Kitchen Garden Forum

Did anyone try growing avocado before? Just put an avocado seed in the water for germination and now I'm looking at it every waking minute after getting up or coming home. By the way, yes it looks like I've killed it but this is really the way people sprout avocados at home. Let's see!

This reminded me of this craze here years ago when avocados first started to become better known here rather than being regarded as " Queer gear" as our local fruit and veg market stall holder used to call them!.
I actually succeeded in growing one of these to a point where it was a couple of feet tall and potted up, but alas our climate is naturally too cold for them to thrive and outdoor temperatures eventually killed it off. I don,t know anybody in this country who has succeeded in growing them to a point where they would crop as they'd need to be grown under glass.

However its one of those projects that perhaps every school child should undertake as part of their "Nature Study" class, along with growing a runner bean in a jam jar trapped in between a sheet of damp blotting paper.

Having said this, I guess few children know what blotting paper is now that fountain pens and liquid ink are almost obsolete! I don't know where you would even be able to buy blotting paper these days. The average young retail shopping assistant has probably never even heard of it.

Good luck anyway Elmigo. Keep us posted on progress. Not easy to buy a decent avocado these days. They look OK on the outside but often when you cut them open the flesh is black and inedible.

Maybe you need to be in Suriname! When my daughter lived in Guyana next door to Suriname, they had wonderful avocado trees in the garden.

Primrose wrote:its one of those projects that perhaps every school child should undertake as part of their "Nature Study" class

Oh I couldn't agree more! An avocado may take 15 years to set fruit but at least germinating it would introduce our future generations to one of the million wonders of life. I remember getting very excited when looking at my first mango seedling coming up! It's still alive, not sure for how long, but it's a really beautiful experiment By the way, as a youngster, I have known blotting paper but never really used it though.

I'm very glad you have joined our forum Elmigo! Your experiments are so interesting & you have the right philosophy for giving it a try & fingers crossed! I do hope you are keeping a garden journal as if predictions are correct we may all need to adapt at some point in the future & so much easier if someone has had the failures first & found a way to get the plants through the challenging times as any change in the weather won't be straight into the tropical mode!

Thank you, I am glad I joined too as this seems to be a very friendly place. More of a community!

Avocado, it does seem very ambitious. Well done.

What's happened with your avocado stone Elmigo?
Any sign of life yet? It was a long time ago when mine sprouted so can't remember remember how long it took.

Don't have a picture with me right now (to be continued) but the avocado sprouted and a thick, long taproot came out with root side shoots! The avocado stone basically split in half but still sticks together and inbetween there's a tiny bit of green visible that looks like the yet-to-come first leaves. I'm hesitant to put it in the soil but I think I'll just dig it into a small container tomorrow. It's working, that's one certainity

Another unusual tropical thing that I have tried is putting a tumeric root in a container near the window. It worked and now I've got tumeric growing at home! It's not only productive but also very ornamental with its fine soft light green leaves. It was my fathers idea. I think that next year I can just dig it up, cut off part of the root for use in the kitchen and then put the rest back in the soil at our window sill.

Is there no end to your creativity? I don't think I've ever actually seen turmeric growing as a plant so thats another photo you must post on here at some point. I'm only used to seeing it as a powder for use in cooking, or as a herbal pill which is supposed to be beneficial for arthritis.

I can see that when you get your garden you'll soon be outgrowing it with all the new plant experiments you'll want to be trying.

I don't think it's my creativity, it's nature! This is our avocado stone growing a long, thick taproot. Time to remove those toothpicks and put it in the soil!

I placed the tumeric picture in a new topic.

It has been a long time since the last picture but this avocado is doing good!

We love them on a bowl of salad they are better a bit over ripe but they take a salad to the next level

Elmigo wrote:It has been a long time since the last picture but this avocado is doing good!

It might cause you a few headaches if it grows to its full 20 metres

alan refail wrote:It might cause you a few headaches if it grows to its full 20 metres

I believe the avocado is going to be the one with the headaches growing indoors under a ceiling!