What does an avocado plant look like at home? Where avocados grow, in which countries: list, interesting facts. Watering avocados at home

It may seem that growing avocados at home is very difficult; not every person can cope with the task. But that's not true. It doesn't take much effort to get a beautiful, healthy tree. It is enough to buy a ripe fruit in the store, plant it in a pot of soil, and watch how the avocado grows. The process is very exciting and interesting for any gardener.

Purchasing an avocado seed

The avocado seedling has wide leaves and a flexible trunk, so any composition can be formed from the plant. To make a braid from trees, 3 seeds are planted in a pot, which intertwine with each other as they grow. Some people believe that the avocado plant brings joy, happiness and harmony to the home.

To ensure a healthy tree, the right fruit is selected to grow it. A ripe avocado is purchased in the store to check its suitability for planting; it is pressed with palms on both sides and then released. If after this the structure is restored, this means that the fruit is suitable. If there are no ripe fruits in the store, then this is not a problem - the avocado can ripen at home. What can you do to make it ripen faster? Put it next to bananas or apples - they emit ethylene gas, which contributes to the rapid ripening of any fruit.

Planting in different ways

Some people, when planting a seed, do not know what an avocado tree looks like and whether it can be cultivated at home. If there is a ready-made fruit, then it is cut in half. The seed is taken out and placed in a pot of soil. The sprout appears quickly, germination rate is 100%. How to plant:

To ensure that the tree is strong and grows quickly, a large seed is selected for planting, which has a large “charge of energy” for growth. For soaking, only settled water is used, the temperature of which is at least 23 ° C. To make the seed healthier, activated charcoal or charcoal is added to the liquid, but this is not necessary, because avocados are not difficult to breed.

Today we will talk about avocados. This is an evergreen exotic plant that is very difficult to grow at home and in a summer cottage, and even more difficult to wait for the harvest. Although the unique taste of the fruits could please many gardeners, unfortunately, avocado fruits at home are the exception to the rule. When gardeners plant a persimmon or orange seed, they do not hope for quick results, and in this case, you can only enjoy the fruit tree.

Avocado at home: growing, care, watering, pruning, interesting facts

Many gardeners still know how to plant an avocado., patiently wait and fulfill all the necessary requirements for growing and caring for a beautiful fruit. Sometimes a dream comes true and the gardener waits until the harvest.

When trying to grow an avocado, keep the following points in mind:

To grow this unusual and tasty overseas fruit, you will definitely need a ripe fruit. Only the seed of a ripe fruit has a chance of germination.

The growing process can be carried out in several ways.

First way or as it is also called closed, is simple. A ripe fruit seed should be stuck into the soil, with the wide side to a depth of 2–4 cm. The soil must be constantly loosened and watered every three days. The temperature should never fall below 20 degrees. Under favorable conditions, the seed should germinate in about a month.

Open way interesting and exotic. Before planting in the ground, the seed must be germinated in water, in a suspended state. The bone should be cleaned and washed thoroughly. Next, along the circle line approximately in the middle, you need to drill several holes into which you will need to insert wooden sticks (for example, toothpicks or matches). The sticks will act as clamps when the bone is lowered into a container of water. The bone should be in the water constantly, with the wide edge down.

It is necessary to carefully monitor the water level in the container. Some gardeners use polymer granules or hydrogel instead of water. The polymer material will retain water efficiently for a long time, which in this case is very convenient and you won’t have to monitor the water level. Hydrogel and polymer granules can be purchased at specialized garden stores.

As in the first case, roots and then sprouts will appear in about 25–30 days. When the length of the roots reaches 5 cm, the seed will be ready for transplanting into open ground.

To begin with, the seed should be transplanted into a container or flower pot with holes.. The soil should not be dense. To ensure the necessary moisture and air exchange, the soil must be loosened. Plant the seed in the soil so that half is on the surface. It is important to be careful when planting seeds so as not to break the delicate roots. The shell of the bone should not be removed.

Lighting and temperature

Tropical plants are very light-loving, but partial shade will do. To avoid burns, young plants It is advisable to avoid direct sunlight. If your apartment or house has a room with windows facing west. The window sill of this window will be an ideal place for fruit to grow. In providing the plant with light, the method of using phytolamps is excellent.

The tropics are the birthplace of avocados, so the fruit loves warmth. When the slightest draft appears or a sharp drop in temperature, the plant will be unhappy - the leaves will immediately fall off. Therefore, even in hot summer weather, it is not advisable to take the plant outside.

