Have you ever planted avocados from seeds? I've been doing it for some years. Yes, here in The Netherlands. I won't blame you if while reading this you're saying; "I've gotta be kidding or that am losing it." I've been laughed at for telling my friends that I'm raising baby avocados at home. And yes, I have successfully kept a lot of them. A few of those which you could also find in this post.
The planting method I used is the same as how I planted my citrus plants which you can find in this post and I have managed to grow more than a dozen already.
A few years ago one of them died and this year, though I've kept the other 3 in the strawberry green house they still didn't survive the weeks of ice age we had on this side of the earth. I guess it was too cold for the roots or maybe the lack of water since I also didn't let them drink much thinking it would freeze the roots.
However, it's okay cause in October I conducted an experiment about growing avocados from seeds in two ways. I was trying to let 3 germinate in soil and the other in water which I replaced almost every three days.
But first thing's first how did I do it? Here's how I did it and the first two steps applies on the ones I put in a glass of water
- Carefully slit the avocado in half making sure you won't cause a deep cut on the seed. If your knife did hit it and it's not that deep, with proper care and love the seed will still grow because that part of the seed you cut is just going to be the cotyledon of the embryo which will serve as the food of your baby plant.
These ones are organic avocados and it's easy to tell cause their seeds are teeny tiny.
- Peel that brown seed coat off the seed from the bottom end cause that's where its thicker and easier to remove not to mention it won't cause it bruising. Yes, get that seed totally naked from that brown seed coat.
- Stick just half of it in loam soil. Why half? One day, a baby plant shall come out. That's your embryo. The embryo shall feed on those white parts called the cotyledon. Later on they shall rot and having them buried under the soil won't be easy monitoring it. Once they turn brown you could pluck them off the plant. Otherwise, they'd rot under and cause a disease on your plant. I had one of such a case, the leaves of the plant started having brown spots. I thought I just needed to repot it so I did. That's when I found out the cotyledon was all brown so I just removed it and repoted the plant without it. The plant recovered and is now growing healthy. This is that one.
- Cover with sand (so no flies eggs grow from the loam soil) and water. If you are living in the EU or any other place with the same weather condition as The Netherlands, make sure to water any of your plant before 17:00. Watering them later than 17:00 will cause molds growing on the surface of the sand or soil.
- Place the avocado on top of your heating where the sun shines and make sure to water 1x a day if you also planted it in autumn or winter. I chose this season cause I wanted to give them a chance of a full sun boost when they germinate which is the case nowadays.
What about those I put in a glass of water? Oh, I just put them on top of the sink where the sunshine could still reach them. I don't want it to be damp in the house which would happen if I put it on top of the heating system. The sink is often wet so the same area gets damp and water won't escape the glass faster than it should.
After two months and 19 days, one of those I placed in the soil on top of the heating started splitting. That means, an embryo is starting to send its root out. Yey! One successfully germinated avocado on the soil.
As for those I put in the glass of water, nothing is splitting yet. I had to dry them up to show you cause they tend to split from the bottom.
After 24 days, the seed that started splitting open also shoot out an embryo which could probably be days old out.
After a month, one of those three avocados in the glass of water started splitting open and here, you could already see the embryo with a teeny root in the middle.
That day, I've decided planting them in loam soil, too. As you can see I put a plastic bag around the pot first before filling it up with soil so I could easily repot them when they are matured enough.
CONCLUSION:
With soil, enough sunshine exposure, watering and heat the avocado seeds germinate faster when half buried in soil rather than soaked in water when planted during autumn and winter.
11 days later ... the baby plant has grown taller and it's leaves are more visible. Nothing seem to be happening on the other pot yet.
A week later ... The baby plant has doubled its height and the same could still be observed on the other pot.
You may laugh at me like my friends do when I tell them I'm growing avocados in pots at home but there are people in UK and other places of Europe who are growing them and are having fruits now. So go ahead ..laugh all you can or better yet, join us. Plant your own avocado tree and reap some in the future. So .. would you try growing and avocado tree in your own backyard? If you happen to live where it is warmer - it would be easy peasy for you. Would you give it a try? I took some of the pics with my Samsung Galaxy Note 1 and A3 2016 edition.
Here are my other gardening articles:
Very descriptive explanation of how to plant avocado. Thanks.
Upvoted by @gardening-trail
Thank you for following and upvoting @gardening-trail
Read our guidelines here. Join us In the Gardening-Trail and let's discuss Gardening Related Topics
@gardening-trail thank you!
