Growing an avocado plant

[Snooks1971]

Has anyone ever successfully done this? Not for the fruit, just for the fun of it.
I’ve had my stone hovering in water for what seems like months and it’s finally split and has grown a couple of spindly roots.

I've got 12 date palms growing from medjool date stones this year too. They take 7 years to grow dates but I figure if the climates warming up we may as well try make the most of it!
I've got 5 lemons trees on the go from pips too.

You can make an interesting range of dyes with the skin and stone. Pinks and browns.

Oooh going to try some dates!

I'm growing an avocado plant. Inspired by seeing one growing and bearing fruit on an allotment in London on Gardener's World. We are south facing so hoping in 10 years I may get some fruit

Go for it!

Germinating them is fun, and the young plants are enjoyable for a while, but then they become supremely suitable for throwing away. Ugly and unchanging.

My compost bin seems to be 50% germinating avocado stones. You'd think it was all we ate. But the few times I have fished out the young plants and potted them, they end up back in the compost within the year. Ashes to ashes and all that.

Has anyone tried a mango stone? I did both a mango and an avocado at the same time and I used a method I saw online, instead of suspended over water I wrapped stones in wet kitchen roll and on window ledge in a zip bag. The avocado is now a nice looking plant but the mango did nothing. I like the sound of ginger, does it produce much actual ginger indoors?

If you have tick tock, there are many vids showing how to grow ginger inside in the uk. Some soak it in water until it shoots/roots. Others just put it in damp compost

How much ginger root do you harvest if you plant a smallish root? I'm curious now!

Sorry! I've just bought the last copy of this off Amazon!!

Apparently you can get 1kg of ginger for a thumb sized rhizome that you plant in a big pot in about 10 months @user12743052.

I suppose it all depends on the conditions.

I honestly can't wait to see

We are going to try growing dates from the ones we eat this Christmas.

Thank you for the book recommendation @MereDintofPandiculation I love trying to grow things from seed and am rarely successful. I do have a lemon tree grown from a pip which is about 10 cm tall after about a year. I did have two but the snails/slugs ate it. It now has crushed shells around it. I must remember to bring it in when it gets colder.
I have frown ginger in the past but not been able to this year. It makes an interesting plant.
I have been struggling with avocados so will see what this book says to do with them.

I grow citrus pips from time to time but they always get scale.

My mother got a mango to germinate, wrapped in damp kitchen paper in a bag in the airing cupboard.

You too, eh?

I’m beginning to think they’re not worth the hassle.

I think probably the most fun I’ve had is with parsnip and carrot tops.

My mother grew a mango plant. She wrapped the big pip in wet paper towel and a ziplock and put it in the airing cupboard. It grew a giant root like an alien but the actual plant didn't live long; I don't think they like our climate! I grew an avocado plant that got to about 8 leaves but it died in its first winter. Eager to try ginger, and in the pandemic a friend managed to sprout coffee beans!

@Beginningless to grow a mango seed, you need to firstly dry it out in the sun. The weather at the moment is perfect. Then eventually the outer shell will open up. Inside the seed is what you can then plant in very rich compost.

Yes, you can grow sweet potatoes from sweet potato slips (a cut end of a sweet potato that may bear roots). From May time up here in Europe it should work, as it needs long sunlight hours. The leaves can be eaten too! 🍴

I might try ginger too! Is it not invasive? It strikes me as an invasive plant. Like topinambur (a friend gave it to me, and it was like the attack of the bloody triffids in my garden!)

Thanks all, I did dry it out, albeit not in the sun (not much to be had in Scotland this summer) but got the outer layer off then sprouted the seed in a bag as above. All looked good but it did nothing in the soil unfortunately! Ah well, like someone said, probably just not warm enough for it.

I grew a lychee once but it died while I was on holiday. Dried out. I tried again but it didn't germinate. I think the stones have to be really fresh. Never had any success with avocados, probably just as well as I've nowhere to put one.

That's very exotic @lcakethereforeIam , a lychee! I love how we are all trying exotic fruits. Somewhere along the equator a hobby gardener or serious farmer is trying to get cox's apples or radishes to grow.

I love starfruits, and am far too greedy to try saving any seeds. Next time I will eat more mindfully and try to plant a seed.

I saw dragonfruits in the supermarket the other day. I have no idea what they taste like, and we are trying to buy local. Does anyone know anything about them?

I tried a dragon fruit many years ago, iirc the taste was a bit meh. Although if I had the room it looks like a fun project to try to grow one.

Apparently pawpaw (Asimina triloba not papayas that, confusingly, are sometimes also called pawpaw) can be grown outside all year round in the UK according to the RHS, although it would be vulnerable to a very hard cold snap.

Dragon fruit are the fruit of Selenicereus cacti, which grow very large and are climbers of trees in habitat. The large fragrant flowers are nocturnal and only last one day. Garden centres occasionally have pots of dragon fruit seedlings for sale, for unsuspecting customers who like the tiny seedlings, but don’t realise how large they can grow!

Ooh I like this thread. I’ve got some ginger and some medjole dates so those are on my list.

My lemon is growing beautifully.

Avocado : those germinated in the compost heap do best. Cut the tip out as soon as its two feet tall. Keep taking the tips out as soon as each stem is a foot long. It will make a lovely bush about 5 feet tall. Will not fruit in the UK.

Mango : worth growing because the juvenile foliage is bright red. Trim the same way as an avocado and you get a splendid tree with mad leaves

Pomegranate : slow but worth it because they bonsai with miniature fruit - ALMOST hardy

Lychee : see avocado and mango - the seed needs to go into the soil IMMEDIATELY after you eat the fruit

Citrus : if you germinate a seed you'll not get edible fruit but the flowers smell heavenly so worth it - again PRUNE HARD

Ginger is a doddle to grow and the leaves chopped into oriental food are lush.

All of my mad fruit trees live in my conservatory by the way.

Oh and Papaya is worth a try ...