Surely every grower wants to grow avocados in a pot at home. For beginners in floriculture, it seems that it is difficult, or even impossible, to grow this tropical tree at room from a seed. But this is a fallacy. Every person who is passionate about indoor floriculture can grow it. True, for this it is necessary to know some features of this plant, the secrets of caring for it.
Avocados have broad leaves and flexible stems. This feature of the plant allows you to form original decorative compositions from it. As a rule, three trees are planted at once in a pot, from which later cute pigtails are formed. It is believed that the potted avocado in the house harmonizes family relationships and creates a pleasant romantic atmosphere.
Where to begin?
To begin with, beginners should be warned that avocados in indoor floriculture are grown as an ornamental plant. It fits perfectly into any interior, creates a special indescribable atmosphere, purifies the air, releasing a lot of oxygen. But even if we grow avocados from seed at home in compliance with all the rules, providing the plant with the most thorough care, we are unlikely to be able to see its flowering and especially fruiting. But we do not always plant a seed of persimmon or orange in the hope of obtaining fruit crops. Unfortunately, the fruiting avocado of a house in a pot is, rather, a rare exception to the rule.
But back to growing the flower. First you should buy a ripened avocado in the store. To understand how ripe it is, squeeze the fruit on both sides with your palms, and then release it. The ripened fruit will immediately restore the structure, so it is quite suitable for growing a new plant. If you had to buy an unripe avocado (there was no other in the store), do not be discouraged - it will ripen with time. This process can be accelerated if you put the fruit next to bananas or apples, since these fruits produce ethylene, which contributes to early ripening.
Seedling
Don't just try to plant an avocado seed in a pot of earth. It should be prepared in advance. To do this, it is soaked in rather hot water (but not in boiling water) for half an hour. Then, the shell is removed from the heated bone, the tip is cut off from the narrow side, and the cut is treated with an antifungal drug, which is pre-purchased in any of the specialized stores.
After that, the bone with a wide end is placed on a third in a previously prepared soil mixture. We will talk about what kind of soil an avocado needs in a pot later. After this, the seed is left alone - before germination it needs only watering once a week.
Lovers of indoor plants use another method of growing avocados in a pot, which they consider more reliable. Take three or four toothpicks, make punctures in the center of the bone around the perimeter and insert toothpicks into them to a depth of 2-5 mm. This design is placed in a glass with settled water. It should be at room temperature. It is necessary that the blunt end of the bone be in the water, and the punctures should be dry.
Many flower growers recommend adding a little charcoal to the settled water. If you don’t have one, use activated. While waiting for a sprout, carefully monitor the quantity and quality of water in a glass. Dust, specks slow down the germination process. Every two to three days, take out a bone and change the water in a glass to fresh. No more than 30 days will pass, and you will see the first young roots, and then the sprout.
When the root length reaches four centimeters, the seed is ready for planting in the soil.
The choice of capacity for landing
Look at the sprouted seed and it will become clear to you which pot is needed for the avocado. At the first stage of plant development, you will need a small container with a diameter of not more than 12 cm. It is desirable that the pot was with drainage holes. As the flower grows, it will need to be changed to a more spacious one.
Soil preparation
Avocados do not tolerate too heavy, clayey, acidic soils, so the soil brought from the garden is not suitable for this plant. The soil mixture must be prepared independently. It is necessary to mix peat, garden soil, humus, coarse sand and a pinch of lime in equal proportions.
Since garden soil can be affected by harmful microbes, the prepared mixture must be decontaminated. The day before planting a bone, it must be shed with boiling water. The same soil is used when planting bones directly into the ground. The soil should not be too dense. It must be loosened to ensure moisture and air exchange.
Planting in the soil
It's time to figure out how to plant an avocado seed at home in the ground. An ordinary plastic pot is suitable for planting. It is better not to use a ceramic container for the first planting, since the walls of such a pot will allow moisture to pass through, which is vital for the plant during this period.
