How to Grow Avocado in a Pot. Planting and Caring For this Exotic Tree
If you often enjoy avocado in your salad or in the delicious guacamole spread, you should know that you can grow a beautiful tree to decorate your home out of every kernel you throw away. This is how to grow avocado in a pot.
Prepare the kernel
Clean up the kernel removing any traces of pulp left and the bark, but leaving the brown peel beneath that protects it.
Identify its top, which is slightly elongated and has to stay dry, and its bottom, which is flat and has to be sunk in water, so you’ll know how to place it.
Thrust three toothpicks all around the kernel, allowing you to place it on a shot glass, half sunk in water, for germination.
Use a small see through glass, to check when you have to change the water and on the roots growing.
How to grow avocado in a pot. Germination
Sink half the kernel in water. You can change the water every 5 – 6 days to prevent mold or bacteria that stop germination from forming. Germination can last at least 8 weeks.
You’ll see the upper part of your seed drying and cracking, while the brown peel will get off. The crack will go all the way down, where a small root will begin to grow.
From the top of the kernel you’ll see a small shoot starting to grow. When it reaches 6 – 8 inches, you can plant it.
How to grow avocado in a pot. Planting
Use a pot that is 10 inches in diameter, filled with slightly acid soil, with a pH of 6 – 6.5. This can bea reached by adding some tree bark on the soil or even some wood shavings. A good soil is light garden soil mixed with peat, in equal parts.
Leave the upper half of the kernel above the soil, exposed to sunlight. Place the pot on a sill where it recieves plenty of light.
How to grow avocado in a pot. Caring
Your avocado tree will need to be watered frequently, so the soil is always moist, but not saturated. If you see the leaves yellowing, it means you’re overwatering, so you should let it dry for a few days.
If the leaves become brown and their petioles are drying, it means the soil pH got too high (alkaline). In this case, you should water abundantly, you can even sink the pot in a bucket of water, and let it drain.
When the stalk is as tall as 12 inches, remove the last two sets of leaves on the top to encourage the plant growing a richer foliage sideways. Repeat the operation every time the plant grows 6 more inches.
As other ornamental trees grown from kernels or seeds, avocado can take very long to bear fruit, as long as 15 years, or not bear fruit at all. To force it into fruiting, you can graft it when the stalk is as thick as a pencil.
Credits: blog.jorjette.ro, agroromania.manager.ro
Photo credits: blog.jorjette.ro, thebellhouse.weebly.com, toptropicals.com, lauriemeadows.info