A constant temperature must be maintained in the room. In the warm season, the temperature in the room will be optimal for avocados, but in winter, the temperature in the room should not fall below 22 degrees Celsius.

In winter, the plant may begin a dormant period. In a situation when the room temperature drops to 10–12 degrees, the avocado reacts immediately - the leaves are shed and the plant switches to hibernation mode. With proper care and constant temperature this will not happen.

Watering an avocado

Watering is an important process when growing avocados from seed. When growing in an apartment, watering should be plentiful and regular. Watering should take into account temperature indicators, as well as the time of year. Several days must pass after the soil dries before the plants require water. After the top layer of soil dries, the necessary chapter remains inside the pot, which is enough for two days.

An evergreen tropical plant requires moist air. Indoor air is often dry, and spraying with a spray bottle will help solve this problem. It is important to remember that even small droplets should not fall on the plant; only the air around the bush is humidified.

Another method of moistening is a special container for a pot, with a layer of moistened expanded clay at the bottom.

Feeding and fertilizers

During the cold season, from September to March, Avocado does not need fertilizing, and the rest of the time the plant must be fed with fertilizers. Fertilizing is carried out once a month with complex fertilizers. The complexes recommended for citrus and other tropical plants are suitable. Avocado is a record holder for potassium consumption, which tropical soils are so rich in. Nitrogen and potassium fertilizers are excellent.

Avocado transplant

Avocado grows quite actively and in natural conditions reaches 20 meters in height. At home, the height is 2.5–3 m. As the root system grows, the pot becomes too small for the flower, so it needs to be replanted.

At a young age, plants are replanted every year, and from the age of 5 they are often reduced to once every 3 years. The plant is transplanted into a new container using the transshipment method. The tree is carefully transported along with a lump of earth around the rhizome.

Important for the growth and development of avocados, is the soil in which it grows. Any light and loose soil without clay, preferably not oxidized, is suitable for avocados. Dolomite flour or wood ash can be added to the soil to reduce acidity.

You can prepare a suitable soil mixture for avocados at home yourself. To do this, humus, peat, calcined river sand and purified garden soil are mixed in equal parts. Planting a seed in such soil means ensuring the germination of a healthy and strong plant.

Avocado trimming

To avoid stretching the plant in height, it needs to be pinched. The procedure will help the plant acquire splendor in the form of side shoots. The pinching process is carried out only when at least eight full leaves appear on the acoustics. For the first two years, you can only pinch the top of the plant. This promotes lush branching and development of lateral processes. When the side branches are sufficiently formed and acquire their eight leaves.

The pruning and pinching procedure is carried out in the spring before the sap begins to flow. Pruning is necessary to develop the plant and improve growth, and also helps you form a decorative crown. The formation of the crown depends entirely on the imagination of the grower.

You can plant avocados at home not only for the fruits. At home, avocados have long become a decorative decoration. To do this you will need a little gardening experience. You can grow several avocado bushes and, at about a year old, transplant them into a flower pot or container. Plants can be braided together as long as the plants have flexible branches.

The most terrible pests, as for other indoor plants, are count spider mites and scale insects. Spider mites are very voracious insects and suck sap from the plant stem, and can also transmit diseases from other indoor plants. The scale insect is an equally dangerous insect that feeds on sap. Pests can be controlled using insecticidal preparations and folk remedies.

Among diseases, the main danger remains powdery mildew, which leads to rotting of the rhizome and further death of the plant.

The growing process can also cause other pathologies:

The leaves are drying. The reason leaves dry out is a lack of moisture or insufficient air humidity.
Leaves are falling. If the leaves have fallen, then, as stated above, the reasons are low temperature or drafts in the apartment.
Pale leaves. The reasons for leaves turning pale may be a lack of light. Find a suitable bright place for the plant or provide lighting with a phytolamp.

Avocado is one of the most amazing and unexplored tropical plants today. At first glance, an inconspicuous and almost tasteless fruit is now gaining more and more popularity among chefs. Our compatriots are also getting accustomed to this amazing fruit.

Some interesting facts about avocados

Avocado is a heat-loving plant; it is impossible to achieve fruiting at home, but as an ornamental tree this crop can decorate any room. As with all tropical crops, the indoor avocado plant requires plenty of light, regular watering during the growing season and shaping pruning to give the bush a neat appearance.