Hello @englishtchrivy,
Congratulations! Your post has been chosen by the communities of SteemTrail as one of our top picks today.
Also, as a selection for being a top pick today, you have been awarded a TRAIL token for your participation on our innovative platform...STEEM.
Please visit SteemTrail to get instructions on how to claim your TRAIL token today.
If do not wish to be promoted by SteemTrail, please reply with "Stop" to opt out.
Happy TRAIL!
@steemtrail thank you!
nice post (dank u well)
very informing post
upvoted & followed!
@doitvoluntarily thank you!
Thank you for sharing this. Here at home the ladies love avocados, now it would be great if we could grow them ourselves.
@oaldamster you're welcome!
it has to be indoors while they're babies cause even huge ones could experience this during winter.
Nature keeps surprising us.
I just love avocados. I must try growing them.
@team101 and you can!
good luck ! if you're successful post about it :D
Thank you for posting @englishtchrivy.
Lovely photographs and write-up regarding the possibilities regarding the Avocado. Certainly a worthy fruit of the attention it must be given in order to experience success. Is it true that it takes the plant seven years to mature and only then does it bear fruit.
Just wondering if the cup with such a knowing expression is from the shoppe featured in one of your previous post......it is darling.
Whishing you and yours all the best. Abientotlater.
@bleujay thank you!
you can do this, too!
as for the years before it bears fruit .. yes it would take 7 years or less - 5 to 7 years depending on which are you are in the EU.
If you are in Spain, Portugal and South Italy - 5 years would be enough.
If here or the BENELUX or France or the UK - 7 is indeed the lucky number of years. Hopefully by the time my oldest avocado flowers Steemit is still on and going strong so I could still post about it.
Here's the oldest I got.
these were the ones that died
and these were just a few of those I managed to grow successfully. They're pretty young still.
all of them you can find in my post about which tropical plants could you grow here.
I posted this to show the step by step procedure and to prove that it's that grown on soil that does it faster when grown in cold season.
Thank you for your reply @englishtchrivy.
Lovely pictures....you do make it seem so easy. One must be dedicated to have such success and it appears you do.
Appreciate the instructions with regard to soil.
All the best to you.
@bleujay thank you!
I went to your page and thought it was your quote
hahaha I was supposed to ask and write ; " Did you go to ash wednesday?"
but then I saw it's someone else's post so I loled :D
Have a great weekend my friend!
Oh yes....a post is coming...just working on it. ^_^
And the same for you @englishtchrivy.
Wishing you and yours a lovely weekend.
Thanks for sharing. So, the soil works better in this case.
@ace108 yes, it's faster than soaked in water.
I often see this
source
This is definitely on my list to do when the weather gets that slight bit warmer here. ITs quite inspiring to think I could grow them in Scotland!!
@meesterboom you could!
the one fruiting in regions with weather like ours was in UK. I just couldn't find the darn video about it.
But perhaps this would help you get inspired.
Aha, yes!! I am really definitely going to try. I will check out the video as soon as morning comes and I am not hidden in bed like a sneaky badger!!
Your photography is just fantastic. Avocados are a staple here in Chile. They are served with every meal, I am not kidding. They grow wonderfully here and they are a power food. Everyone in my house loves them. This is a great post that applies to us, thanks so much for sharing
@gringalicious
thanks!
:P
I think it's great.
I kill all the raising of something.
Well, my wife said that my hand was a cursed hand ^^
This is how I see your amazing ability to look at photos of avocado.
And I am also impressed with the vitality of plants that grow well.
@sochul nim, thank you
sorry I must have been already in bed when you sent this :)
I don't believe that you have a cursed hand, you can turn it around. I also just learned gardening. With proper care and proper know how you can always grow something - so let's try again. Being able to plant and grow things is nothing special in my humble opinion I just learned it early back when I was living with my Hulmoni and Harabuchi who were both gardening and growing their own food in their backyard.
There's no limit in learning so you can start again and I say "fighting!" @sochul nim! ^ ^
That's so awesome! I planted an avocado seed in soil about a month and a half ago, but nothing's happening yet. Maybe I should move it to the other side of the house that gets more direct sunlight... what do you think?
