant will appear in the house, with its whole appearance creating an atmosphere of tropical countries. Growing an avocado from a seed at home is not at all difficult, and if the process is of interest, then you can even try to achieve flowering and fruiting of the tree. Although this is already fraught with many difficulties and can only be done by true plant lovers.
Is it possible to grow an avocado from a seed at home
Under natural conditions, avocado is a huge tree with a spreading crown, up to 20 m or more in height. However, growing an avocado from the seed at home is not difficult at all. At least for a couple of years, the tree will be able to please the eye even with the most minimal care. But if the task is set, not only to grow a tree with green leaves, but also to preserve its decorative appearance for a long time, then you will have to work a little. Even more difficult will be the task of making avocados grow at home from the seed of flowering, and then fruiting. Some secrets that will help to accomplish this task will be outlined below.
However, an avocado plant without flowers and fruits also creates an attractive tropical atmosphere in the house. In addition, its large and wide leaves purify and humidify the air at home.
What does an avocado tree look like at home
Of course, in room conditions, an avocado can hardly be called a real tree, although most often it grows in the form of a plant with a thin, bare trunk and leaves located mainly on the crown. Nevertheless, many amateurs, and even more so professionals, manage to form it in the form of a relatively small tree with a more or less compact crown. This requires considerable additional effort, if only because in the first months of life, the avocado intensively strives to grow up, without trying to form side shoots. In addition, the leaves themselves are quite large, reaching a length of 18-25 cm and a width of 5-9 cm. a great desire for a relatively compact tree with a neat crown, as in the photo.
If the avocado is left to itself and not specially cared for, the plant will survive, but in a year or two it will look like a crooked thin stick, two meters high, at the very end of which there will be several leaves.
How to sprout an avocado
For germination choose fruits of maximum maturity. This is easy to determine by slightly squeezing the avocado from two opposite sides. The ripe fruit should stretch elastically, trying to keep its shape. Do not take fruits with black spots on the peel. Perhaps they are already overripe, and the pulp will be unfit for food. The skin should be a uniform dark green color.
On sale, slightly unripe avocados are more common, the seeds of which can be used for cultivation, but only after they have ripened. To do this, they are placed in a paper bag along with apples, tomatoes or bananas. These fruits and vegetables emit a special gas, ethylene, which can speed up the ripening of fruits. Therefore, when kept in a bag at a temperature of + 18-23 ° C, avocados will be able to ripen within 2-3 days. The pit from a ripe avocado is easily removed by cutting the fruit into two halves and scraping it out with a spoon or turning it in different directions.
Before sprouting an avocado at home, the seed must be thoroughly rinsed under running water to remove all traces of the pulp on it. Otherwise, mold may appear during the growing process, and the process will need to be started from the beginning with a new bone. In the usual case, the germination of avocado seeds reaches 100%.
An avocado pit can be larger or smaller and look like a nut, but you can quickly grow a good tree only from a large pit, at least 6-8 cm long. It is not necessary to remove the outer peel from the pit. Although there is an opinion that a stone with a dark skin removed germinates somewhat faster.
There are two ways to germinate it at home: in water or in the ground.
In water
The easiest way is to grow an avocado in water until the roots form at the seed. To do this, you need to prepare clean filtered water at room temperature or even warmer.
The stone is placed vertically in water with the wider end down so that it is immersed in water by about a third or half. To fix it in this position, toothpicks are usually used. They lightly pierce the bone (no deeper than 5 mm) in three places. With their help, the bone is securely fixed at the desired height. As the water evaporates, it is added to the glass so that the level always remains in the same place.
You can also take a small narrow glass exactly the width of a vertically standing bone. A glass of water with a stone should be placed in a warm and draft-free bright place. In the cold, the germination process can be greatly slowed down or even completely stopped.
Growing an avocado in a glass is not difficult, it will certainly form roots and sprout in a warm and bright room, but it can take a lot of time, from 10 days to 3 months. In rare cases, the seed germinated only 5-6 months after planting.
A big advantage of growing avocados in water is the ability to directly observe and control the ongoing processes of root and shoot formation. Usually the roots appear first. After they reach a length of 3 cm, the bone can be transplanted to a permanent place of residence in the ground.
In the ground
It is quite easy to germinate an avocado by placing the seed 2/3 into the ground with the blunt end down. True, in this case, you need to constantly keep the soil moist and it is difficult to track the moment the first roots appear. Usually, the stone pot is covered with a glass jar or a plastic bag on top to better maintain a humid atmosphere.
The first sign of avocado germination in this case is the appearance of a crack in the middle of the seed. This means that the sprout has already begun to make its way between two cotyledons.
How to plant an avocado seed
Despite the fact that the avocado seed germinates well in a glass of water, it is impossible to grow it there all the time. Indeed, after its appearance, the sprout begins to develop at a tremendous speed, up to 1 cm per day. And the roots are starting to grow rapidly. To grow a beautiful tree, in any case, the avocado seed must be planted in the ground.
Terms of planting
Since the avocado is a tropical plant, you can try to grow it at any time of the year. The main thing is to be light and warm. But, as shown by numerous experiments, the fastest, literally within a few weeks, the bones germinate after all in the spring.
Preparation of the landing tank
For planting and growing avocados during the first year, not too large containers are quite suitable, with a pot diameter of about 10-12 cm. You should not plant a stone immediately in a large volume, since it is more difficult to maintain optimal soil moisture in it. The depth of the pot in this case can be up to 15-20 cm or more. Since for good development, plants need a drainage layer of at least 3-4 cm. In addition, plants develop a very long and powerful root, which requires a lot of space for its development.
