How To Grow An Avocado From Seed
How to Grow an Avocado from Seed
Do you enjoy your avocado fruit? So what will you do with the seed now? Will you throw it out or plant it? If you throw it in your garbage you’re wasting an important seed of a superfruit that can provide you with lots of nutritional fruit in the coming years. And basically, it is easy to learn how to grow an avocado from seed. That’s why we are here to teach you the basics.
Avocados (Persea americana) are known to be some of the most if not the most nutritious fruit in the world because aside from it is packed with 25 essential minerals, it is also loaded with antioxidants, Vitamins A, B6, C, and K. Foliate is another mineral that this fruit is known for and its fatty acid is comparable with the omega-3 fatty acid that we get from fish. With all these elements that you can get from the single avocado fruit, why would you throw its seed away when all you need to learn is how to grow an avocado from a pit which is just like child’s play?
Avocados are known for their guacamole dips and that made it very popular to people who love to snack especially along with tortilla chips. You can also mix it into your vegetable salad, make a smoothie with it, or even make it into ice cream which your friends and family can enjoy.
That’s why it is essential that we know how to grow an avocado from seed. The topic that many people want to talk about is – how to grow an avocado from a pit? But what is a pit?
How Long Does It Take to Grow an Avocado from Seed?
Before we talk about the avocado pit, let’s also tackle one of the most interesting questions we get – how long does it take to grow an avocado from seed? And because we know that the avocado fruit is getting more popular by the day, we would like to share what we know about the avocado and its seed and how to grow a new plant from it.
Avocados can be traced back to 10,000 BCE from Puebla, Mexico. They grow best in the tropical and Mediterranean types of climate and are called alligator pears in the US. Considered to belong to the families of berries, each fruit bears a single seed which we call the avocado pit. Why this seed was called “avocado pit”, we still don’t know and there’s no recorded history about it. But can you grow avocado from a pit? Yes. The pit or the seed of the avocado can be the primary origin for a new plant.
Curious about what’s inside the large avocado pit. But now we know that the avocado seed is just an enlarged seed just like any other fruit. If you slice it in half, you will see that it’s just composed of a hard solid embryo like what you see when you slice a potato.
How to grow an avocado from seed can be done in two ways. The first method is by planting it directly into the soil regardless if in the pot or your backyard. When you sow an avocado pit in the soil, it may take about 2 to 4 weeks before it germinates and shows its first sprout. But then, the soil must be kept moist to activate its growing enzymes.
The second method is by germinating it in a glass of water. And the same, it may also take 2 to 4 weeks before it shows its first roots and sprouts. Remember that the starchy component of the seed serves as the main source of nutrients for the growing sprouts. So as the seedling grows, the embryo will get smaller while the roots get longer.
How to Grow an Avocado Seed in Water
If you want to know how to grow an avocado from seed using a glass of water, this is very easy. Here are the basics.
Prepare what you need: 3 pointed long toothpicks and glass with almost half-full of water.
Wash the avocado pit under running water to remove the flesh of the fruit.
Look for the pointed or smaller part of the pit. This part is where the sprout will come out.
About half the length of the pit insert the 3 toothpicks at the same distance but make sure they are pointing a bit slightly upward. The purpose of inserting the toothpicks is to suspend half of the pit underwater while the top part will be exposed.
Once the toothpicks are settled, place the avocado pit in the glass of water then add more water but make sure half of the pit is fully exposed.
While waiting for the seed to germinate, add water regularly to sustain the water that has evaporated.
In about 2 to 4 weeks, young small roots will appear at the submerged part of the pit followed by the sprout at the exposed part.
Wait for another week to let the roots and the sprout grow longer. When the roots become longer and thicker, you need to add more water regularly almost everyday.
When the roots are fully formed and almost crowding the glass, this is the time to transplant your avocado pit into a pot with garden soil or directly into the ground in your backyard.
nd that’s how to grow an avocado from seed in water. Avocado plants can become so big that they will become tall trees in about 5 years so you have to consider where to plant them. If you prefer growing it in your backyard or front yard, plant it where it’s partly shaded so it’s protected from strong wind and too much heat. But although avocados love the sun, they should not be exposed to extreme heat and also to frost or they die unless you plant a cold-adaptable variety like the Mexican drymifolia variety.
