growing avocado

[NovelMama]

Anyone grow avocado? I'd love to grow some here but I don't know the first thing about it--not even sure if it grows on trees or bushes or what! :giggle I'm doing a sfg next spring--is it something I could grow there?

[canadiyank]

It's a tree. My folks grew one from a pit and kept it in a huge container in the house...it grew...oh...maybe 6' high? Huge beautiful leaves that my mom always had to dust. But outside of a container it grows into a real tree...here's a pic I found. Definitely not something you could grow in a sqft garden unless you made it part of your landscape...and you have to live in a place with no freezing temps or it will die. Our container one just was a beautiful houseplant, it never got big enough to set fruit. HTH!

http://www.pinetreeline.org/hdetail/avocado.jpg

[FaithfilledGranolaChick]

I had some growing in pots and dd dumped them over :( I planted the seeds and when I saw it dumped out I could tell one of them as starting to root very well. I was going to try and re-plant it outside but I never did. Next time I buy an some avacados I am going to save the seeds and root them w/ a glass of water using toothpicks and then plant them outside somewhere.

[Hermana Linda]

Funny you sould ask that as I have one with toothpicks in my window as we speak. It doesn't seem to be doing much, I keep forgetting to google that for info. :think Hmmmm... (http://www.wikihow.com/Plant-an-Avocado-Tree)

:doh :doh :doh
I've had it upside down. :bag

It will take 3 or 4 years to get fruit. :sigh

[canadiyank]

:giggle

It said the fruit will probably not be edible, either. :(

[Hermana Linda]

Probably in some regions, but I live in So Cal, where avocado trees are plentiful and produce great avocados. :shrug3

[FaithfilledGranolaChick]

Probably in some regions, but I live in So Cal, where avocado trees are plentiful and produce great avocados. :shrug3


I am hoping our region will do fine w/ avocado trees.... we can have a couple nights per year that it will freeze, but I will make sure and cover them well if that happens. I hope I can grow them b/c I LOVE avocado!!

[Hermana Linda]

Oh, me too. :yum

[canadiyank]

Probably in some regions, but I live in So Cal, where avocado trees are plentiful and produce great avocados. :shrug3


Oh yah, my dh's gma is from So Cal and she said they had an avacado tree in the from yard and would leave a can of spoons there for all the neighbourhood kids. :yum

But what I meant was the article you linked to said, several times, that the fruit was be inferior b/c it takes after the root-stock, not the grafted tasty-fruit part. I live in orchard country here and you can try to grow cherries and apples and peaches from pits, and they'll grow, but they taste *disgusting* b/c the fruit takes after the root-stock parent, which is bred for hardiness and other things, not the grafted-on part, which is bred for taste. That article said they'll make great shade trees but wouldn't count on the fruit. I'd buy nursery fruit trees if I were growing them here (or get my drummer from church to graft me some, since that's what he does for a living :giggle). My dad worked in the experimental fruit station and that's how we can get almonds to grow up here...they graft them to plum roots. Interesting stuff. But anyway, I'd believe the article b/c of what I know about the root-stock/pit/fruit stuff up here. You also see that with roses, sometimes...I had that happen when my rose bush died and it came back from the root stock...completely different rose, and "wild-rose" looking (open-flowers and stuff, very rambly instead of bushy) but I still thought it was beautiful and trained it a long the fence, but it certainly wasn't "supposed" to be that kind of rose. So, it's worth a shot, but if you want guaranteed yummy fruit I'd buy a nursery plant.

[FaithfilledGranolaChick]

OH, I see

edit: I must have pushed reply before I finished typing my message :giggle

So, glad I am learning this, thank you! So for fruit trees, I don't need to waste my time planting seeds then, huh? What about places like Home Depot? I am going to start looking at the flea markets.

[Drew]

Interesting. I didn't know that they would grow inside at all.

[Hermana Linda]

:blush I didn't read the whole thing, only the part about starting the seeds. :doh Thank you. :bag