Avocado is a tropical plant. His houses are grown as a decorative culture for decorating the interior of residential and office buildings. Avocados have the ability to emit large amounts of oxygen, creating a favorable atmosphere in the home or office. For the sake of this, they contain a tropical plant in places of residence and a long stay of a person. It blooms extremely rarely indoors; fruiting can be avoided at all. But gardeners always want to have a tropic tree in their collection. Therefore, extra knowledge about growing avocados at home will not hurt.
Plant description
Avocado is an evergreen fast-growing tree from the Laurel family. Places of growth are characterized by a warm climate: Africa, Latin America, India, Israel. In the natural environment, the height of the tree reaches 10-20 meters. The trunk is straight, but branches strongly. The leaves are elliptical in shape, large, their length is 20 cm. They fall year-round, and new ones quickly grow in their place. Small flowers have a greenish tint, they are inconspicuous in appearance, their location is the axils of the leaves.
The fruit has a dark color and the shape of a pear. It is not large in size, its length is 5-20 cm, weight is from 50 g to 1.8 kg. The peel is tough, for unripe fruits it is dark green, and for ripe - black. The fruit pulp has a green or yellow-green color. Avocado has an oily taste and a large bone inside the fruit. The fruit has a high calorie content. It contains fatty oil (45%) and fatty acids (30%). Protein is several times more compared to other fruits.
How to choose bones for planting?
Growing avocados at home begins with the selection of planting material. Bones are taken only from ripe fruits that are bought at the store. First, a visual inspection is done. A large, ripe or even ripe fruit is selected. On its surface should not be damaged during transportation. To test ripeness, you need to take an avocado in both hands, slightly press down and immediately release. A ripe fruit quickly restores its structure, you can buy it.
If by inexperience it turns out to get a not quite ripe fruit, there is nothing wrong with that, after a while it will ripen. To make this happen faster, put bananas or apples next to the avocado. The fact is that these fruits have the ability to secrete ethylene, which helps ripen in a shorter time.
How to remove a bone from the fetus?
This must be done very carefully. The fruit is cut in half with a disinfected knife. The pulp remaining on the bone is washed off with warm, running water. After that, she needs to dry. After germination, the seed is placed in the ground. Landing should not be postponed for a long time.
Preparing planting material
One of the conditions for growing avocados is seed germination. There are several ways to do this. The simplest is this: the seed is soaked for 30 minutes in hot water, cool boiling water is not suitable. During this time, it will warm up. The shell is removed from it, the narrow tip is cut off, and the cut site is necessarily processed by garden varieties. Then the wide end of the seed 1/3 part is placed in a pot with pre-prepared soil.
Before germination, the container with plantings should be left alone, not forgetting to water once every seven days. The substrate must not be allowed to dry out; it must always remain moist. Roots may not form on all bones, therefore, to secure, several pieces should be placed in the ground. If the conditions are favorable, their germination will occur after two to three weeks. This method is called closed.
The use of toothpicks when germinating seeds
For growing avocados from stone at home, another closed method is used, which is considered the most reliable. Germination of seeds for further planting in the ground is carried out using toothpicks, it is enough to take three or four pieces. Sharp sticks are stuck two to five millimeters in the middle of the bone, evenly around the entire circumference. Then, the entire structure with a blunt end is placed in a container of water, which should be warm and settled. Immerse the bone in the liquid strictly to the level of punctures. It is important that they do not get wet.
Experienced growers are advised to add charcoal or activated carbon to the water. The water level in the tank should always be monitored. If the liquid evaporates quickly due to dry air in the apartment, it needs to be added. Now it remains to wait for the appearance of small roots and a crack between the cotyledons, from which sprouts will appear.
Soil preparation
Heavy, acidic, clay soil is not suitable for growing avocados at home. It is these characteristics that garden land has. Therefore, you should not take it only to fill the pots. The soil mixture must be specially prepared. To do this, garden soil, humus, peat, sand of large fractions are mixed in equal proportions, a little lime is added.
How to find out that a seed has sprouted?
A seed has symptoms that are characteristic of a germination state:
- the appearance of small roots;
- shell cracking;
- root formation on the core;
- the appearance of a sprout in the upper part.
When growing avocados at home for seed germination, it takes from 21 to 60 days.
Transplanting sprouted bone into the ground
To exclude the presence of harmful microorganisms in the soil, it must be decontaminated. To do this, a day before the onset of the planting period, you need to pour it with boiling water. It is better to plant planting material in plastic pots with a height of 15 cm. Clay containers will not work, as their walls allow moisture to pass through. A drainage layer is placed at the bottom of the pot with holes. It can be special granules or expanded clay. When all preparations are completed, the sprouted bone is immersed in the soil 1/3 part, it should not be completely dripped. The planting procedure must be done carefully so as not to damage the young roots.
Care Features
When growing avocados at home, care is a mandatory agrotechnical procedure. The plant in the room should feel comfortable, then it will develop normally, delight others with its magnificent crown. To do this, you must follow the regime of watering, top dressing, temperature, humidity and much more.
Lighting
An adult plant is not demanding on lighting; windows located in the northern, western or eastern directions are suitable for its cultivation. In the summer, from noon to four o’clock, the tree needs to be shaded, since it is at this time that the direct rays of the sun fall on it. In winter, when daylight hours are shortened, the avocado needs additional lighting. Artificial light sources should be installed .
Temperature and humidity
The culture comes from tropical forests, where it is always warm and humid, it will not grow in the cold. When growing avocados at home (the photo of the tree is presented for review) it is important that the plant is comfortable as in the natural environment. Therefore, the room should always have a temperature of at least 14-21 ° C, humidity - 65%.
Watering
When caring for a plant, you need to constantly monitor so that the surface of the soil in the pot is always wet. Avocados need frequent watering, but do not like stagnant water. In rooms, especially residential, where food is prepared, there is insufficiently humid air. To create a suitable microclimate, a tropical plant should be periodically sprayed, and containers filled with water should be placed next to it.
Top dressing
Immediately after planting, the avocado does not need additional nutrition. The plant lacks what is contained in the substrate. Only after four to six months can you start feeding with any complex fertilizer that is specifically designed for domestic plants. You need to fertilize the plant once every month.
How to form a crown?
Growing an avocado tree at home (photo below) is impossible without the formation of a crown, since you always want to see a plant beautiful and lush. The procedure is to pinch the stems. The first time you need to do this on the main stem, when eight real leaves appear on it. In the future, the crown is formed from lateral shoots when five to seven leaves appear on them. When growing avocados at home, the tree reaches a height of one and a half meters.
Transfer
Young plants require an annual transplant due to the fact that their root system is growing, it becomes crowded in a small pot. To carry out this procedure are stocked with spacious containers. When the tree reaches three or four years of age, growing avocados at home can be done in tubs. The transplant is done every three years and in the spring season. A small tree native to a warm climate with decent care becomes the pride of a home collection of gardeners.
Is fruiting possible at home?
The appearance of flowers on a tree does not mean that the fruits will necessarily form. The fact is that this plant has a complex mechanism of pollination. A fruit is tied on only one flower of five thousand copies. To increase the likelihood of fruiting, when growing avocados at home, artificial pollination should be used. This is done as follows:
- The opening of each flower occurs twice. Flowering of the first day is different in that the pistils have a working function. At this time, several flowers are selected that need to be marked.
- When the second day comes, they open again, but the flowers have a masculine origin. Pollen is transferred to marked female specimens with a brush. It will be difficult to determine whether or not there will be ovary after such fertilization, but hope always remains.
So that the plant bears fruit
When grown at home, the avocado rarely bears fruit. But if you take into account some points, you can wait for this period:
- Need to be patient, let the plant grow. Trees begin to bear fruit when they reach two meters in height.
- The fruiting process can be accelerated if the plant is planted periodically.
- Fruit formation should be expected five years after planting.
- Avocado blooms are also rare. But if this period comes, the procedure of artificial pollination should be carried out three times a month and in the morning.
What threatens the plant with improper care?
If you take care of the avocado irregularly or not pay attention to it at all, its condition and appearance can hardly be called normal:
- The tips of the leaves become dry. The reason is the microclimate in the apartment. It is worth taking care of increasing the humidity.
- The leaves dry and begin to fall. This is due to excessive watering, cold air, draft, low water temperature.
- After the leaves dry, the whole tree dies. The reason is the lack of moisture.
- The leaves become pale, and the shoots begin to stretch up. This is due to insufficient lighting.
What pests are dangerous for avocados?
This plant is damaged by a scab and a spider mite. To prevent this from happening, the air around it should always be humid. If there are many pests and no spraying with water helps, they just need to be collected and burned, and the plant washed with household soap. Watching the humidity in the room, it is important not to overdo it, otherwise the plant will become infected with powdery mildew.