avocado... someone has to have done this, right?

[Kirsten]

I hear it's one of the easiest projects for a beginner. Hasn't been quite so easy for me, though.

I'm sure someone here has tried it though... Riz, probably you :)?

[Riz]

nope never tried one kirtsen..

I will look into it though :), what you cant get them to germinate, how many have you tried so far !!?

[Kirsten]

a LOT. haha :)

I've suspended a lot of them in water but haven't had any luck (nor have I had luck with anything in water at all...)Only one of them that I planted in soil has grown a reasonable root and the sprout is starting to poke out the top. The only problem is that it didn't split evenly, and now the sprout is growing diagonally out of the side. I'm hoping that if I keep rotating it with regards to the light it'll eventually grow straight up.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow...

[Riz]

HI kirsten,,

found some info on them, you probarly know this allready...


The Portuguese originally introduced avocados to Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese call it Aligata Pera, giving it the name of name of Alligator Pear in the USA. It is also known as butter fruit, butter pear and laurel peach. Exporting countries include Israel, which exports the huge shiny purple fruits, Spain, California, South Africa and Kenya.
Getting Started: Select an avocado that is soft when you give it a squeeze. Carefully cut fruit in half lengthwise to get to the seed. A gentle twist of the cut fruit will release your seed. Method 1
Wash avocado seed to remove any pulp. Using a very sharp knife you can cut off 1/4 of the top of the seed, this speeds up the germination. Chilling the seed (stratification) before starting your germination process will give you a more vigorous seedling. The stratification has an affect on the chemical structures within the seed also helping to speed up the germination. The choice is yours. Wrap in very damp paper towel. Place in a covered dish and put it in a dark place for 2-4 weeks. Check in now and then to see if anything is happening. The taproot is generally the first growth to merge from the seed.
Method 2
Another method to sprout the seed, remove the large seed from the center of the fruit and wash http://www.ghorganics.com/images/AvoGerm.jpgit in water. For propagation purposes, the broad end of the seed is considered to be the bottom. The pointed end is the top. Insert several toothpicks into the sides of the seed. They should be placed about halfway up the pit. Then suspend the seed in a glass of water. The bottom one fourth of the seed should rest in water. The seed should sprout within a few weeks. During this time, periodically add water to maintain the initial water level. Occasionally dump out the water and replace with fresh water. If it doesn't sprout within 2 to 3 months, discard the original avocado and begin another. The roots are usually the first to emerge from the seed. The stem appears later.
Potting
Pot the seedling when the root system has become well developed; the roots should be at least 2 to 3 inches long. When the time comes plant the white taproot in dirt leaving the top "red sprout" and 1/3 of the upper seed exposed. Position the seed in the center of the pot. A plastic or clay pot is suitable and please put some gravel in the bottom of the pot for drainage. A good soil mix for avocados is: 1 part Coco Peat, (http://www.ghorganics.com/Cocopeat.html) 1 part perlite and 1 part sterilized potting soil. Pack the dirt well around the seed.
Growing Tips
Bright indirect light is best for avocado plants, direct sun will give them a sunburn! They prefer moderate temperatures of 60 F to 80 F. Your plant can grow 4-5 feet tall rather quickly. Spring is the best time for pruning. If you would like to prune to keep it bushier pinch 2 inches of the top when your plant is 1 foot tall. Repeat the procedure when it has grown to 2 to 3 feet tall. This will give you slower growing but very sturdy side branches.
Watering
Watering avocadoes correctly is critical to their success as a house plant.
Avocados are very susceptible to root rot. Using too much water applied too often means the soil will stay wet for long periods, causing the roots in the waterlogged soil to begin to rot and die. With their roots gone the plants wilt as if they are thirsty. These plants will not perk up when they're watered. If the soil is kept soggy with water, then it contains no oxygen so the roots won't function and will rot.
You want to use pots with drainage holes for the plants. No closed containers please. When you water them the excess water in the saucer should be dumped so it isn't absorbed back into the soil.
Again use a potting mix that allows good drainage The soil mix should be light and porous not heavy. Watering from above is recommended. Water should be added to the point that some comes out the drainage holes.
Another mistake in watering is to constantly give the plant small amounts of water like an 8 ounce cupful. This will actually allow the rootball to dry out.
Fertilizing
Fertilize once or twice a month during the spring and summer. Winter is rest time. Our Golden Harvest Natural Fertilizer (http://www.ghorganics.com/page29.html) is great for your avocado plant!
Problem Solving

