Avocado tree - how to grow from seed at home? Step by step instructions with real photos

Avocados became known several thousand years ago. True, he was then a little wary. This was due to its appearance - pear-shaped fruits. Taste features were appreciated for their special vibrant taste. Today, few people can be surprised with exotic green flowers and trees on window sills or on a garden plot in our climate zone. Today it is not difficult to grow an avocado tree at home.

Summary of the article:

Is it possible to grow a tree at home on the windowsill?

Surely, you saw a photo of an avocado tree and wanted to try to grow it yourself in a summer cottage or at home? If the desire to try to plant an avocado from his own seed is strong enough, be prepared for a long period of appearance of the first seedlings, proper care.

First of all, you should first buy a ripe enough fruit. To see how ripe it is, you must press a little on the fruit on both sides and let it go. If the avocado is ripe - it will immediately become elastic again and without dents. Such a fruit has a mature seed and can subsequently be planted.

If the fruit is immature, you can accelerate its ripening at home. To do this, you will need to place fruits next to the avocado that secrete a special substance responsible for the accelerated ripening of other fruits and vegetables. Fruits containing ethylene include apples and other fruits.

How to grow avocado from seed?

It itself is quite large, about half of the entire fruit. Cut it in half, pull out the bone. Rinse it under running water, washing off the remaining avocado. Try not to touch the brown crust.

After you have washed the bone, take a small container (you can use plastic egg trays) and place the bone. Be sure to ensure that the water does not cover the entire bone. If you don’t have a small container at hand, you can use a glass of water.

In order for the bone to not completely sink into the water, insert toothpicks into the bone, which prevents it from getting completely wet.

An important nuance - the blunt end should be located in the water. If you place the stone in a transparent container, you can watch the avocado grow.

The second option - immediately immerse the bone in the ground, without soaking it in the liquid. To do this, it is necessary to clean it of brown peel. Watering is best not more than once a week. It is important to remember that the earth must be moist, but not waterlogged.

It will take a long time to wait for the first sprout. Usually, the bone opens and shows the first sprout a couple of weeks after it was immersed in water or immediately transplanted into the ground. As soon as the first sprout is about 3 centimeters, the avocado can be planted in the ground (if you soaked a bone in water).

In order for the plant that is transplanted to the ground to have enough air and there is no stagnation of water in the ground, the soil in the pot must have good drainage. A very important nuance is that the tree does not tolerate stagnation of water in the root system. The first pot can be quite small.

As soon as the tree grows, it can be safely transplanted into a larger pot. Drainage must be at least 2 centimeters high. Next, fill the drainage with earth and plant a stone so that one third peeps out of the ground.

Avocado Care

Subsequently, you will understand how to care for the avocado tree. It is best to water with well-maintained water at room temperature.

Do not forget about the optimal mode - if you abuse watering, the tree will immediately signal this to you with its yellowed leaves. To remove excess moisture, do not water the plant for several days until the earth dries.

For normal plant growth, it must be pinched. Thus, the growth of lateral sprouts is stimulated and the future crown of the avocado tree is formed. Do not forget that with the growth of the plant it will be necessary to transplant it into a container with a large size.

Try to place the pot on the sunny side - an avocado prefers sunlight. Avocados do not tolerate cold air.

When growing a plant, be prepared for its diseases. The most common avocado tree diseases are scale insects and spider mites. You can fight parasites by changing the dryness or humidity in the room.

You can spray the plant from the spray gun. You can manually remove insects using a soap solution. If the branches have a strong defeat - you must remove them manually.

Avocado plant is sick due to improper watering, very cold water, the presence of drafts, dry air.

Avocado Ornamental Plant?

If you want your tree to have a decorative look - plant a few seeds with sprouts that have already appeared in one pot. Carefully weave a pigtail out of their stems.

Be careful, it should not be very tight, let there be small gaps - the trunk will grow and it will need a place. If there are small gaps, you can adjust the decorativeness of your tree.

A tree grown at home can produce avocado fruits, but for this it is necessary that at least one or two small stems are in the same area (in close proximity to each other). This is necessary for cross-pollination of trees.

With good care and care, an avocado will be able to give its first fruits as early as three years after its disembarkation.

The benefits of avocado

The second name of the avocado is the name of the alligator pear. It is likely that it received its second name because of its similarity to a pear. Gardeners do not exclude the possibility that they previously had one common relative, but due to environmental or climatic differences in the region where they grew, the plants changed.

Nowadays, the avocado fruit is used not only for food, but also in cosmetology (when creating creams, scrubs and masks) in medicine (for treatment, as well as for the prevention of various diseases) and other industries.

In medicine, the digestive and circulatory systems are treated with avocados. Avocado oil is used not only for medical but also for cosmetic purposes.