What does an avocado plant and its fruits look like (with photo)

Avocado (Persea, adligator pear, Persea) belongs to the Laurel family, it is a relative of the laurel.

The plant is distributed in North and South America, on the Canary Islands. Large evergreen tree. Avocados were cultivated in Central America as early as the 6th–8th centuries. But avocados came to Europe only in the 16th century. Now it is bred in many warm countries: Argentina, Brazil, USA.

The tree has dark green, varnished leaves.

Pay attention to the photo - the avocado fruit looks like a large pear:

Their color is varied - from green to purple. These fruits have received another name: “crocodile pear”. They are edible and very nutritious. Their yellowish-green flesh contains a lot of fat and tastes somewhat like butter. But she is “fresh”. There is no sweetness or acidity in the fruits. They have no smell either. These are more vegetables than fruits. No wonder they are usually eaten raw with pepper, vinegar and onions. Most often, avocado fruits are used to prepare a salad, sometimes they are also used in the form of puree, and even ice cream is made from them (with the addition of sugar and some other substances).

In Mexico, Central and partly South America, avocados are one of the most common food products. Avocado is an ancient cultivated plant. Even before the discovery of America, it was cultivated by the local populations of Central America and the West Indies for many centuries.

Leaves are up to 25 cm long, dark green, glossy.

As you can see in the photo, the flowers of the avocado plant are yellowish, collected in racemes:

The fruit is a large drupe, 10-15 cm long. The color of the fruit is dark green. The seeds are large - about 4.5-5.5 cm.

Avocado can reach a height of 20 m, but it is a very fragile tree, so it needs special care during fruiting. It has long leathery leaves, similar to laurel leaves, and fairly large fruits weighing up to 800 g. Avocado roots are very sensitive to lack of air in the soil. Avocados bloom in late winter. In culture, flowering is rare

Avocados begin to bear fruit at 4-5 years of age. From each tree you can collect 150–200 fruits. Some varieties have a rough skin that looks like alligator skin (hence the second name). Inside the fruit is a yellow-green poisonous seed.

Look what an avocado plant looks like in these photos:

Types and varieties. The most popular: A. American (R. atepsapa), A. most pleasant (P. gratissima).

Usage. In winter gardens, for food purposes.

How to care for a houseplant avocado at home

Avocado is a rather heat-loving plant. Its frost resistance is low. In this respect, it is equivalent to an orange and a lemon. Therefore, it can be successfully grown only in the warmest areas of our humid subtropics - where citrus fruits are grown.

The plant is light-loving, but in the summer it is afraid of direct sunlight.

When growing an avocado tree at home, it is placed in a well-lit, sunny, warm place. Avocado is a heat-loving plant, so even in summer, if the weather is not very hot, it is better to keep it indoors. During the dormant period, the plant is transferred to a bright room with a temperature of at least 15 °C.

The shoots are pinched to give the tree a bushy shape. Watering is plentiful, moderate in winter. In summer, avocados are watered abundantly, additionally cross-pollinated and fertilized two to three times a month. You need to care for your avocado plant at home as carefully as possible. In winter it is significantly reduced and no fertilizing is carried out. After winter rest during care when growing avocados, the plant is replanted and the ends of the stems are pinched. A commercially available universal flower soil can serve as a substrate for avocados.

Plants up to 3-4 years old are replanted annually, then once every 3-4 years.

Avocados are susceptible to attack by spider mites and scale insects. Insufficient air humidity causes the tips of the leaves to dry out.

Propagation of homemade avocado by seed and cuttings

Seeds and cuttings. Avocados have very large seeds. Seeds for germination are planted one at a time in pots with soil mixture.

When sowing, the seeds should protrude halfway from the soil. When propagating an avocado, the pit is planted with the blunt end in the ground, and the sharp end is left sticking out above the soil surface. Until the leaves appear, the pot with the plant is kept in a warm place and watered occasionally, preventing the earthen ball from drying out.

Avocado seeds should not be germinated in water, as they do not tolerate transplantation well.

Cuttings take root very poorly, so it is better to treat them with a growth stimulator.

What are the benefits of the fruit of the avocado plant?

The vegetable fat of this tropical fruit consists mainly of monounsaturated fatty acids, which lower cholesterol levels and have a beneficial effect on the heart and blood vessels.

