How to grow an avocado from a stone at home: planting and care with video

Avocado fruits have a pleasant taste, rich in vitamins, vegetable fats and minerals. They say that an exotic fruit: rejuvenates cells, improves memory, restores efficiency. Medicines are prepared from the fruits, and the oil is part of cosmetics, perfumes and colognes. Gardeners have learned how to cultivate both lemons and tangerines on a balcony or windowsill, they harvest a good harvest of citrus fruits, but few people know how to grow avocados from a stone at home and do not dare to try.

Botanical description

Culture from the Lavrov family came to Europe from Mexico. The height of the trees on which the fruits ripen, shaped like a pear, a ball or an ellipse, reaches 20 meters. The evergreen plant has oval long leaves, small inconspicuous flowers are located in their axils. Avocados can be around 5 cm in size, but larger fruits are more common, with some specimens weighing more than 1.5 kg.

The skin of the ripened fruit is almost black, but unripe avocados are often sold on the shelves. In the tender yellow-green pulp of the fruit there is a lot of fat, practically no sugar, in the middle there is one single, but large bone. It is dried and used to treat many diseases.

Only the pulp is eaten, similar in texture to butter, the taste resembles not a fruit, but a vegetable with a subtle hint of a nut.

Neither the peel nor the bone of the fruit can be eaten, the persin present in their composition releases toxins, which is fraught with allergies, indigestion.

Differences between home and garden avocados

Under natural conditions, the "alligator pear" tree, which is valued for unusual fruits, reaches 20 m in height. In mid-latitudes, avocados survive only in the greenhouse and in the house. The leaves of the plant, as in the natural environment, usually do not fall off, and when they fall off, young new ones appear. The height of an avocado at room conditions rarely reaches 2.5 meters, and if it bears fruit, then the berries are much smaller than they ripen in the tropics.

With the correct formation of the crown, the tree looks beautiful, at home it is grown for decorative purposes. Avocado loves heat, does not tolerate frost, and when asked if it can be planted in the yard, experts say no.

Which seed is suitable for sprouting

For propagation of tropical culture, cuttings are not used, because they do not take root well, and they are not sold anywhere.Fresh avocado fruit can be bought without problems. The peel of the ripe fruit is almost black and hard. A bone from it almost always sprouts, but this will take not a week, but months, and sometimes six months. In order to pull the seed out of the pulp, no special effort is required.

Optimal timing for the procedure

In order for the seed to sprout faster and the tree to develop well, you need to know when to plant it better. Despite the fact that the apartment is always approximately the same temperature, the plants are most active in the spring. It is in this period that all seeds are sown, it is best suited for planting an avocado seed.

Conditions for good tree growth

To decorate the room with a tropical culture, to accelerate its development, you need to choose a place in the house where the tree will feel good. Growing a tropical crop is not that difficult if you care for it properly.

Irrigation

In nature, avocados grow in hot and humid climates. You need to irrigate the land in a pot or tub regularly, especially often this has to be done in the summer. The tree is watered after a day or 2, after the topsoil dries out. The plant does not tolerate standing water.

Humidity

To create conditions close to the tropics, a pot of avocados is placed in a pan with wet claydite. A daily misting with warm water also provides the high humidity needed for the growth and development of the exotic crop.

Location and lighting

It is better to put a pot with a tree on a windowsill. So that the bright summer sun does not burn the delicate leaves, at first the seedling should be slightly shaded. Avocado loves light, so phytolamps are additionally installed in autumn or early spring. An ideal place for an exotic guest is a window that faces west or south.

Temperature conditions

Evergreen tree loves heat, does not tolerate cold, and already at 12 degrees sheds leaves. A pot with a plant is not advised even in the warm period to be taken out into the street, as it is afraid of drafts. In summer, avocados feel comfortable indoors, but in winter the temperature should be kept at 20 ° C.

Methods and stages of sprouting avocado seeds

To harvest seed, you need to buy a ripe fruit without spots and cracks, which restores its shape when pressed. A cut is made in the pulp of the avocado, through which the stone is pulled out, carefully washed so as not to scratch the shell.

