Avocado is a fruit of exotic origin that has many admirers even in Italy: there is in fact something better than a lime guacamole sauce to enter ‘summer mode’
. One seed is enough to grow your avocado plant and hope to enjoy its nutritious and fresh fruits, to be enjoyed in a salad, or as an accompaniment to salmon or prawns in a delicious aperitif. All that remains is to read this short step by step guide and understand how to grow an avocado at home. How to grow an avocado at home: germination Avocado is a plant native to Central and South America, whose tasty fruitsthey are high in nutrients. The specificity of avocado cultivation is that its seed must first germinate in water and only then can it be transferred into pots. Here’s how to sprout an avocado seed and what it takes to do it:
- a clean ripe avocado seed;
- some toothpicks;
- a container for water.
At this point we can proceed with the practical phase :
- The first thing to do is insert the toothpicks along the circumference of the seed, clean and neat, in such a way that they act as supports to rest them on the edge of the container and keep the core at half height.
- At this point we fill the container with water just enough for the base of the seed, or the less rounded part, to be wet and immersed.
We place the container in a sunny position, for example in front of a window with direct light. - We wait 2 to 6 weeks for germination to be complete, paying attention to add water as needed.
Sprouting avocado: practical advice
Although the procedure is not complicated, two steps are decisive for the success of the ‘growing an avocado at home’ operation: cleaning the seed and being able to prevent mold in the avocado seed.
- Clean the avocado seed: It is important to remove the pit from the avocado, without affecting the brown skin that covers it. Let’s wash it by passing it under water for a few minutes, drying it carefully to remove all residues.
- Avoid that the avocado seed does mold: the container for the seed must be transparent, better made of glass, to allow the sun’s rays to pass and to grow between the roots. Furthermore, the fact that the container is transparent allows to keep under control the possible formation of molds and fungi, which can be prevented by changing the water at least twice a week.
How to grow an avocado: caring for the plant
When the avocado seed has begun to put on its leaves and roots, the attention will have to multiply to allow your new seedling to thrive. First make sure that exposure to the sun is correct: too much light can damage the young leaves, better a partial shade area or expose the avocado to direct light only for a few hours a day. When the stem is about 6 cm high, we sprout to allow the roots to strengthen. We repeat this operation again, cutting about 3 cm this time, when the stem will have grown again up to 6 cm. Within a month the production of leaveswill be intensified and the roots will be thickened: it is time to plant the avocado plant. How to plant the avocado on the ground
After having germinated the avocado seed and strengthened the leaves and roots, we can proceed to ground the plant using a medium-sized pot (25-30 cm). Fill the pot with universal soil mixed with expanded clay, remove the toothpicks and place the seedling on the ground, being careful to leave the top out of the ground. We water abundantly and place the pot in an area with light and shade , but without too direct exposure to the sun’s rays.
The maintenance is quite simple and requires only constant watering, but never too soaking the soil and a temperature never lower than 15 ° -18 ° C. As you can see, growing an avocado at home , on the balcony, or on the terrace, does not and nothing complicated and with a little luck you will be able to see that seed grow to the size of a fruitful sapling (hopefully!). How to plant avocado at home and … reap the fruits
Your attention will be rewarded
You will be able to really reap the fruits of the home grown avocado
Difficult to predict because avocado plants take about 4 years to become fruitful, while the later ones take up to 15 years and still others never become. But we are sure of one thing: the fruit harvested at home , with your hands, will have a decidedly different taste from that of trees grown for commercial purposes and the pleasure of savoring it will repay every wait.