100% natural vegetable avocado oil, obtained by cold pressing. The product is a yellowish oily liquid with a characteristic aroma. What are the benefits of avocado oil? The oil is rich in lecithin, histidine, polyunsaturated acids (oleic - up to 82%, palmitic, linoleic, etc.), vitamins A, E, C, B1, B2, B3, B9, D, as well as phytosterols, phosphoric acid salts, and microelements. Avocado oil has good penetrating ability, has regenerating, moisturizing, improving skin structure properties and the ability to reflect UV radiation.

Avocado is an exotic evergreen plant. Many lovers of floriculture know that it is not easy to grow avocados at home, much less wait for the harvest. Its fruits, unique in taste, could please more than one grower. But, unfortunately, avocados with fruits at home are rather an exception to the rule. Although they don’t always plant an orange or persimmon seed, hoping for quick results. You can wait for more than one year, hope and at the same time enjoy a fruit bush or tree.

If you really want to, you can plant an avocado seed and patiently follow all the necessary rules for growing and caring for it. What if your dream comes true and you wait for the harvest at home?

How to grow an avocado from a seed

To grow this unusual overseas plant, you will definitely need a ripe avocado fruit. Only the seed of such a fruit has a great chance of germination. This process can be carried out in two ways:

The first method (closed) is simple and simple. The avocado seed needs to be inserted into the soil with its wide bottom side to a shallow depth (approximately 2 centimeters). If favorable conditions are created, it should germinate in about 30 days.
The second method (open) is interesting and even, one might say, exotic.

Before planting in the ground, the seed must be germinated in water in a suspended position. First you need to thoroughly wash and clean it. Then, approximately in the middle of the bone along the circle line, you need to carefully drill three or four holes, into which you then need to insert thin wooden sticks (for example, matches or toothpicks). They will act as a support when the wide lower part of the seed is lowered into a container of water. These sticks, like clamps, will hold the bone at the required height. The main thing is to constantly monitor the amount of water in the container. The bottom of the bone should always be in water.

Instead of water, special polymer granules () can be used to germinate avocado seeds. This polymer material can hold large amounts of water for a long time. In this method it is very convenient; you do not need to monitor the level.

Only 20-30 days will pass, and the first young roots will appear, and then a sprout. The seed will be ready for planting in the ground when the roots reach 4 centimeters in length.

First you will need a small flower pot with large holes. The earth should not be dense. It needs to be loosened well to ensure the necessary air and moisture exchange. The seed is planted in the soil so that two-thirds of its part is on the surface of the soil. There is no need to remove the shell on the bone.

Location and lighting

Avocado is a light-loving plant, but partial shade is also suitable for it. It needs to be protected from direct sunlight. If your house or apartment has a room with west-facing windows, then such a window sill will be the ideal place for this fruit.

Temperature

Since the avocado is native to the tropics, it naturally loves warmth. In the event of a sharp drop in temperature or the slightest draft, the plant will begin to show its dissatisfaction - all the leaves will fall off immediately. Therefore, even in warm summer weather, it is not advisable to take it outside.

And the room must also maintain a constant temperature. In the warm season, high room temperature will be favorable for avocados, but in the cold winter, 20 degrees Celsius will be enough for it.

The plant also has a dormant period in winter. If in winter the temperature in the room drops to 12 degrees, then the avocado will immediately react - it will drop its leaves and switch to “hibernation” mode. But with proper care and constant temperature balance, this cannot happen. This tropical plant is considered evergreen.

Watering rules

Avocados at home should be watered regularly and abundantly, but taking into account the temperature and time of year. Excessive watering can be harmful. In summer it is watered more often than in winter. After the top layer of soil has dried, it will take another couple of days before you start watering the plant. Only its upper part dries out immediately, and the moisture necessary for the avocado remains inside the pot for about two more days.

Air humidity

Air humidity is also of great importance. The air in the room is almost always dry, and this is very harmful for this plant. Daily spraying will help solve the problem. It is very important that during such water procedures only the air near the avocado is humidified, but not the plant itself. Even small droplets should not fall on its leaves.

There is another way of moistening - this is a special tray for a pot with moistened expanded clay.

Feeding and fertilizers

From September to March the plant does not need feeding. But the rest of the time, once a month, the avocado needs to be fed with fertilizer recommended for citrus fruits or any other complex fertilizer.

Avocado transplant

In nature, avocados grow up to 20 meters in height. Although at home it will not reach such heights, it grows quite actively and requires frequent replanting. Very soon the first small pot will become too small for him. As soon as the tree grows to 15 centimeters, it is time to transplant it into a larger container. At a young age, avocados are replanted every year, and then once every three years.