@playfulfoodie a month ago? It was colder a month ago so yes it's normal Schat, please move it to where there's enough sun and where your heating is. Gewoon boven de verwarming schat. I hope you planted just half of the seed :).
veel success! als het waker wordt maak maar een foto en posten maar ook dat mag ^ ^!
Ik heb inderdaad maar de helft in het zand gezet, maar hij stond in de keuken naast de verwarming. Er is wel een beetje licht, maar niet zoveel... Hij staat nu in de vensterbank boven de verwarming :D
Als het lukt maak ik een foto, thanks!
@playfulfoodie deze drie waren op de keuken verwarming onder de daklicht - genoeg zonlicht gekrijgen maar het duurde 2 maanden toch door de winter denk ik.
Ik hoop dat het lukt.. geduld .. (die heb ik ook niet maar ze doen het zelf - groeien) .... Duimen!
Okee! Ik ga denken...
Dat is het ook! Geduld... Ik had zelf uitgerekend dat ie ergens deze maand iets van leven zou moeten tonen, dus we gaan het zien :D
@playfulfoodie ja toch!
hey.. doe maar nu met dit mee!
You will have a whole forest of avocados before too long. Sorry to see the larger ones get chilled, though. That's what I think would happen in my house. I thought the seeds in the water would grow first, just because they would soak up more water. But rather than count from the first growth of one seed, it's more representative to see approach has all three seeds sprout first.
Your post and this other one from today by @xtrodinarypilot show that there are a lot of different ways to grow plants. That's one of the reasons gardening is so enjoyable, I think.
@haphazard-hstead hahaha
the ones that got frozen .. I wanted to bury them in the ground but they forecast weeks of ice age and that's exactly what happened so they didn't make it. They're pretty young I should have waited till they're 5 cause even this huge a tree was damaged
source
We ate a dozen but I gave the other half to my friends and just divided the half a dozen left into two and placed a group of them in water and in the other in soil.
I'll go have a look @xtraordinarypilot's post thank you for pointing me to it!
Avocados grow better in soil and significantly faster. The soil I used is red clay with ash and treated compost.
https://steemit.com/gardening/@xtrodinarypilot/grow-your-own-avocados-at-home-with-the-xtrodinarypilot-method-there-s-a-catch
My boyfriend tries to germinate every vegetable, fruit or tree that he enjoys, only to see it growing: sweet potato, apple, Quercus sp., ash and salix trees (I like these last too)...and so on. Fortunately, our balcony is small and almost don't go through summer, it's very hot! Loved you plastic bag idea, that will be of great help in our future seedlings/plantations!!
@liliana.duarte thank you .. you're in Portugal - growing avocado using both methods may give a different result I suppose - try?
I don't use avocado(yet)!! Maybe that would be a nice experiment one day. I'm realizing they are turning popular here! I already have a salad recipe that want to try with avocado:)
@liliana.duarte well maybe you could use it for the next SCC !
Hi @englishtchrivy
Nice post, we used to grow avocados like in the picture below
Image Credit
with only the bottom part in the water. You can also follow the link to see more. I can remember how long it took to germinate.
@rynow thank you and thanks for the link :)
yes, this is another way and I also did that at first in summer and placed one set of seeds soaked and another set with this but the toothpick bruises the cotyledon so I just soaked them, works the same just days slower in my data. The problem with bruised cotyledon is that it could encourage molds as it is damp in here even if the avocado gets to germinate the cotyledon tends to rot faster and the plant ends up dwarf and have browning leaves. I wasn't in Steemit back then and Steemit wasn't born yet so I have no pics of those but in my experience it's better to use this method in Tropical places or during summer in the EU and regions that have weather conditions like ours.
I use bits of willow tree branches soaked in water for a week or so to make growth hormone water for germinating and seedlings. (At least when I get motivated to do gardening, which isn't very often.) Seems to give a boost, although a ground Aspirin tablet might do the trick too, since it's basically the same stuff.
@gamer00 I see ... thanks for the tip
I never use anything like that cause I'm an organic gardener
Willow is not organic? Am I missing something?
@gamer00 it is but I meant the aspirin is not
there's a willow tree near where I live but I don't know how to make growth hormone out of it perhaps you should post
Ok, will do. It is not really too hard though, so it might become a short post. ;)
This is the first time Inhave tried this and its growing. It taking long though.
Ive had more luck with propogating straight from putting them in the garden than in water. I have one avacado plant growing now and a couple of sprouted ones. I'm going to give them some sand as you described. Well written. Thank you!