Yellowing, Dropping Leaves: Too much water or not enough sunlight can cause yellowing and dropping of the lower leaves. Cut back on water and move to a sunnier location.

Browning of Leaf Edges: This can be caused by a lack of humidity. Setting the pot on a tray of pebbles will help increase humidity around your avocado plant. Sometimes the brown leaf edges stay no matter what we do. The brown area can be trimmed off for aesthetic purposes.

General Yellowing of new or older Leaves: This is a sign of fertilizer deficiency. We will see yellowing of the leaf tissue while the veins remain green to tip us off to this situation. Fertilize once or twice a month during the spring and summer. Winter is rest time. Our Golden Harvest Natural Fertilizer (http://www.ghorganics.com/page29.html) is great for your avocado plant!

source :- http://www.ghorganics.com/Germinating%20and%20Growing%20Avocados.html

[Kirsten]

Wow, I didn't know that about watering... I will have to be careful not to water so much!

I am so excited - the little shoot is getting bigger literally by the hour and is growing fairly straight now :) I wish I had a greenhouse to keep all of my plants in, but I'll be satisfied with the sunniest room in my house...

EDIT: Here's a little teaser... I have better photos but I have to upload them still. This is from a few days ago, before the sprout had poked itself out of the crack, but you can already see it inside:
http://i29.tinypic.com/313n3hw.png

[Riz]

nice work kirsten

Looks awesome like an alien, cant wait to see what the tiny leaves look like. thanks for the pics but keep them coming, ill have to get myself an avacado

[Kirsten]

I tried to help the seedling along by cutting a little bit of the unsplit portion of the seed. It's growing straighter now, I think my handmade crack helped a little :)

http://s3.tinypic.com/10gjvw6.jpg (big picture, I couldn't resist :) )

I sent this picture to my mom... she thought it was an egg at first...:rolleyes:

[Riz]

lovley pic kirsten..

it does look like an egg, lol have you got the first set of leaves growing on it yet,, do you keep it indoors on a windowsill !?

[Kirsten]

It is indoors on a windowsill. It's still not quite warm enough to put it outside - I'm hoping that in a few weeks I'll be able to start putting it outside for a few hours, hardening it off, before I put it out altogether.

No leaves so far - but the stem is growing like crazy! I keep turning it to try and get it to grow straight (it grows towards the light and curves every few hours) - now I've got an S-shape stem!

[Kirsten]

Some updates:

A much taller stem (http://bp0.blogger.com/_M1JY712QvRQ/SBP-laF216I/AAAAAAAAABQ/_DJ4E7gVXVs/s1600-h/DSC04928.JPG)
My attempt at an artistic shot (http://bp1.blogger.com/_M1JY712QvRQ/SBP-_qF217I/AAAAAAAAABY/zFb1thNqkvM/s1600-h/DSC04926.JPG)

[Riz]

shame about the bend, when you eventually leave it outdoors it should straighten up... it looks like an boiled egg with the shell removed stuck in a pot.. haha !!!

cant wait to see its first leaves..

[Kirsten]

Left it in the window all day and got this:

http://i30.tinypic.com/dbrxqf.jpg

After rotating some, here it is today:

http://i30.tinypic.com/2d7hlk5.jpg

[Riz]

oh yeah..

its taking shape now :).... http://www.planetganja.com/highsociety/images/smilies/GreenThumbs.gif green thumb you have....