The material from which the pot for growing avocados at home is made can be anything: plastic, ceramics, glass, wood. It is not very convenient to use metal containers, since they are too sensitive to temperature changes, which in turn can negatively affect the condition of the roots. The bottom of the container used must necessarily contain at least 4-5 drainage holes.
Soil preparation for avocados
In general, avocado does not make too high demands on the quality of the soil. But plants will grow and develop better in soil with a neutral reaction, which provides constant air circulation. It is good if the soil at the same time can hold a sufficient amount of water.
Of the purchased ready-made types of soil, the land for citrus fruits ideally meets these requirements. You can also make a homemade soil mixture from the following components:
- 1 part humus;
- 2 parts of garden or garden land;
- 1 part coarse sand.
For good air exchange, small pieces of expanded clay or perlite can be added to the mixture.
How to plant an avocado
A layer of expanded clay is placed at the bottom of the prepared pot. Then the planting container is filled with soil mixture, not reaching a few centimeters to the edges of the pot.
A small depression is made in the soil, where the avocado seed that has begun to germinate is placed. If the roots have not yet appeared, it is important that the wider end of the stone is at the bottom, in the ground. But it should not be buried entirely in the ground. It is better if its upper part sticks out from under the ground.
To maintain the necessary moisture when growing avocados, it is recommended to cover the soil surface with a layer of sphagnum moss. This will also serve as a preventive measure against the development of many diseases, since sphagnum has pronounced bactericidal properties.
Optimal conditions for growing avocados at home
As has been noted more than once above, avocados belong to tropical plants, which means that they will best respond to conditions when moderately warm temperatures of + 18-24 ° C are maintained all year round.
Nevertheless, individual varieties of avocados survive quite well in the subtropical climate of Abkhazia and Sochi, when winter temperatures do not decrease below -5-7 ° C. Of course, under these conditions, the trees completely shed their leaves for the winter, but in the spring they come to life again and bloom.
Avocados love light, but young plants may not be able to tolerate direct sunlight. Plants can thrive on western or eastern windows. And in the summer on the southern windows they will require shading at noon. Otherwise, the leaves may get burned.
To grow avocados, the humidity must be high. At the same time, it is important that the soil does not dry out and is not flooded with water excessively.
Under ideal development conditions, an avocado is capable of growing by 3 cm in the first 50 months of life. True, then growth and development are slightly suspended. This is completely normal.
How to care for avocados at home
Avocado as a whole cannot be called a plant that is too demanding to care for. A tree can even put up with minimal care, but its appearance in this case will leave much to be desired.
Watering
Watering for avocados is a very important procedure when growing at home. After all, the tree is equally negative about both the drying of the earthen coma and its waterlogging. Moreover, if you still want to achieve flowering from the avocado tree at home, then for irrigation you need to use only warm, settled water without impurities.
On average, in the summer, they are watered, depending on the ambient temperature, 1-2 times in 10 days. Young plants in small pots may need daily watering in the heat of summer. In winter, the frequency of watering in any case is reduced. Wait until the soil dries 3-4 cm deep.
Avocados are especially sensitive to air humidity. Dry air in apartments during the period when central heating is turned on is unacceptable for growing this tree. Spray it daily, either place it on a tray of wet pebbles or moss, or place a humidifier nearby.
Additional fertilizing
In the first year of life, if planted in nutrient soil, avocados do not really need additional feeding. But then, in the period from April to September, once a month, it is advisable to add complex fertilizer for indoor decorative and deciduous crops to the container for watering trees.
Formation
When growing avocados at home, crown formation is one of the most important care procedures. If you do not interfere in this process, then in a year or two the tree will reach the height of the ceiling, after which it will quickly die.
It is recommended to pinch the top after the first 8-10 leaves are formed on the plant. If there is a desire to grow a kind of bonsai from a tree, then you can do it even earlier, while pulling, covering and tying the branches in different directions.
After 5-7 leaves are formed on the side shoots, they will again need to be pinched. At the same time, plants need additional feeding to actively build up the vegetative mass.
Transfer
Avocado transplants should be done at least once a year, in early spring. Each time you need to prepare a larger container and add fresh nutrient soil.
In the summer, it is advisable to expose avocados to fresh air. Best of all in the shade of large trees with a sparse crown, such as apple or birch.
Fruiting avocados at home
Planting an avocado seed at home is not as difficult as getting flowering and fruiting from this tree.
By the flowering period, a young avocado tree can only be ready for 5-6 years of life, and then under ideal growing conditions, which are difficult to achieve in an ordinary home. If you still try very hard, then it is realistic to expect flowering from avocados in the spring for 9-10 years of life. To do this, it is necessary to maintain a constantly high level of humidity near the plants, good illumination, and it is desirable to provide them with a period of relative rest in winter.
The small yellowish green flowers are usually collected in small panicles and may take 5-6 months to form.
Due to the rather complex mechanism of fruiting, only about 0,1% of all the resulting flowers actually set fruit.
If you still managed to grow an avocado at home and bring it to flowering, then you can try to use artificial pollination. This will increase the chances of the appearance of fruits several times. Flowers are bisexual, but, opening twice, each time they function either as female or as male. Therefore, in order to grow fruits, you will need to do the following:
- Wait for the first opening, when only the female organs – pistils – will work for the flowers.
- Mark them in some special way.
- The next day they will open again, but will function as female flowers.
- Outwardly, it is impossible to distinguish them from each other, but the marks will help determine which flowers are currently female and which are male.
- In this case, the pollen from the marked flowers must be transferred with a brush to the pistils of other unmarked ones.
- Such a technique will increase the likelihood of fruit set many times over.
Conclusion
Growing an avocado from a seed at home is not at all a complicated process, as it might seem at first glance. Even with minimal care, plants with their large leaves can create a tropical atmosphere in the house and purify the air.