The soil in which it grows is of great importance for the development and growth of a plant. Specifically for avocados, you need any loose and light soil, but not sour soil. It would be good to add wood ash or dolomite flour to such soil.

When replanting a plant into a new pot, use the transshipment method. Carefully carry the tree along with the lump of earth.

You can prepare a soil mixture that is healthy for avocados yourself. For this you will need: peat (or humus), garden soil and coarse river sand. All components must be mixed in equal parts.

Trimming

This tropical plant at home can easily become a decorative decoration for a room. True, this will require a little experience in floriculture. For example, you can grow several plants from avocado seeds and plant them all together in one flower pot. In the meantime, while the plants are young and flexible, their stems can be intertwined with a pigtail.

To ensure that the plant does not stretch in height, but acquires splendor in the form of side shoots, it must be pinched. This procedure can be carried out only when the tree has a sufficient number of leaves (at least eight). First, pinch the top of the plant, this promotes the development of side branches. And after they are sufficiently formed and have their own leaves, you can pinch them too.

Pruning is carried out in early spring. It is necessary to improve the growth and development of the plant, as well as to form the crown you need. It can be completely different. It all depends on the imagination of the gardener.

Diseases, pests and other problems

Avocado, like all indoor plants, is afraid of the same pests - and. The voracious spider mite can not only destroy all the leaves on the plant, but can also transmit various diseases to other indoor flowers. The scale insect feeds on plant sap. After its appearance, only dry leaves remain. You can fight such pests with various traditional methods or insecticidal preparations.

Among diseases, the main danger to avocados is.

Other problems may arise during the growing process:

The tips of the leaves dry out. Reasons: watering rules are not followed (lack of moisture), insufficient air humidity. It is necessary to establish regular watering (only after the top layer of soil has dried) and humidify the air in the room using spraying.

Leaves are falling. The reasons are drafts and a decrease in air temperature in the apartment. It is necessary to maintain optimal temperature conditions in the room and avoid drafts.

Pale leaves. Reasons: lack of lighting. It is necessary to find a suitable place for the plant or organize additional (artificial) lighting for it, especially in winter.

If you really want to, you can plant an avocado seed and patiently follow all the necessary rules for growing and caring for it. What if your dream comes true and you wait for the harvest at home?

To grow this unusual overseas plant, you will definitely need a ripe avocado fruit. Only the seed of such a fruit has a great chance of germination. This process can be carried out in two ways:

The first method (closed) is simple and simple. The avocado seed needs to be inserted into the soil with its wide bottom side to a shallow depth (approximately 2 centimeters). If favorable conditions are created, it should germinate in about 30 days.
The second method (open) is interesting and even, one might say, exotic.

Instead of water, special polymer granules (hydrogel) can be used to germinate avocado seeds. This polymer material can hold large amounts of water for a long time. In this method it is very convenient; you do not need to monitor the level.

Only 20-30 days will pass, and the first young roots will appear, and then a sprout. The seed will be ready for planting in the ground when the roots reach 4 centimeters in length.

Avocado - growing and care at home

Location and lighting

Temperature

And the room must also maintain a constant temperature. In the warm season, high room temperature will be favorable for avocados, but in the cold winter, 20 degrees Celsius will be enough for it.

Watering rules

Air humidity

There is another way of moistening - this is a special tray for a pot with moistened expanded clay.

Feeding and fertilizers

Avocado transplant

When replanting a plant into a new pot, use the transshipment method. Carefully carry the tree along with the lump of earth.

You can prepare a soil mixture that is healthy for avocados yourself. For this you will need: peat (or humus), garden soil and coarse river sand. All components must be mixed in equal parts.

Trimming

Diseases, pests and other problems

Avocado, like all indoor plants, is afraid of the same pests - scale insects and spider mites. The voracious spider mite can not only destroy all the leaves on the plant, but can also transmit various diseases to other indoor flowers. The scale insect feeds on plant sap. After its appearance, only dry leaves remain. You can fight such pests with various traditional methods or insecticidal preparations.

Among diseases, the main danger to avocados is powdery mildew.

Other problems may arise during the growing process:

Leaves are falling. The reasons are drafts and a decrease in air temperature in the apartment. It is necessary to maintain optimal temperature conditions in the room and avoid drafts.