When to Plant an Avocado Seed in Soil
Once an avocado fruit becomes ripe, its seed will also be ready for germination or planting. Look for the signs when to plant an avocado seed. Here are some of these signs if you germinate the avocado pit in a glass of water:
Observe any changes that will be visible on top of the fruit as it’s half-submerged in the water and being suspended by the toothpicks. This top part will dry out first and there will form a crack.
As the exposed skin begins to crack this will also turn brown and will slowly slough off. As the days go by, the crack on top of the pit will extend down to the bottom of the fruit.
Then as the crack opens up the bottom of the pit, this is where the small taproots will appear. You will see that the taproot grows longer everyday and in a few days, the sprout will appear on top of the pit.
The sprout may look like a small nodule at first then it will grow longer until it produces small branches and folded leaves. So eventually, the roots will come out first before the sprout appears. Once the leaves have formed and the branches start to harden while the main root also hardens and produces more secondary roots, this is the right time to transfer the seedling to a container or directly to the soil.
Now you know when to plant an avocado seed in soil. However, the soil where the seedling is planted must be rich in organic matter to facilitate growth. You must also water it regularly because avocado plants are fast growers.
The next step now is learning about caring for an avocado plant.
Caring for Avocado Plant Indoor
If you want to care for an avocado plant indoors, you must do different procedures compared to planting it in the ground. When planting the seedling in the ground, you only need to water it regularly and fertilize it once a year until it grows strong and tall. But if you will be planting it in a small pot as a seedling and you intend to make it an indoor plant, you have to let it grow to up to 15 cm (6 inches) tall then cut about 8 cm (3 inches) off its top stem. This is to encourage the plant to produce branches and not to grow tall.
Once the plant grows another 15 cm, transfer it to a much larger pot with loamy soil mixed with humus. While the avocado plant is growing, you may need to trim some of its branches because you don’t want it getting too bushy and leafy.
You also need to expose your avocado plant to sunlight for about 8 hours a day. But if it gets too hot, you can leave it in the shade. Water is the most essential nourishment that the avocado needs, that’s why they grow well in moist, loamy soil. So while it grows, frequent watering is needed but the soil should not be too damp. Potted avocado plants do not basically bear fruit as much as those that are grown outdoors because primarily they are intended to serve as ornamental plants.
Even though you can grow an avocado from seed until it becomes a big plant, it will not bear much fruit if you grow it indoors. But there’s one way of making your indoor avocado produce fruit and that is by planting a grafted sapling instead of growing a plant from seed.
How to Grow an Avocado from Grafted Sapling
For those who ask can you grow an avocado from a pit and they now know you can, another way of growing avocado is from a grafted sapling. Grafting is one of the best methods in deriving a part of a mature plant which you can plant to become another plant and avocados are good candidates for grafting. So if you’re planting a grafted avocado sapling in a pot or your yard make sure its soil is rich with organic matter because the roots of the grafted saplings are rather weak unlike those that develop from young seedlings.
Since you have planted an already mature part of the avocado, this will also bear flowers and fruit like its parent plant but that is if you let it have some sunlight, maintain its soil moist, and fertilize it as needed. So even though producing fruit from a grafted sapling can be possible, you need to keep it outdoors most of the time not only to give it the sun it needs but also to let the pollinators do their job with its flowers.
Moreover, avocados growing indoors don’t bear fruit as much as those that are grown outdoors as they have limited sources for sunlight, pollinators, and natural nutrients which only the outdoor soil can provide. Also, don’t forget to water the sapling regularly and you can fertilize it about 2 months after it has adapted to its soil.
So the next time you eat avocado fruit, think about how to grow an avocado from seed and as you have discovered that it’s fairly easy. If you don’t have time to grow an avocado seed in water or do the potting, you can also dig a hole in your yard and bury the seed but make sure that about an inch is exposed then water it regularly and you will see that in about 3 weeks a sprout will come out.
But let us warn you, don’t plant an avocado very near your house or your fence because they can grow tall and their root system can get very long and spread in the ground. Roots can crack concrete and besides, avocado trees have brittle stems that they can break easily by the strong wind.
You can now share with your friends about how to grow an avocado from seed. This amazing fruit is starting to get so expensive as more and more health-conscious people get interested in it. If you want to know more about caring for avocado plants or your Avocado Plant has Browning Leaves. Do you need to know Weeds in Lawns Identification check these links.