In a closed way into the ground

There are 2 methods by which avocado seeds are germinated. In the first option, they first prepare a place for landing:

1. A layer of expanded clay or fine gravel is laid on the bottom of the pot.
2. To get a suitable soil, combine the same amount of humus, sand and earth from the garden.
3. The container is filled with the mixture, leaving a couple of centimeters to the top.

The bone should be deepened by 2.5 mm with the blunt end down. When the seed sprouts, the tree continues to be grown in the same pot.

Open way into the water

Another method of planting avocados involves placing the seed in a container of liquid.

Which water to put an avocado in, which end

3 or 4 holes are pierced in the middle of the seed, toothpicks are placed in each of which, due to which the upper part of the seed remains on the surface. The grain is immersed in a glass of cool water - preferably melted or passed through a filter, you can use a hydrogel.The liquid is constantly topped up so that the level does not change.

How to plant a sprouted seed

When the sprout reaches 3 cm, it is moved to a pot with holes, deepening 1/3 into the ground, root down. An avocado seed should not be buried, broken or removed.

How many days does it take for a sprout to germinate

With the closed method, when an avocado seed is planted directly in the ground, the pot is placed in a warm, well-lit place and watered abundantly, after a month or even 20 days a pink color sprout appears. With an open method of cultivation, it will take at least 2 weeks for the formation of avocado roots, as a maximum - 6.

If you simply stick a seed into the ground, the process will drag on for at least 3 months.

Why does the avocado seed not germinate

In order for a guest from the tropics to please with beauty and fruits, you need to constantly take care of him from the moment the seed is planted, but sometimes a month or two passes, and the sprout does not appear.

Reasons

Ripe fruit has a dark and hard skin. If a stone from a green fruit is used for planting, it does not germinate, because it has not had time to ripen. If the seed is placed in dry soil or in soil that does not allow moisture to pass through, the grain will simply dry out and not germinate.

Tricks to stimulate shoot growth

In order for the seedling to develop well, you need to monitor the moisture content of the soil in the pot, it should not dry out. When the avocado is about 15 cm high, the stem is cut in half. The tree after such a procedure grows well, additional shoots are formed. It reacts positively to leaf spraying, the introduction of mineral components.

Further care

If you properly care for the tree, the avocado will thank you with a decorative look, decorate the interior.

Feeding

When growing a tropical guest in a room or apartment, it is enough to apply ready-made complex fertilizers to the soil once a month or alternating mineral with organic matter. In September, feeding is stopped and resumed only in April. How much nutrition an avocado needs depends on its age and size.

Pinch

In its homeland, the tree reaches 15-20 meters in height, in a pot a tropical crop grows quickly, and it often has to be transplanted into a container of a larger diameter. To prevent the tree from stretching, pinch the top, and when the side branches appear, become covered with leaves, these shoots are also shortened.

Pruning and crown shaping

It only takes a little experience in caring for indoor plants and flowers to give avocados a decorative look, decorate rooms. In early spring, shoots are cut to form a crown.They can be bent and tied up for better branching, and the tree looks great as a shrub.

Irrigation

Tropical plant loves moisture, it should be watered often, but do not allow water to stagnate in a pot. Avocado leaves will shine, have a rich color, if the air around the container with an exotic crop is regularly sprayed. In winter, the amount of watering is reduced.

Do I need to vaccinate

Usually at home, avocados are grown for decorative purposes. When planting a seed, berries may appear when the tree reaches a height of 2 meters. To speed up fruiting, it is grafted with a cutting, but this tropical crop has a complicated pollination mechanism, it is not a fact that the result will be positive.

Will an avocado bloom and bear fruit?

Overseas visitor turns into an adult plant at the age of six, when the tree usually pleases with fruit harvest and has already prepared for this process.But avocados rarely bloom in a house or apartment, and it is even more difficult to wait for the formation of an ovary, but some gardeners manage to collect fruits as well.

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