Pale leaves. Reasons: lack of lighting. It is necessary to find a suitable place for the plant or organize additional (artificial) lighting for it, especially in winter.

Avocado is an exotic fruit that grows on a tall tropical tree. From the seed of this fruit you can grow a strong seedling, which, with proper care, grows up to 2.5 m in height, depending on the volume of the pot.

You will not get fruits from such a tree. In order for it to bear fruit, it is necessary to graft a fruiting branch onto the rootstock, which is why many lovers of exotic plants grow avocado as a green houseplant.

Place to grow avocados

An avocado seedling requires a large amount of sunlight and heat for normal growth and development, so the pot with the plant is placed on a southern windowsill. The avocado root system does not tolerate stagnant water. Therefore, when planting a seed, you need to take into account several conditions:

the pot for planting must be filled with loose sandy loam soil: the basis for the soil mixture is sand and leaf soil;
in order to retain moisture, the soil is mulched;
in winter, watering is reduced so that the leaves of the tree do not begin to turn yellow and fall off.

You can use hay, garden perlite or vermiculite as mulch. To decorate a pot with an avocado tree, you can plant herbaceous plants around the perimeter of the container.

Avocado feeding and processing

The avocado tree responds very well to fertilizing. In the summer, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are applied to the soil, and foliar treatment is also carried out with a solution of hydrogen peroxide. After treatment, the leaves of the plant will acquire a rich green color, and the tree will form new strong shoots.

You should not pick off leaves with dried edges, as the tree may die due to insufficient chlorophyll formation. Such leaves are removed only after healthy shoots have formed.

In winter, add a little nitrogen fertilizer to the soil to maintain normal leaf color. All fertilizers are applied in the form of warm solutions. One part of nitrogen-containing organic fertilizer must be dissolved in ten parts of water. This proportion must also be observed when preparing a solution of hydrogen peroxide.

In the fall, you can add wood ash to the soil. After six months of this maintenance, the avocado tree will grow up to 2 m in height. It needs to be replanted into a larger pot every three months. For additional water drainage, you need to pour broken brick, garden perlite or vermiculite into the bottom of the pot with drainage holes.

In the fall, just for fun, I planted an avocado seed (this way I have already managed to get an indoor lemon). The experiment was a success - the seed has sprouted and is gradually growing leaves. Tell me how to care for avocados at home? Does it need bright light or can the flowerpot be placed on a north window?

Recently, lovers of exotic plants have become increasingly common among flower growers. Thanks to them, some cultures living in the wild have safely migrated to our homes and are doing quite well there. Take the avocado, for example, a tall evergreen tree with original green fruits native to distant Mexico. Lovers of indoor plants liked its large bright green leaves so much that the exotic Mexican began to be used for decorative purposes for landscaping indoors.

In nature, avocado grows up to 30 m in height, but indoors it grows in the form of a small tree (no more than 2.5 m), and does not bear fruit.

Growing an avocado is not very difficult. If you create conditions that are as close to natural as possible and properly care for it, you can get a very beautiful and compact plant.

Caring for avocados at home consists of a set of measures, namely:

choosing a suitable location for the bush (with the necessary lighting and air temperature);
proper watering and fertilizing;
formative pruning;
regular transplant.

Where is the best place to grow avocados?

Before choosing a flowerpot with a young bush for permanent residence, it is worth considering that avocados do not tolerate direct sunlight - they cause burns on the leaves. But otherwise it is quite unpretentious and grows well even in partial shade, although it prefers good, but diffused, lighting.

You can put the flowerpot on the northern window sill: there will be enough sun for avocados in the summer, and in the autumn-winter period you can simply install additional lighting.

As for air temperature and humidity, the evergreen bush needs warmth, but is able to winter in an unheated room with a temperature of at least 5 degrees Celsius, however, in this case it turns into a deciduous plant and sheds its leaves.

How to water and feed?

In the summer, avocados should be watered frequently and sprayed regularly. In winter, the frequency of watering depends on the wintering conditions: the lower the temperature, the less often the bush is watered.

The avocado itself grows quickly, so it does not need frequent feeding, but it should be taken into account that the tree has a limited amount of soil in the pot and the nutrients there quickly run out. To replenish them, complex mineral preparations must be applied from spring to the end of summer (but not more than 2 times a month).

How to prune and when to replant?

In indoor conditions, avocados often stretch, so formative pruning is an important step in caring for them. To do this in the spring, you need to pinch or cut off the shoots after the 8th leaf to stimulate branching. Repeat the procedure all summer on each young branch.

