If you are not a great gardening professional and have never held gardening tools in your hands, try starting with growing avocados from seed at home. We have enjoyed this fruit, which is no longer exotic for our latitudes - do not throw away a stone: it is useful for an experiment.
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The nuances of growing
Avocado is a representative of the laurel family. Under natural conditions, it can reach eighteen meters in height. So it can be called a tree very conditionally. But at home, in any case, he will not grow up like this, but there will be a very nice and spectacular mini-garden.
The first condition for the successful development of avocados is to choose the right fruit. It should be ripe, since the fruit seed risks not sprouting, and slightly sore under pressure.
The next moment - you need to be able to get a bone. Again, it depends on this whether the plant will hatch.
How to do this?
- Make a neat cut along.
- Hands grab the halves and scroll them in opposite directions.
After which the bone is very easily removed.
You need to be prepared for some nuances:
- a very young tree is not particularly attractive. It looks like a thin bare stalk with a bunch of leaves on the poppy itself;
- direct sprouts of the sun are vital to a germ, otherwise normal development is not worth the wait;
- in winter, you will have to make a lot of efforts to save the green pet and prevent it from dropping leaves: to ensure the air temperature is not less than +16 C and not often watered;
- does not tolerate either overdried or too wet soil, but it requires high humidity.
How to grow avocado from seed at home
Having decided on an attempt, you can choose one of two ways how to grow an avocado from a stone:
- immediately place it in the ground;
- try to sprout a seed in water.
The first is more suitable for an experienced flower gardener. The second is more reliable for beginners, although somewhat more difficult to implement.
Indoor Growing Method
For this option, take a pot filled with moist soil. In the middle, a recess is made in which a bone must be lowered.
But do not bury completely (there is a risk of decay), but:
- lower it into the pit to half;
- make sure that the blunt end hides in the ground, and the sharp end rises above the surface.
After two to four weeks, the sprout of avocado should come from just the point. And for this to happen, the bone must be watered all the time, keeping the soil moist. When the sprout is stretched by 15-20 centimeters and gets wide, laurel-like leaves, it can be relocated to a more spacious container.
We grow in an open way
This method is more exciting, especially for a beginner gardener, and more intuitive: the primary germination of the seed in the water allows you to see millimeter but rootlets that stubbornly get out.
The bone must be specially prepared.
- On the stupid side, make three or four holes.
- Insert toothpicks into them. They will serve as a support, which must be installed in a glass with water so that only the lower zone of the bone is wet.
There is another way: several times to drill a bone in the middle and stick the toothpicks at a right angle. They will lie on the edge of the glass, holding the structure. Water, again, is poured so much that it covers the bottom.
If you do not forget to monitor the level of liquid in the glass, then after two to four weeks you can be happy with the roots that appear from below, and the delicate green sprout that has broken out from the sharp end. Gradually getting out of the "house", he spends the nutrients stored in the bone. So, it's time to take a small flowerpot (always with drainage holes in the bottom), and plant an avocado seed with the “newborn”, deepening it into the ground by three centimeters.
Conditions for active tree growth
Choosing a place in the house where the avocado will be constantly located, you need to remember the conditions conducive to its healthy development and active growth. Since it is very photophilous, it is better to put the pot in a well-lit place. But take care of temporary shading, so that at noon, direct sunlight does not burn the leaves. Penumbra avocado also tolerates well, so it will be quite comfortable to feel on the north window.
To prevent the exotic pet from dropping leaves in autumn and winter, it is highlighted with fluorescent or special phytolamps.
You need to water it with warm, settled water. In spring and summer, generously, only the crust dries, but not until the formation of a “swamp” in the container. In winter, the surface of the substrate should remain dry for 1-2 days.
Avocados are heavy in dry air. Therefore, regular spraying, but not of the leaves themselves, but of the air around is an indispensable condition for well-being and growth.
No need to plant a tree in any soil. It is best to mix in equal parts humus, coarse sand, garden soil and peat. And add ¼ parts of lime.
Will the fruit tree grown from seed
Opinions on this subject vary, apparently based on the personal experience of different gardeners.
- According to some, the theoretical possibility that home-grown avocados will bear fruit exists. But for this, the tree must reach a height of at least two meters, and, in addition, it must be grafted. And yet it is not a fact that even if such conditions are met, something will work out.
- Others say that in the vast majority of cases (and this is 95 -99%), indoor avocados do not bloom, and, moreover, do not bear fruit. Such examples are the rarest exception and great pride of the owner.
Home Care
After the emergence of the sprout, growing avocados does not take much time and does not require any special tricks. The most important condition is generous watering. If the leaves begin to dry, the tree does not have enough water.
In the case when he drinks the plant regularly, but the foliage still has not gained enough succulence, the pet “protests” against too dry air. It is necessary to spray around the plant with cool water from the spray gun, trying not to wet the leaves themselves.
Although the homeland of avocado is the tropics, the sweltering heat does not suit him. It feels best at a temperature of no lower than 16 and no higher than 20 C.
In spring and summer, the tree is fed. To do this, buy special liquid fertilizers for tropical representatives of the flora world.
The plant quickly reaches up. And if there is no intention to admire the two-meter post, you will have to pinch it.
Once a year, a young avocado is “relocated” to a more spacious container, moving along with a lump of earth around the root. An adult tree can be replanted no more than once every three years.
Perhaps, in gratitude for the care and love, after six to eight years, your favorite will delight you with flowering.
Pest and Disease Control
Like any living creature, an avocado can hurt and suffer from pests. In most cases, diseases provoke errors in care.
- Foliage dries and falls - look for the reason. It can be covered in too low or high temperature in the room, excessive or insufficient watering, drafts. Once you find out what is happening, correct the situation.
- The tips of the leaves or even their entire surface turns brown, the leaves crumble - most likely, too dry air in the room led to this result. And it needs to be urgently moistened using a spray bottle.
- The same situation is the result of water scarcity. Correct watering will save you from it, in which the plant does not dry out, but does not “get wet”. Especially carefully you need to monitor the status of avocados in winter, when the central heating is turned on. It is best during this period to put a tree on a pallet with sphagnum or wet expanded clay.
- When the leaves “turn pale”, this is a signal that the avocado is asking for more light. Move it closer to the window, provide illumination in the autumn-winter season. But if the green pet has lived in a shaded place long enough, it should be accustomed to a greater "dose" of light gradually.
Indoor avocados can be attacked by ticks or scale insects. Manual removal of insects by using soap solutions will help get rid of pests. If the branches are too affected, they are best removed. Insecticides are used as a last resort.
