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

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

Summary of the article:

Surely, you have seen a photo of an avocado tree and wanted to try to grow it yourself in suburban conditions or at home? If the desire to try to plant an avocado from its own seed is strong enough, be prepared for a long period of the appearance of the first shoots, proper care.

First of all, you should first buy a sufficiently ripe fruit. To make sure how ripe it is, you have to press a little on the fruit on both sides and let go. If the avocado is ripe, it will immediately become elastic again and without dents. Such a fruit has a mature stone and it can be planted later.

If the fruit is immature, you can accelerate its maturation at home. To do this, you will need to place fruits next to the avocado, which 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 an avocado from a stone?

It itself is quite large, about half of the entire fetus. Cut it in half, pull out the bone. Rinse it under running water, washing off the remains of the 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 make sure that the water does not cover the entire bone. If there was no small container at hand, you can use a cup of water.

In order for the bone not to be completely immersed in water, insert toothpicks into the bone, which does not allow it to get completely wet.

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

The second option is to immediately immerse the bone in the ground, without soaking it in liquid. To do this, you need to peel it from the brown peel. It is best to water no more than once a week. It is important to remember that the ground should be moist, but not waterlogged.

You will have to wait for the first sprout for a long time. 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 the stone in water).

In order for a plant that is transplanted into 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 may be quite small.

As soon as the tree grows up, 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 the bone in such a way that one third looks out of the ground.

Avocado Care

Subsequently, you will understand how to take care of the avocado tree. It is best to water with water at room temperature.

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

For the normal growth of the plant, 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 – avocado prefers sunlight. Avocado does not tolerate cold air.

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

You can spray the plant with a spray gun. You can manually remove insects using a soap solution. If the branches have a strong lesion, it is necessary to remove them manually.

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

Is avocado an ornamental plant?

If you want your tree to have a decorative look, plant several seeds with already appeared sprouts in one pot. Carefully weave a pigtail from their stems.

Be careful, it should not be very dense, let there be small gaps – the trunk will grow and it will need a place. If there are small gaps, you will be able to 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 located on the same area (in close proximity to each other). This is necessary for cross-pollination of trees.

With good care and care, the avocado will be able to bear its first fruits starting three years after its planting.

The usefulness of avocado fruits

The second name of the avocado is the name of the alligator pear. It is likely that it received the 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 changes in the region where they grew, the plants have transformed.

Nowadays, the avocado fruit is used not only for food, but also in cosmetology (when creating creams, scrubs and masks) in medicine (for the treatment and 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.