The Great Avocado Experiment (Part 5)

My two avocado trees
My two avocado trees

It’s early September and just as I had hoped, the two avocado trees have thrived.  The taller tree is somewhere between 3′ and 4′ tall and is beginning to trade its green stem for a barkier one — I can’t think of any other way to describe it.  It’s been growing quickly, so I have been pinching off new growth every couple of weeks.  Again, my goal is to keep these guys on the small side knowing that they will have to come inside for the winter.  The smaller tree is about a foot shorter, but seems to be putting out new growth just as fast as its sibling.

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The Great Avocado Experiment (Part 4)

Spring has returned and it is time to re-plant my avocado trees.  I picked out a couple of thick, plastic pots at Lowe’s.  The new digs are significantly bigger than the old ones to give them room to grow.  I put some drainage rock at the bottom of the pot and filled in the rest with gardening soil.  I’m hoping that this encourages them to grow a bit more.  I had pinched them back a couple of times which seems to have slowed their growth a bit.  As you can see, they’ve returned to the outdoors after being cooped up in my office all winter.  We’ll see how they fare.

The Great Avocado Experiment (Part 3)

While I have been neglecting the posting of updates on my two avocado plants, I have not been neglecting the plants themselves.  They have grown quite a bit; the larger tree is about 12″ tall and the other is about 9″ in height.  Since posting Part 2 of my experiment, I have planted the two growing trees each in their own pot.  I reused a couple of small ceramic pots that we had laying around the house —  about 8″ to 10″ in height and about 6″ to 8″ in diameter.  During the warm Atlanta summer months, they flourished outside on our deck in 3/4 sunlight, but over the past couple of weeks we had our first frost.  I first moved the plants to the garage as to not shock them with the temperature change.  Currently, they are living on the desk in my office which gets a small amount of direct morning sunlight.  More details after the break.

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The Great Avocado Experiment (Part 2)

It’s been over a month since I started to root my avocado seeds.  As you can see in the photo above, the roots for my more mature seed are about 4 to 5 inches long.  The stem has also begun to sprout and is just past the surface of the seed.  I’ve been noticing them drinking a lot more water, requiring a fresh bowl every couple of days.  It will still be a while before transplanting to a normal pot — at this rate, about another month or two.  Stay tuned.

The Great Avocado Experiment (Part 1)

On my relatively short list of interests, you are unlikely to find anything relating to a green thumb.  In my life as a bachelor consultant nurturing greenery was just not on my radar.  Meeting my wife has introduced me to the world of gardening.  Even with my new found respect for this hobby, I am not an avid participant.  But once I discovered that you could easily sprout an actual avocado tree from the pit that I so often discard I decided that I would try to do this myself.  Learn more after the break.

Continue reading “The Great Avocado Experiment (Part 1)”

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