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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 takes 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, creating an atmosphere of tropical countries with all its appearance. Growing an avocado from a seed at home is not at all difficult, and if the process interests you, 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 stone at home
In natural conditions, an avocado is a huge tree with a spreading crown, up to 20 m high or more. However, growing an avocado from a seed at home is a snap. For at least 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. An even more difficult task will be to get an avocado when growing it at home from a stone to bloom, and then bear fruit. Some secrets to help accomplish this task will be outlined below.
However, the 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 an avocado tree looks like at home
Of course, in indoor conditions, an avocado can hardly be called a real tree, although most often it grows precisely 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 in the very first months of life, the avocado intensively strives to grow upward, without trying to form lateral shoots. In addition, the leaves themselves are rather large, reaching 18-25 cm in length and 5-9 cm in width.However, having good vigor, avocados tolerate pruning and other special manipulations with their branches, allowing you to get at a great desire, a relatively compact tree with a neat crown, as in the photo.
If the avocado is left to itself and not specially looked after, 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, choose the fruits of maximum ripeness. This can be easily determined by squeezing the avocado slightly on two opposite sides. The ripe fruit should straighten 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 avocados are more common on sale, the seeds of which can be used for growing, 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 fruit ripening. 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 ripe avocados can be easily removed by cutting the fruit into two halves and scraping it out with a spoon or twisting it in different directions.
Before sprouting an avocado at home, rinse the pit thoroughly under running water to remove all traces of pulp on it. Otherwise, mold may develop during the growing process, and the process will need to start from the beginning with a new bone. In the usual case, the germination rate of avocado seeds reaches 100%.
The avocado seed can be larger or smaller and look like a nut, but you can quickly grow a good tree only from a large seed, at least 6-8 cm long. It is not necessary to remove the outer peel from the seed. Although there is an opinion that a bone with a peeled dark skin germinates a little 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 are formed at the seed. To do this, you need to prepare clean filtered water at room temperature or even warmer.
The bone is placed in water vertically with its wider end down so that it is submerged in water for 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 poured into a glass so that the level always remains in the same place.
You can also take a small narrow glass exactly the width of the vertically standing bone. A glass of water with a bone should be placed in a warm and dry, light place. In the cold, the germination process can be greatly slowed down or even stop altogether.
It is not difficult to grow an avocado in a glass, it will certainly form roots and sprout in a warm and bright room, but a lot of time can pass, from 10 days to 3 months. In rare cases, the seed germinated only 5-6 months after planting.
A 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 bone can be transplanted to a permanent place of residence in the ground.
In the ground
It is quite easy to sprout 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. Typically, the pit pot is covered with a glass jar or plastic bag on top 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 seed.This means that the sprout has already begun to make its way between the two cotyledons.
How to plant an avocado seed
Despite the fact that the avocado seed grows 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 rate, up to 1 cm per day. And the roots begin to grow rapidly. To grow a beautiful tree, the avocado seed must be planted in the ground anyway.
Landing dates
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 numerous experiments have shown, the fastest, literally within a few weeks, the seeds still germinate in the spring.
Planting tank preparation
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.Do not plant the seed immediately in a large volume, since it is more difficult to maintain optimal soil moisture in it. In this case, the depth of the pot can be up to 15-20 cm or more. Since plants need a drainage layer of at least 3-4 cm for good development. 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 an avocado 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 extremes, 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 the soil for avocado
In general, avocados do not place too high demands on the quality of the soil. But plants will grow and thrive better in neutral soil that provides constant air circulation. It is good if the soil can hold a sufficient amount of water at the same time.
From the purchased ready-made types of soil, the earth for citrus ideally meets these requirements. You can also make a homemade soil mixture from the following components:
- 1 part of humus;
- 2 pieces of garden or vegetable 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 on 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 emerged, it is important that the wider end of the seed is at the bottom, in the ground. But you should not bury it entirely in the ground. It is better if its upper part sticks out from 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 already noted more than once above, the avocado belongs to tropical plants, which means that it is best suited to conditions when moderately warm temperatures of + 18-24 ° C will be maintained all year round.
Nevertheless, some 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, in these conditions, the trees completely shed their leaves for the winter, but in the spring they come to life and bloom again.
Avocados are very fond of light, but young plants may not tolerate direct sunlight. Plants can thrive on west or east facing 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 does not overflow with water.
Under ideal conditions of development, an avocado can grow by 50 cm in the first 3 months of life. True, then growth and development are slightly suspended. This is completely normal.
How to care for an avocado at home
Avocados in general cannot be called too demanding plant to care for. The tree is even able to put up with minimal maintenance, 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 is equally negative about both the drying out of the earthen coma and its waterlogging. Moreover, if you still want to achieve flowering from the avocado tree at home, then for watering you need to use only warm, settled water, without impurities.
On average, in the summer, water is watered depending on the ambient temperature, 1-2 times every 10 days. Young plants in small pots may require daily watering in the heat of the summer. 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 during the period when the central heating is turned on is unacceptable for growing this tree. You should spray it daily, either place it on a pallet of damp pebbles or moss, or place a humidifier next to it.
Top dressing
In the first year of life, provided that it is planted in a nutritious soil, the avocado does not really need additional feeding. But then, in the period from April to September, once a month, it is advisable to add a complex fertilizer for indoor decorative deciduous crops to a container for watering trees.
Formation
When growing an avocado at home, crown formation is one of the most important care procedures. If you do not interfere with this process, then the tree will reach the height of the ceiling in a year or two, 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, at the same time pulling, covering and tying the branches in different directions.
After 5-7 leaves are formed 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
Transplanting an avocado 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.
For the summer, it is advisable to expose avocados to fresh air. Best in the shade of large trees with a thin crown, such as apple or birch.
Fruiting avocado 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 house. If you still try very hard, then you can really expect flowering from avocados 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 illumination, and it is desirable to provide them with a period of relative dormancy in winter.
Small yellowish-green flowers are usually collected in small panicles and can form within 5-6 months.
Due to a rather complex fruiting mechanism, fruits are actually set in only about 0.1% of all formed flowers.
If you still managed to grow an avocado at home and bring it to flowering, then you can try to apply artificial pollination. This will increase the chances of fruit appearance several times. The flowers are bisexual, but when they open twice, each time they function as either female or male. Therefore, in order to grow fruits, you will need to do the following:
- Wait for the first disclosure, when only female organs - pistils - will work for flowers.
- Mark them in some special way.
- The next day they will open up again, but will function already in the form of feminine 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 flowers.
- 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 difficult, as it might seem at first glance. Even with minimal maintenance, plants with their large leaves will be able to create a tropical atmosphere in the house and purify the air.
