I have a seed/pit from the avocado we had yesterday. I have a burning desire to see if I can grow a plant from it. Any suggestions? Need I do anything special or just plunk it in a pot with some potting medium? It has a round end and a pointy end. Since I did not pay attention when I scooped it out, which is "this end up"?? LOL
Avocado Seed/pit
You're in luck .. I just happen to have one. The pointy end is up. The easiest way to grow one is to stick 4 toothpicks into it and place it over a cup and add enough warm water to just touch the bottom. Keep adding warm water as needed. Once it has a few leaves on it you can pot it up.
I will do that. Thanks. I don't expect it to fruit, tho. I assume they don't "in captivity"???? :>)
These guys are actually trees but won't survive your winters so it will have to be an indoor plant for you. If they are allowed to get big enough they will fruit.
No worries there. I have a HUGE greenhouse. 30x64 with a 12 foot ceiling at one end and goes to 14 foot at the far end.
Oh my .. excuse while I wipe off the keyboard ... lol .. all I have is a itty bitty greenhouse which made it necessary to trade away my "too big for the greenhouse" plants every fall until I realized I could put lights in the utility room and overwinter big plants there .. I plant on getting a super sized one when my sister retires.
Well, my business is overwintering large tropicals for other people. $40/plant/season. Comes out to about $5/month. Have trailer, will travel. But, I think the pickup and delivery charges would kill ya. LOL
Hmmm .. that sounds like a good retirement business for me!
That does sound like a good business opportunity! Unfortunately my greenhouse is already completely full of my own plants so that could be problematic...
I have so many of my own plants I also want to get into a tropical plant rental for special occasions. Still working on that aspect. Have plants, will travel. LOL
Hmmm .. that sounds tempting! You'll have to make up a list of plants you'd be interesting in trading .. I have a lot of unusual and hard to find tropicals!
Oh, I have nothing THAT exotic...........alocasia, colocasia, some brugs, ferns, 3 orchids, a huge verigated BOP (which at present has had 6 blooms and 6 more bloom stalks) , hibiscus...........
Anna, down here avocados do grow outside and give fruit. I had a wonderful tree that I grew from a 3ft baby, but we moved and had to leave it at the old house. It bore wonderful fruit every second year. They're pretty easy to grow if you have good conditions and enough light. But most hybrid avo's are grafted, so yours may not come true from seed.
They get to be quite big trees, 25ft. to 40ft. But if you can grow yours from a pit for maybe 7 or 8 years it actually might bloom in your nice big greenhouse. They're nice looking plants with shiny, oval leaves and if you keep it pruned to a small size so the fruit is reachable, it will keep growing in a large pot.
Then pollination gets to be the next challenge. If you can get the pit to root, and put up leaves, then I'll look up the article I have (somewhere . . . ) on the complicated process of pollinating avo's. Hm, it runs in my mind you might want to eat another avocado and start another plant . .. the first article I'm looking at just says "For the best yields plant more than one variety. Although most varieties will produce some fruit if planted alone, almost all produce more if cross-pollinated". Tom MacCubbin 'The Edible Landscape'. As I recall the other article I read had something about the timing of the flowers opening being critical for pollination.
This one had a sticker on it that said "Hess"
They probably meant 'Hass', it's a common cultivar. I don't think it'll come true so no guarantee the fruits will be as good as the original, but half the fun is trying & seeing what you get. I had an avocado tree at my old house (no idea what kind since it was there when I moved in), and although there weren't any other avocados around (at least not that I know of) mine did produce some fruit. Unfortunately the tree was about 40 ft tall and most of the fruits formed about 30 ft off the ground, so I didn't harvest very many! I did have a few fall to the ground and seedlings sprouted without any help from me, so I don't think they're hard to germinate.
Any idea of how long it takes for it to get some leaves started? Still in the water and nothing yet.
Can take a few months .. temperature has a lot to do with it.
Oh, jeez, and here I was wanting instant gratification........6 weeks or so. LOLOL
My very first house plant was an Avocado. My Grandmother always had one in a glass with toothpicks in her kitchen window - which gave me the idea. Ah, childhood memories. She had a breakfast nook in the kitchen - like a booth and the seats lifted up for storgae underneath. Where I kept my Grape Nehi. However, I no longer do them as the Avocado grown as a house plant (I have no greenhouse) only lives 3-5 years.