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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 stone always remains, which usually occupies about half the volume of the entire fruit. The most interesting thing is that this seed can be germinated with a minimum of effort, and a curious plant will appear in the house, with its entire appearance creating the atmosphere of tropical countries. Growing an avocado from a seed at home is not at all difficult, and if you are interested in the process, you can even try to get the tree to flower and bear fruit. 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?
In natural conditions, the avocado is a huge tree with a spreading crown, up to 20 m or more in height. However, growing avocado from seed at home is not at all difficult.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. The task of getting an avocado to flower and then bear fruit when grown at home from the seed will become even more difficult. Some secrets that will help 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 in the home.
What does an avocado tree look like at home?
Of course, in indoor 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 top of the head. 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 already in the first months of life, the avocado intensively strives to grow upward, 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.However, having good growth energy, the avocado tolerates pruning and other special manipulations with its branches well, allowing you to get, if desired, a relatively compact tree with a neat crown, as in the photo.
If you leave the avocado to its own devices and do not take special care of it, the plant will survive, but after 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, fruits of maximum maturity are selected. This is easy to determine by lightly squeezing the avocado on two opposite sides. A ripe fruit should spring back elastically, trying to maintain its shape. You should not take fruits with black spots on the skin. Perhaps they are already overripe, and the pulp will be unsuitable for eating. The skin should be a uniform dark green color.
Slightly unripe avocado fruits are more often found on sale, 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 accelerate the ripening of fruits. Therefore, if 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 with a spoon or turning it in different directions.
Before germinating an avocado at home, the seed must be thoroughly washed under running water to remove all traces of pulp on it.Otherwise, mold may appear during the growing process, and the process will need to start all over again with a new seed. In the usual case, the germination rate of avocado seeds reaches 100%.
An avocado pit can be larger or smaller in size 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 seed with the dark skin removed germinates somewhat faster.
There are two ways to germinate it at home: in water or in soil.
In water
The easiest way to grow an avocado is in water until roots form at the seed. To do this, you need to prepare clean filtered water at room temperature or even warmer.
The bone 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, add it 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, draft-free, bright place. In the cold, the germination process can be greatly slowed down or even stop altogether.
Growing an avocado in a glass is not difficult; it will definitely 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 sprouted only 5-6 months after planting.
The great advantage of growing avocados in water is the ability to directly observe and control the ongoing processes of root and sprout formation. Usually the roots appear first. After they reach a length of 3 cm, the stone can be transplanted to a permanent place of residence in the ground.
In the ground
You can germinate an avocado quite simply by placing the pit 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 pot with the seed is covered on top with a glass jar or plastic bag to better preserve the humid atmosphere.
The first sign of avocado sprouting in this case is the appearance of a crack in the middle of the pit. This means that the sprout has already begun to make its way between the two cotyledons.
How to plant an avocado seed
Even though an avocado seed germinates well in a glass of water, it is impossible to grow it there permanently. After all, after its appearance, the sprout begins to develop at a tremendous speed, up to 1 cm per day. And the roots begin to grow rapidly. To grow a beautiful tree, an avocado seed must be planted in the ground in any case.
Landing dates
Since avocado is a tropical plant, you can try to grow it at any time of the year. The main thing is that it is light and warm.But, as numerous experiments have shown, the seeds germinate fastest, literally within a few weeks, in the spring.
Preparing the landing container
For planting and growing avocados during the first year, not too large containers, with a pot diameter of about 10-12 cm, are quite suitable. You should not plant the seed in a large volume at once, since it is more difficult to maintain optimal soil moisture in it. The depth of the pot can be up to 15-20 cm or more. Because 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 contain at least 4-5 drainage holes.
Preparing soil for avocados
In general, avocados do not place too high demands on soil quality. But plants will grow and develop better in soil with a neutral reaction, which ensures constant air circulation. It is good if the soil can hold a sufficient amount of water.
Of the purchased ready-made types of soil, soil 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 vegetable soil;
- 1 part coarse sand.