The bottom of the pot should not retain moisture and have a drainage layer of special granules or ordinary expanded clay. Only one third of the seed with a sprout is dug into the soil. This must be done very carefully so as not to damage the young roots.
Plant Care: Choosing a Place for a Flower
Knowing how to plant an avocado seed at home, it is important to provide the tree with proper care. This is a photophilous plant, but even in partial shade it feels quite comfortable. Direct sunlight is fatal to him. An ideal option for placing the plant is the windowsill of the window facing the west side.
Temperature
Since avocado grown in a pot is a tropical plant, it is only natural that it loves warmth. With a sharp drop in air temperature in the room or the slightest draft, the avocado demonstrates its dissatisfaction - it simply discards all the leaves. It is for this reason that it is undesirable to take it outside even on warm summer days.
The room should be kept at a constant temperature. In the warm season, high room temperature is favorable for the plant, and in winter, during dormancy, +20 ° C will be sufficient. If the room temperature drops to +12 ° C, the avocado will react instantly - it will drop leaves and “hibernate”. With constant temperature and proper care, this is extremely rare, since the plant is considered evergreen.
How to water an avocado?
Watering avocados at home should be plentiful and regular, but taking into account the time of year and temperature indicators. Excessive watering to this tropical plant can be harmful. In summer, it is watered more often than in winter. After the topsoil has dried, at least two days must pass before the need for watering the plant arises - when the top of the soil dries up, the necessary amount of moisture is contained within the pot for another two days.
Air humidity
For an avocado in a pot, humidity is also important. In our apartments, the air is almost always quite dry. Daily spraying will help to solve the problem. It is important that during these water procedures not the plant itself is moistened, but only the air around it.
Many gardeners prefer a different way of moisturizing. They use a special pan filled with moistened expanded clay.
Fertilizers and fertilizing
From mid-September to March, avocados do not need to be fed. The rest of the time, the plant is fed fertilizer for citrus fruits or use an infusion of ash to feed the plants. To prepare such a composition is not difficult. To do this, you need to pour three tablespoons (tablespoons) of wood ash with a liter of settled water. Within a week, the composition should be infused. Shake it daily to evenly dissolve particles of ash. The infusion of ash for plant nutrition is used once a week. Watering is carried out under the root.
Transplant avocado
Since you grow avocados from seed at home, very soon you will come across the issue of plant transplantation. Under natural conditions, an avocado grows up to twenty meters in height. Although it does not reach this size in indoor floriculture, it grows quite actively and needs frequent transplanting.
Very soon, the very first small pot will become small. As soon as the tree reaches 15 centimeters in height, it must be transplanted into a large container. The young plant is replanted annually, and then every three years.
The plant is transplanted into a new pot by the method of transshipment. Carefully transfer the tree to the prepared container with a lump of earth, being careful not to disturb it. Fill the empty space in the pot with new soil.
Diseases and Pests
Like most houseplants, avocados are afraid of many pests - spider mites, scale insects, whiteflies. A gluttonous and insatiable spider mite can not only destroy all leaves, but also transfer various diseases to other indoor plants. Scaffold draws juice from plants. After its appearance, dry wrinkled leaves remain on the flowers. The fight against these plants consists in spraying with insecticides. The drug "Aktara" proved to be quite good. Of the diseases, the greatest danger to the plant is powdery mildew.
Possible growing problems
If you noticed that the tips of the leaves are drying on the tree, then most likely the irrigation regime is violated - the plant does not have enough moisture, low humidity. You should establish regular watering of the plant and constantly moisten the air in the room.
We have already mentioned that a plant sheds leaves in two cases - with a decrease in air temperature in the room and in drafts. In this case, there is only one advice - to maintain the temperature and put the plant in a place where there are no drafts.
Avocado leaves may turn pale with insufficient lighting. Find a more suitable place for the plant, and if this is not possible, then additional illumination should be arranged. This is especially important in the winter.