The first thing you need to know about avocados for those who are still tormented by the issue is the fruit. Avocado is a plant that rarely bears fruit at home. The fruit is grown from the bone, it feels great at home, if proper care is provided. When choosing a fruit to obtain a seed, it is better to give preference to the Hass variety. This type of avocado was grown by Rudolf Hass, who adapted the plant for home care. In addition, Hass avocado has a pleasant nutty flavor, it is slightly sweeter than the other varieties.
Avocado came to us from the coast of North and South America. The name of the fruit itself comes from the word by which the Aztec Indians called it - ahuacate. It translates as an “egg”, because at the time of ripening on a tree, the fruit resembles it.
Avocado fruit
The tree has many trunks, small in size, more like a bush. In order for the plant to grow well, it is advisable to plant 2 seeds nearby. In the process of growth, they are intertwined with branches and hold each other. The leaves are elongated, leathery, with a glossy surface and a sharp tip. The avocado tree blooms with small greenish-yellow flowers, which are grouped at the end of the branch.
The fruit is oblong, similar to a green egg. The peel is ribbed, hard, often thick. Inside, oily flesh, yellow-green. At the core of the fetus is a large, round, hard bone of brown color, similar to a nut. The fruit tastes light, sour.
On a note! Belongs to the laurel family. The average size of mature specimens is 10-20 cm in length and 2-12 cm in width. At home, the height of the tree can reach 2 meters. In the wild up to 18 meters, the tree is rapidly gaining in growth.
In the nearest supermarket you can find the following varieties of avocados for growing:
- Avocado Bacon. The Mexican variety is distinguished by a thin, bright green peel with a yellow tint, whitish-yellow flesh, and a large bone. The fruit itself is medium sized.
- Avocado Hass. The skin is dark green in color, sometimes reaching purplish black. The pulp is a greenish tint, the taste is saturated. Keeps ripeness for a long time.
Avocado Hass
- Avocado Gwen. Almost round in shape, weighs from 180 to 450g. The stone is not large, the flesh is yellow-green, the taste is full, soft. The peel is pimply, in ripe fruits a deep green color.
- Avocado Fuerte. Smooth-skinned variety, elongated. The pulp is oily, oily, pale yellow or brighter, depending on the place of cultivation.
- Avocado Ettinger. It has a pleasant taste, the flesh resembles a processed cheese, sometimes with hints of pine nuts. The bone is large, the skin is thin, prone to damage.
The composition of ripe fruits is filled with various useful microelements:
- 30% of the composition is vegetable fats. This is the main property of avocados, for which adherents of good nutrition fell in love with it. Fats nourish the body, improve the condition of nails, hair and bones.
- Cellulose. Promotes stable digestion. Cleanses the body, removes toxins and toxins.
- Vitamin E. Its second name is Beauty Vitamin. It stabilizes the skin condition, renews cells, strengthens the walls of blood vessels. It increases the production of collagen and elastin, the complexion becomes pleasant.
- Vitamin C. Strengthens the immune system, is used as a prophylaxis of colds, flu, tonsillitis.
- Vitamins of group B. In particular, the avocado fruit is saturated with vitamin B6, which helps maintain the body's cardiovascular activity and cleanses blood cells.
- Folic acid. A unique substance to support the nervous system. It is especially necessary during the period of carrying a child.
- Vitamin K. Cleanses the urinary tract, dissolves solid neoplasms in the kidneys.
- Copper and potassium. Useful for maintaining muscle mass, saturates the body with protein. Potassium prophylactically acts on heart disease, restores the myocardium.
Avocados have been popular for several hundred years, they have just been brought to our continent relatively recently. The birthplace of this fruit is Mexico and Central America. The Indians, even before the start of the conquest of America, appreciated its unique healing properties and nutritional strength. And since in Europe, and in Russia in particular, the culture of growing avocados is not yet developed, amateur gardeners have adapted to plant the plant at home.
The most outstanding seeds are selected for planting, they are filled with vital energy and germinate better. First of all, the bone is soaked in clean boiled water of medium temperature. It is not necessary to fill it in completely.
Important! The stone is placed on a gauze pad or on a cloth, placed in a tank. At the top should be a narrow nose, and the wide part is immersed in water. The fluid should leave a third of it untouched.
In order for the plant to sprout faster, you can make several small holes with a diameter of up to 3 mm in the shell, for example, with a needle, and put toothpicks in them, fixing the bone in the air with them. Or for the same purposes, use stones that hold planting material at a distance of 1-2 cm from the bottom of the tank.
Planting bones on toothpicks
Charcoal (as an option, activated) charcoal is dissolved for the growth rate, but this is not necessary. Spring is the best time to plant. The first process will appear in a period of a week to 2 months.
A seed is planted in the ground when the sprout reaches 3 cm in height. For the first few months, it is enough to have a small pot, the bottom of which must be drained to the width of a pair of fingers. Avocados do not like standing water at the roots.
