Avacados?

[nikkie]

Anyone grown avacados from the stone?
I have been doing them with a child at work (have them at home for hols) some have roots and are starting to send shoots out the top.When do I need to put them in soil?

We have a 4 year old avocado plant grown from a stone. It was started at school by my dd (we provided the stone) and it was certainly in a pot by the time it came home. I would pot it fairly soon.

They're house plants though - they won't survive outside. Unless you're very very global warmed where you are.

i had this problem with a banana plant, it just grew too quick and i had nowhere to put it

They will go in the school polytunnel.I go back to work on Tuesday so can go in any time after that.
Shoots are about 1 inch do they need to be bigger?

put it in the ground whenever you get there but no need to panic. it won't shrivel up overnight.

tropical trees like avocado restrict their own height when a canopy is absent and i guess the cooler temp here will also be restricting. Still, it suspect it could get to 8 ft over here in the right conditions.

Ours got to about 2-3ft by the end of the first summer and is about 6ft now. It is an indoor plant in this country - they don't like temps below about 10 C. In the wild (rainforest?) they grow to about 40ft. I expect the restriction of the roots in the container prevents them getting so huge, but even so, I anticipate it getting too big for indoors before much longer. I read that after about 7yrs if you are lucky they might fruit.

Plenty of avacado trees here in the wild (Brazil), they are so common that the avacados just drop to the ground and rot! Here the fruit grows to the size of a rugby ball and each tree has hundreds of fruit on it. Last week DS and I were at another English friends house and the other mum and I sent the boys up the tree to pick the fruit, about 5 minutes later we had over 50 avacados - what can I do with lots of rugby sized avocados??

Am so envious of you all successfully growing from stones

I'm on my third and its still not done anything, infact I think its had it.

I planted a stone straight into potting compost with the tip just visible. It germinated in no time and is now a good sized plant. No need to muck about with them with water and matchsticks or whatever daft gimmick sometimes advised.

Well thats what I'm doing wrong then.

I've been sticking them in hyacinth vases with water just below the stone, covering with a bag blah blah!

At least I know what to do next time

Well, I know the hyacinth vase is supposed to work, though I have never managed it myself. I just can't see the point except maybe for educational purposes. And I would think potting into compopst must be a shock for the roots after being in water.

P.S. YellowFeathers, I think the stone needs to be actually just touching the water. It needs to imbibe some water to germinate. Maybe that is what is wrong.

I did them with a child at work, (he also ate the avacado too-Mum was impressed as he is fussy!)so have done them in water with cocktail sticks in plastic cups so you could see everything grow.

Well I have brought the school avacado plants home for the hols as they need a lot of watering and they have shrivelled up and gone brown not quite dead but not far off.BUT I have just put them near my plant which is fine , any ideas?

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