Growing Avocado Trees from Seeds, Days 88-103
Tips, Tricks
Seeing pictures of avocado trees growing in full sun made me think that growing seedlings would be straightforward. It turns out that seedlings of this species grow in the shade of the parent trees, which makes sense since no animal would carry a big round heavy useless seed with it for long distances for dispersal. I am in the processing of losing all 6 or 7 of my original leaves but the future looks promising based on how fast new growth has been occurring. Without full direct sunlight and only reflective light hitting at 20,000 lux for maybe 3 hours a day, my avocado seedling should prosper from here. Now that the pot in in full shade I wouldn't be surprised to see some mushrooms pop out, which would be great as the mycelia could form a mutualistic relationship with the roots. I never mastered the growing of shade plants, as you could see from my earlier ginger growing series. Leaves that are photobleached are more likely to get scorched. My Joshua tree and century plant seedlings are doing great in full sun in comparison.
Comments
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I'm gonna take a guess and say the burns MAY be from the mist watering in extreme sun. Each of those droplets can act like a miniature magnifying glass. And the yellowing of leaves is from an iron deficiency as I understand. Good luck!
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The water spray magnifies the sun burning the plant
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I am very interested in your plant growth, I have grown them before but I over watered it and it died. One thing I found out is that they prefer shade to direct sunlight and only mist the leaves in early morning or late evening. That is whats causing the leaf burn also they like well drained soil they don't like their feet wet. Water it deep until it comes out the bottom and stop feed from the bottom every two weeks or so, if you want the leaves to get water put a container of water close to the pot it will absorb it that way.
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I live in zone 9a, the seed took a very long time to germinate and I'd basically abandoned it until I looked into the cup it was in before I threw it away and there ended up being a tiny sprout of green. That was April 21st of this year and now the plant is about 20 inches tall. I only ever gave it too much sun a couple times, which caused the smaller leaves at the top and the new buds to turn a shade of brown, but they recovered their green as they grew. The rest of the leaves, which I'd read are supposed to be firm and sticking outwards, were pretty droopy and felt a bit dry. Later on, they were curling inward a little bit at the edges and the very bottom leaves began to ''burn'' at the tips. I figured out that the leaf burn was a symptom of salt accumulation in the soil. Perhaps try flushing the soil with about twice the volume of the container that the avocado is in with water and letting it drain well afterwards, especially if you aren't using a cactus or light soil. Good luck with your plant, I'll be waiting for the next episode .
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maybe if you try pruning the bad leaf the plant will get better.
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I was looking at some of your videos and was wondering if the self watering pots are a good choice. Wouldn't a colander, fabric pot or a pond basket be much better ? The latter have better drainage, better root aeration and have the extra benefit of air-pruning, for denser roots. So, is there a specific reason why you are using a these plastic pots ? My own experience is that self watering works for some species but not so great for others.
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You're good Melvin. The longest tim I've been able to get an avocado seed to grow is 60 days. Congratulations on your green thumb. ...ken
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