How to grow avocado from a stone

How to grow avocado from a stone

The grocery stores sell tropical fruits - avocados all year round. In the center of each fruit is a huge bone. Its weight can be equal to the weight of the pulp. If you have enough patience, you can grow avocado from a bone, and if you're lucky, then wait for the fruit.

When to wait for the harvest

Avocado is a fast-growing evergreen tree. In nature, its height reaches 20 m. The avocado has a straight unbranched trunk and elongated leaves, similar to laurel, only longer - up to 35 cm.

On the plantations, each plant produces 150-200 kg of fruit. In the room, the avocados will be fruitable only 20 years after sowing. Its height to this age can reach 2 meters.

To accelerate fruiting, connoisseurs are planted with avocados for seedlings grown on the Black Sea coast. The grafted plants blossom in the second or third year. Avocado flowers are small, yellow or green. Fruits ripen for 6-17 months. It depends on the variety.

Preparing the stone for planting

The best time to plant an avocado is spring. At this time, the seed is maximally ready for germination.

In the shops sell three kinds of avocados:

• Californian - bone of the hazelnut color, glossy, as if varnished;
• Florida - bone is covered with white skin;
• Pinkerton - the peel of the stone is light brown, rough, matte.

Bones of all three species germinate well at home. The main thing is to extract the seed from a ripe fruit.

The ripeness of an avocado can be determined by hardness. You need to press the flesh with your finger. In a ripe fruit, when pressed, a small dent is formed, which quickly disappears. This avocado is suitable for germination.

The flesh can be eaten. Pay attention to the bone - well, if its skin is colored in a natural color, it means that the seed has formed and is capable of germinating.

If you have several avocados at your disposal, you need to grow the largest seed. The bigger the bone, the more nutrients and energy for growth.

With the stones removed peel and lowered into the water to about half, blunt end down. To hold the seed vertically, drill three holes in its sides, a depth of no more than 5 mm and insert toothpicks. Relying on them, the seed can "hang" in the air above the glass, submerged in water only half. It is better to immediately add a tablet of activated carbon to the water so that bacteria do not start.

You can put a cleaned bone on the bottom of the glass and pour half the water, put on the window sill and then top up as needed.

Avocado planting

The seed should be poured for three months. First there will be a crack in its center - this is a sure sign that the sprout will soon appear.

It is time to plant a cracked stone in the ground. In a small pot, pour any shop primer for indoor flowers - the avocado is undemanding to the soil. At the bottom of the pot, put the pebbles to provide drainage.

Bury the stone in half, just as it stood in the water - a blunt end down. The land should be watered, but do not fill and do not overdry.

After 1-2 weeks, a reddish sprout appears from the crack. It immediately begins to grow rapidly, extending every day by 1 cm.

At first, the avocado grows rapidly. For 3 months the seedling reaches a height of 0.5 m. After growth, it stops, as the tree begins to grow roots and leaves.

At this moment it can be pinched. Without plucking it will quickly grow to the ceiling and die. After removal of the tip, lateral shoots begin to grow. As a result, a low, but magnificent bush is formed, suitable for keeping in the room.

Avocado Care

The avocado comes from the tropics and is very fond of moisture. In dry air, avocado leaves wither, so they are regularly sprayed from the spray gun - this will help the exotic plant feel more comfortable.

The pot is kept in a moderate light. Under direct sunlight, the plant will get burns, the leaves will turn red and begin to dry up. At the same time, you should not allow the pot to be in an excessively dark place. If the tree quickly extends upwards, most likely, it does not result from an excess of fertilizers, but from a lack of light. This plant should be moved closer to the window, and the stem and the fastest growing branches should be pinched.

Avocados can be formed, giving it any shape: a tree on a trunk, a bush. Often plant growers use the next method - they plant several bones next to each other, and when the seedlings start growing, they braid them in a pigtail - not very dense, so that the stems can thicken.

Where to place the avocado

Avocados are held year-round in the light, in summer - in a warm room, in the winter - in a cool one. The temperature should not fall below 12 degrees. The best place for a plant is in a high floor pot that reaches to the window sill and is installed near the west or east window. In the summer it can be taken to the country house and placed under the crown of a tree in a sunny place.

Watering

Watering avocados should be moderate, especially in winter. If in summer the soil can be kept permanently moist, then in winter it needs to dry out slightly.

For irrigation take rain or melt water. If there is no such fluid at home, boil tap water. During boiling, calcium settles on the walls and bottom of the dishes in the form of scale, and the water becomes a little softer. Before watering, you need to put your finger into the watering can - the water should be noticeably warm.

Do you need fertilizers and transplantation?

The plant is transplanted once a year into new soil, each time increasing the diameter of the pot. You need to fertilize once a month or 2 weeks. Suitable for any mineral composition, in which there is nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. It is better to give microelements in the form of foliar top dressing.

What is Avocado Afraid of

The plant does not tolerate cold air, drought, direct sunlight and hard tap water - calcium starts chlorosis and the leaves turn yellow.

If a tree sheds leaves, this does not mean that it has died. In nature, avocados are gradually gradually discarded leaves, but never completely exposed. The cause of "leaf fall", most likely, was a temperature shock. For example, a tree could fall under a stream of frosty air from the window. Avocados should be taken care of as usual, and soon new leaflets will appear on it.

A common mistake of the flower growers is to try to grow the avocado in a flat pot. The root of the plant has a huge length, so the tree needs to be grown in high floor containers.