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: