I grow avocado trees from the stones

[ALLcoopedUP]

I grow avocado plants/trees from the stones!

I have 2 plants about 4 feet tall in pots and 2 small trees that give one or 2 avocados each year! (Early days/years - it's along term project!!) They are so weird how they hang down on a long stalk inside under the branches.
I planted many out but they mostly got eaten by rabbits or killed by frost. I have 2 littl'uns on my window sill that I hope to get into pots outside this summer.
I never throw an avocado stone in the bin - well not until it has soaked for a year or two on the window sill and has gone black through!

(All you need is an avocado stone, an egg cup, a regular change of water and a lot of patience!

It's like waiting for eggs to hatch but takes longer - WAY LONGER!)
.....must take some pics this year......

 

[Dar]

WOW

thanks for posting this... I tried to grow avocado from a stone a few years ago and gave up...

so what do I do just sit the stone in en egg cup and wait and wait and wait?

do i totally submerge the stone or just the bottom half?

do I score the stone to help with the absorption of water?

full sun or part sun?

sorry for all the questions...

 

[usschicago1]

Quote:
Bottom Half

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Have you eaten any of the avocados? I was just reading a wiki about growing them and at the end of the article it says "Note: The fruit you get from a tree grown in this manner will almost certainly not be edible."

Lot's of trouble for no fruit? My wife really likes them and has toyed with the idea of growing a couple of trees. What's been your experience with them?

Thanks,
Ed

 

[saddina]

Most avacados for sale are clones (grafted) instead of seed grown. However we have lived in a house that had a seed grown tree (origional owner of the house grew it from a pit with his kids in 3rd grade) and 30 years later it had good fruit.

So long and short planting a Hass pit will grown a hass cross, but it's ediable, just a crapshoot.

At our local Lowe's I can snag a 2 or 3 year sapling $5-7 at spring/fall planting sales, and know what i'm getting.

 

[ALLcoopedUP]

I usually give the avocado a good wash in luke warm tap water (especially if the avocado has gone well past its best) then submerge them totally in a large egg cup for a week. After that I reduce the water to about two thirds so that the top is dry. Once it starts to grow roots I sit it higher up in a narrower egg cup so it is less than half submerged. I clean off the loose skin if it goes black or mouldy. The water can get quite smelly if you keep topping it up in the summer particularly but I just rinse out the egg cup, wash the stone in room temperature water and replace it at least once a week making sure the roots are clean and fully submerged. I have about 16 stones at the moment, 2 have good roots and are sprouting leaves - so its not a very high success rate! They get good late afternoon sunlight from a west facing window.
The (few!) actual fruit I've grown taste OK so I presume they are from a Hass/non grafted. Some shop bought avocado fruit can be watery, pappy and squodgy - I prefer them firm and sharp.

I read Wiki and it says that avocado trees can be grown domestically to be used as a decorative houseplant, and that the pit will germinate in either normal soil conditions or, alternatively, partially submerged in a container of water - then the pit will sprout in 4–6 weeks, at which time it can be planted in fertile soil such as potting soil. The plant will generally grow and become large enough to be prunable but it will not bear fruit unless it has both ample sunlight and a second plant with which it can cross-pollinate.

I keep them in water and wait until they are at least 6-8 inches before I put them in soil in a large pot that it can really grow up in but I couldn't say how long that takes!

I plan to eventually (next year maybe) plant the 2 (4-5 footers) that I have in large pots (which are a couple of years old now) out near to the other two trees, as I had a feeling that they needed to cross-pollinate.

I've always grown the stones on the window sill just as my mom did but I can't remember them getting past 15 inches or so tall. And I've never really put much thought or research into it! I guess I grew up doing it, so it's something I just do!

Buying a young tree seems to defeat the whole object of the exercise, which is - I want to grow a big avocado tree myself right from the stone!
Then one day one of the stones from my tree will grow and have avocados of its own.

It's the same with chicks - I wanted my hen to lay eggs, the chicks hatch and I watch them grow and then thay can lay eggs and have chicks of their own!