How to care for avocados at home
Avocado is a tree that requires special care at home. He needs to create a suitable temperature regime, provide high-quality lighting, watering and top dressing.
Temperature
The plant is used to bear fruit in a hot climate, so the air in the room where it stands should not be below +16 ° C. In summer it is optimal + 22 + 28, in winter + 18 + 20 ° C. Avocados are afraid of hypothermia, may begin to drop leaves.
Lighting
A pot with a bone and a sprout is placed on the warmest window sill in the house. If this is absent, then you can create artificial lighting using ultraviolet lamps. Avocados require a light period of at least 15 hours.
Watering
The earth in the pot must be moist. No need to breed damp, avocados do not like this. In summer, drying of the topsoil is permissible, however, if you feel the substrate to the depth of the phalanx of the finger, then the ground there should be moist. Drainage even saves the roots from moisture glut.
Spraying
If you spray the plant, then unaesthetic spots appear on the leaves, so it is better to do without this procedure.
Important! An air humidifier is used to maintain humidity. Or you can pour expanded clay into a pallet and wet it.
Priming
Land for avocados should be airy, well-permeable to water and nutrients, you need to take care of the best choice. Great soil for citrus. And also a home-made mixture of peat, sand, leaf and turf land.
Top dressing
Caring for a plant involves feeding during the period of active growth of flowers - from March to September. It is enough to use ready-made nutritional mixtures for citrus plants once a month.
In winter, the plant needs watering 2 times less than in summer. There is a break in growth activity, an indoor avocado plant does not produce fruits and flowers during this period. The tree will also not need to be fed. It is enough to monitor the moderation of lighting.
Avocado tree
Avocado blooms quite rarely, even in natural conditions. At home, you can notice the first nondescript flowers 5-7 years after planting a bone. It is possible to provoke flowering earlier, for this you need to plant a plant. Those who are lucky and the avocado bloomed will have to do the pollination on their own with a brush to get the fruit.
If the plant bloomed, it usually occurs in spring or early summer.
Types of flowers
In an avocado, flowers are collected with tassels at the ends of the branches. Flowers have a white-green or yellowish hue. The petals of a flowering avocado are small, grouped by inflorescences near the end of the branch.
How to bear fruit at home
In the vast majority of cases, an avocado tree does not produce fruit at home. There is a small percentage of probability that it will be possible to grow fruits that ripen to an edible state if vaccinated. A thin tree with a beautiful lush crown is used for decorative purposes.
So that a long stick does not grow at home instead of a beautiful tree, you need to pinch the avocado. The shoots come off from the top and the branches of the main trunk are cut off. As a result, the plant will shoot horizontally and form a beautiful crown of leaves. The first time the procedure is carried out when 8 leaves grow on a shrub. New shoots can be plucked off if there are at least 5 leaves.
Important! If the avocado rests against the top of the ceiling, the plant will die, this must be monitored.
There are several traditional ways of propagating avocados: cuttings, from seeds, and others.
Seed germination
Avocado trees bear fruit very rarely, and if you are lucky, you can use a seed from a new fruit for propagation.
Rooting cuttings
Cuttings rarely give roots, it happens with only one of 10. Adult plants can be used for the procedure, 2-3 years.
other methods
The seed can be germinated in the following ways:
- 2/3 dropping it into the water;
- 2/3 digging it into the ground and watering it well;
- put in wet cotton wool or a rag, wait until the shell gives a crack, and then place it in the ground.
Avocados are growing very fast. The root of the plant is powerful and takes up a lot of space in the pot. It will be necessary to transplant the plant often, especially the first 2 years, using a larger pot each time.
Important! The container in which the avocado will grow must be elongated so that the root and soil fit and do not interfere with each other.
It is inconvenient to transplant the plant, the root cannot be damaged. Therefore, it is carefully transferred from one pot to another. And sprinkle on top of an additional layer of earth and humus.
Possible problems in growing avocados
What are the problems with leaves signaling:
- The leaves are fallen. Most likely, there was a hypothermia of the plant. Check the air temperature and do not water the tree with cold water.
- The tips of the leaves dry. This is from the heat, you need to moisten the plant more often.
- The leaves became pale. There is not enough sunlight or the soil is poorly fertilized and vitamins are needed.
Disease
Sometimes a powdery coating appears on the leaves of the avocado. Means that a fungus has wound up, and the leaves are covered with dew interspersed. It is treated with fungicides (Bordeaux mixture, copper chloride).
Pests
From the scale, the plant is treated with an insecticide. You can add it to the ground or spray the leaves.
When a spider mite appears, processing is subject not only to an avocado, but also everything that is next to it. Use for these purposes need acaricides.
Adult tree
Other problems
A common problem of this plant is late blight, or rather, a fungus that affects the root. In addition to the death of the roots, the trunk of the plant is also affected. If this happened, then, unfortunately, it cannot be restored.
Perhaps the information that expecting fruits from an avocado at home was pointless to disappoint someone. But pay attention to what beautiful trees grow from the seeds. They will decorate any room and enrich the air with ozone.