[Kirsten]

I'm just excited that I can start to see the formation of baby leaves on the top!

green thumb you have....

You should tell that to my mango, haha! It still hasn't sprouted since I potted it :(

[Kirsten]

Some updates - sorry, the picture isn't very clear :(

http://i27.tinypic.com/5eeipz.png

You can see it's gotten much taller, opening up its leaves (those are the lemons in the background)

http://i28.tinypic.com/2uqep1k.jpg

A little closeup of the leaves

[Riz]

very nice kirsten...

the avocado seedling looks really healthy, the stem is straightening up as well, i can see the first set of "true leaves" when do you feel you will need to repot it !?
the lemon seedlings look green and healthy aswell....
Excellent job.

[Kirsten]

I really don't know when I should repot it, to be honest. I've read that it should go in soil as soon as it starts developing a good sprout (if you're growing it in water), but since mine is already in soil... it's in a clear plastic cup right now so I can see that it's got an excellent root system. I'm thinking I might repot it once the leaves get to their full size.

[Kirsten]

I went ahead and repotted it yesterday. It had a really nice developed root system with big, thick roots, and I packed the whole thing into a pot and left only about the top 1/8 inch of the pit showing above soil (previously more than half of it was out). It seemed to be doing fine today so I hope I did a decent job transplanting it... we'll see..

[Kirsten]

Repotted and looking happy:

http://bp2.blogger.com/_M1JY712QvRQ/SC4JIYG9TeI/AAAAAAAAACo/O5SJ7Mcz4AA/s1600-h/avocado.png

[Riz]

the stem has straightened out now, and i can see some growing tips from the sides of the stem .. :)

its a tall stem though, has it been stretching for the light or is that the way the seedling grows !?. Ive had so many seedling stretch due to insuffeceint light i had to use straws ( the drinking kind) to hold them up.. ;)

[Kirsten]

I think that's actually the way the seedling grows. I've seen several sites say that in order to get a bushier plant (and not a tree), you should cut it down to 3 inches when it reaches 6 inches. I always thought I would do this until it started to grow lovely little leaves... now I've decided it can grow into a tree if it wants, but I can't cut off those pretty little leaves! It's actually a surprisingly sturdy stem and is good at holding itself up.

[Kirsten]

Update - I heard that avocados don't like getting a lot of sun so I had mine in partial shade, but it didn't look that happy. It seems to like full sun best, I love that the leaves are definitely greener:

http://i30.tinypic.com/205cdhw.png

[Riz]

yeah..

the leaves are forming really well... i like the look of it do you think it will bush out or is it just long and slender... i should really look it up :)

good work kirsten..

[Kirsten]

After all that trouble, I think it died...
It was having some wilty problem (I'd been watering it sparingly), and then somebody told me it was probably thirsty so I should water more, and then I think I overwatered. It really looks quite pitiful now.

[Riz]

shame that kirsten..

These kind of things do happen, you think you have done everything right and it just withers away for no apparent reason...

[Kirsten]

I went ahead and planted two more pits last Sunday. I really hope they grow :) Such a long wait to see the seedling, if at all...

[Kirsten]

So those two have cracked and a third one I planted was cracked already in the fruit :) I hope they grow!!

[~Obsidian~]

I hope they grow fast and survive for you :sunny:

[Kirsten]

So recently I've been having bad luck with eating avocados. I usually slice them in half longitudinally and eat it with a spoon, and recently I keep cutting through the little root of an already-sprouted pit. :( Oh well, at least I already have two of them growing.

One's split on both sides and the crack is slowly moving up; I hope to see the seedling in about two weeks or so :) The other one has poked its little seedling head about a cm above the top of the pit now. I'll post pics sometime soon :)

(Lots of :)s today, I'm having a good plant day so I'm happy!)

[~Obsidian~]

What is so nice about avocado? I tried it once and....blech:eek: shame about those roots.

(lots of :)s but no :Ds?)