Avocados also need frequent replanting because they grow very quickly. Young bushes are replanted annually in the spring, transferring them to a larger pot. If possible, large specimens are transshipped every three years or simply replace the top layer of soil with fresh ones.

Features of growing indoor avocado - video

The exotic avocado plant does not bloom or bear fruit at home, but it has dense foliage of a rich green color and is completely unpretentious in care. You can grow it from an ordinary fruit seed or purchase a young cutting. Proper care of an avocado in a flower pot is the topic of our article.

Landing

If you decide to grow exotic plants such as avocado, agave and others at home, you need to be prepared for the fact that at home they will grow differently than in nature. And you will need to care for them more carefully, protecting them, moreover, from pests and diseases.

Avocado cuttings, unfortunately, are very difficult to find on sale, so home gardeners have become adept at growing this plant from an ordinary fruit seed, which must be ripe. It should first be placed in a suitable container of water so that its sharp edge peeks out of the water. And to feed this bone, charcoal poured on the bottom is perfect. The seed will lie in the water for 1 - 2 months, this period is usually enough for it to develop its first shoots.

Place the bone in a suitable container with water.

Next, it’s time to prepare a special soil for your future indoor avocado, which is a mixture of peat and expanded clay, and select a pot suitable for planting it. The seed is planted in the ground with the blunt end down, after which the pot is covered with polyethylene or a glass jar and placed in a well-lit and warm place. This is necessary to create a mini-greenhouse.

It will take about 6 months for the seed to germinate, but after the first sprout appears on the surface of the soil, it will very quickly become stronger, begin to gain strength and begin to grow.

First avocado sprout

This method is quite slow, but sure. With proper care and choosing the right pot, a modest avocado sprout will soon turn into an ornamental plant that will wonderfully decorate your interior. In winter, an indoor avocado can shed all its leaves; there is no need to be afraid of this; in the spring, young leaves will appear on its trunk again.

It is recommended to place the avocado pot in partial shade so that it is not in direct sunlight, but at the same time receives a sufficient amount of light. A year after planting, the young plant will need to be replanted.

Avocado care

Avocados grown at home also require constant care. This is especially true for young plants grown from seed. When caring for them, you need to take into account all the following nuances, which provide this plant with comfortable conditions for development and growth:

lighting;
temperature;
watering;
air humidity;
feeding;
circumcision.

When caring for them, you need to take into account comfortable conditions for development and growth.

As mentioned above, avocados love partial shade, but at the same time require a sufficient amount of light. That is why in the autumn-winter period you need to take care of the normal illumination of the room in which the pot with this exotic plant is located, and, if necessary, equip it with lighting, using special phytolamps for this purpose.

In summer, avocados feel comfortable at high temperatures, which may even be slightly above room temperature. In winter, the optimal temperature for its growth is +20 degrees. If for any reason the temperature in the room drops below + 12, this southern plant will shed its leaves.

As for watering, it should be plentiful during the growing season, and moderate in winter and autumn. The humidity of the room in which it grows is of great importance for its beauty and decorativeness.

Avocado loves humidity, so during the heating season it will need regular spraying and additional moisture.

In the autumn-winter period, this plant does not need feeding, but during its vegetative growth it needs to be fertilized every 2 - 3 weeks, using mineral fertilizers and organic matter. In addition, to give it a decorative appearance, pruning should be done every spring - pinching the tops of the shoots.

Pest and disease control

Avocado or, as it is popularly called, alligator pear is very susceptible to pests and diseases. As for this tropical plant, the following will be dangerous for it:

Shchitovka;
Spider mite;
Powdery mildew.

Fortunately, there are a huge number of modern remedies that will quickly help cure the plant and prevent it from dying.

In addition, the sickly appearance of an alligator pear may indicate improper care for it or a lack of light or moisture. Recognizing them, taking into account our recommendations, is quite simple:

the tips of the leaves dry out - insufficient watering, dry air in the room and too high a temperature;
the leaves turn pale - the plant does not have enough light;
leaves turn yellow and fly off - possible infection with spider mites;
the leaves dry out and fly off completely - the air in the room is not humid enough.

But, despite all this, avocados grow quite well at home and quickly adapt after transplantation. Proper care and regular care of it will provide you with a chic indoor tree with a beautiful and spreading crown, which will become your pride and will surprise your guests.