For good air exchange, you can add small pieces of expanded clay or perlite 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 sprout is placed. If the roots have not yet appeared, it is important that the wider end of the seed is located below, in the ground. But you shouldn’t bury it entirely in the ground. It is better if its upper part sticks out from under the ground.
To maintain the necessary humidity 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 already been noted more than once above, avocados belong to tropical plants, which means they will best respond to conditions where moderately warm temperatures of + 18-24 ° C are maintained all year round.
However, certain varieties of avocado 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 and bloom again.
Avocados love light, but young plants may not tolerate direct sunlight. Plants can do well on windows with western or eastern orientation. And in the summer, southern windows will require shading at midday. Otherwise, the leaves may get burned.
To grow an avocado, the humidity must be high. At the same time, it is important that the soil does not dry out and is not overly flooded with water.
Under ideal development conditions, an avocado can grow 50 cm in the first 3 months of life. However, then growth and development slow down slightly. This is completely normal.
How to care for avocados at home
Avocados in general cannot be called a plant that requires too much care. The tree can even put up with minimal care, but its appearance in this case will leave much to be desired.
Watering
Watering avocados is a very important procedure when growing at home. After all, the tree has an equally negative attitude towards both the drying out of the earthen clod and its waterlogging. Moreover, if you still want to get the avocado tree to bloom at home, then for watering you need to use only warm, settled water, free of foreign impurities.
On average, in summer they water depending on the ambient temperature, 1-2 times every 10 days. Young plants in small pots may require daily watering in the summer heat. In winter, the frequency of watering is reduced in any case. Wait until the soil dries 3-4 cm deep.
Avocados are especially sensitive to air humidity. Dry air in apartments when central heating is turned on is unacceptable for growing this tree. It is necessary to spray it daily, or place it on a tray with damp pebbles or moss, or place a humidifier nearby.
Top dressing
In the first year of life, provided that it is planted in nutritious soil, avocados do not particularly need additional feeding. But then, from April to September, once a month, it is advisable to add complex fertilizer for indoor decorative 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 with this process, then within 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 have formed on the plant. If you want to grow a kind of bonsai from a tree, then you can do it even earlier, while simultaneously pulling, covering and tying the branches in different directions.
After 5-7 leaves form on the side shoots, they will need to be pinched again. At the same time, plants need additional feeding for active growth of vegetative mass.
Transfer
Avocados should be replanted at least once a year, in early spring. Each time you need to prepare a larger container and add fresh nutritious soil.
In the summer, it is advisable to expose avocados to fresh air. It is best in the shade of large trees with a sparse crown, such as an apple tree or birch.
Fruiting avocados at home
Planting an avocado seed at home is not as difficult as getting this tree to flower and bear fruit.
A young avocado tree can be ready for the flowering period only after 5-6 years of life, and then only in ideal growing conditions, which are difficult to achieve in an ordinary house. If you try really hard, you can realistically expect avocados to bloom in the spring at 9-10 years of age. To do this, it is necessary to maintain a constantly high level of humidity near the plants, good lighting, and it is advisable to provide them with a period of relative rest in the winter.
The small yellowish-green flowers are usually collected in small panicles and can form within 5-6 months.
Due to the rather complex mechanism of fruiting, fruits are actually set in only about 0.1% of all flowers formed.
If you still managed to grow an avocado at home and bring it to flowering, then you can try using artificial pollination. This will increase the chances of fruit appearing several times. Flowers are bisexual, but, opening twice, each time they function as either female or male. Therefore, in order to grow fruits, you will need to do the following:
- Wait until the first opening, when only the female organs of the flowers - the pistils - are working.
- Mark them in some special way.
- The next day they will open again, but will function as female flowers.
- It is impossible to distinguish them from each other externally, but the marks will help determine which flowers are currently female and which are male.
- In this case, pollen from marked flowers must be transferred with a brush to the pistils of other unmarked flowers.
- This 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 difficult process, as it might seem at first glance. Even with minimal care, plants with the help of their large leaves can create a tropical atmosphere in the house and purify the air.