[Kirsten]

haha well originally I had never eaten an avocado before. I had just been told that the pit was easy to grow. Sooo I went out and bought an avocado and took the pit out, but I figured that since I'd bought the fruit I might as well go ahead and try to eat it. It was really, really good!! I love just taking a spoon and scooping out the insides!!

:D ;)

[Riz]

:veggie_left4:

i have never eaten an avacado before untill 2 weeks ago.. ive had avacado ice cream before..

[Kirsten]

My newest plant :)

http://i34.tinypic.com/28ul2xl.png

[~Obsidian~]

Glossy glossy:tree-huggin:

I should try an avocado again, see if I like it after all these years :D and then grow it :D

[Kirsten]

Baby avocado tree (http://i36.tinypic.com/30atkow.png) from a few weeks ago

Getting bigger! (http://i33.tinypic.com/vyqcyd.png)

[~Obsidian~]

Cor is that the same plant? :eek: it's getting pretty big!

[edibles]

its been ups and downs today :):( in london its been:sky11: and my pineapple attempt is dead but in Pakistan its :sunny: and i got a phone call saying my sugar cane plant is ripe

anyway too cheer me up here i thought id grow something easy so avocado was obvious i tried the toothpick thing

i wanted to know if they need light to sprout thanks by the way to riz hes been a great help

[Kirsten]

Yup Obsidian that's it :) Actually the smaller one was planted by my boyfriend, I think it's the first he's ever planted (recall tomato = WEED story) so he's quite excited that it's actually growing :)

edibles - it probably won't need any light to start sprouting (you will get a big root before you get any growth up top), but after that I would definitely move it into the light.

[Kirsten]

As of a few days ago.... yes, one of them is growing in an old plastic milk bottle, trying to be resourceful :)

http://i36.tinypic.com/2hcqcnc.png

[~Obsidian~]

Woo they look awesome!! Haha can't remember how many times I've planted summat in a milk bottle meself :p

[Kirsten]

So edibles, how's yours doing?

I just got back to my dorm room (we just had winter break :) ) and someone local has all of my plants, so I haven't seen them yet. The smaller of the two avocadoes had almost completely browned, though, so I just left it there and didn't include it with the rest of the plants. Today I saw that it has a tiny, new, baby sprout!!! I'm so excited :)

[edibles]

it did develop a root but we had a very cold night once and it just gave up

[edibles]

how about an update kirsten, it has been a while

[Kirsten]

Mine are all dead :(

I give up...regardless of when or where or how or what I did, they all died. I must be doing something wrong, I just don't know what...

[Riz]

lots of people i know have tried and failed miserably K..

so dont stress it :)

[edibles]

Mine are all dead :(

I give up...regardless of when or where or how or what I did, they all died. I must be doing something wrong, I just don't know what...

:eek: shocker, i wasnt expecting that

[pwr_wrx]

I cut open a Avacado and took the seed out..stuck some toothpicks in it...shaved some of the brown off the bottom and put it in a glass of water..half way up the seed....its starting to crack from the bottom so im hoping to see some roots soon :)

I took some pics..ill post em later on

but here is pretty much what it looks like

[Riz]

very nice :)

keep us informed inshallah

[pwr_wrx]

I planted mine 2 nights ago and im seeing lots of progress :)

Heres more pics..hopefully will see some roots popping out in next 2 days

[~Obsidian~]

InShaa'Allah!

I love the look of avocado seeds, so beautifully round and shiny

[pwr_wrx]

The crack has gotten much wider on my first one..i got another seed on saturday but dont see any cracks or anything yet

[pwr_wrx]

Out of the two I put in water. One of em grew a long root. Finally!!!:D

[~Obsidian~]

Woo!

Ate my third ever (or was it fourth) avocado a couple of months ago:cheerleader:. It's not the tastiest thing in the world, but the stone was pretty cool :o

[pwr_wrx]

Heres a updated pic..lots of roots growing but nothing above...weird?!?!