Growing avocado from Seed in Singapore

Avocado pits turning black and drying up

11/5/2015

The avocado pits are grown in water. It is just plain water from the tap. The water has not been staged overnight as I was too lazy to do that. I have pruned the leaves and stems a couple of times and new shoots will appear from the leaf stalk end. After a couple of months, I noticed that the pits started to turn brown in colour. Mould appeared on the pits and slowly the pits started to dry up. The toothpicks are still stuck onto the dried pits and able to support the seedlings onto the containers.

The pits that were transferred to potted medium did not have this problem. I noticed only one potted seedling had one half pit showing some signs of rotting but later it stopped. It is amazing and the potted seedlings are growing quite well too. Initially, they stopped growing, as in there are no new shoots or leaves coming out from the top. The seedlings just "froze" in time and nothing much happened. I continued to water them every 2-3 days for a couple of months. Recently, new leaves started to grow and now the canopy is a bit too heavy for one of the seedlings. I will update this in another post.

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Avocado Shoot Growth

5/27/2015

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The seed has split into two and the root has grown to a certain length. You will notice a new shoot appearing from the split seed. It is a bit magenta or purple in colour with very tiny leaves. It will start to grow vertically and eventually develop into a stem with many leaves. The growth is quite fast and you can observe it clearly.

If you put it away from the sunlight, it will bend towards it and you may want to rotate the avocado to let the shoot bends back. However, you may not want to place it under direct sunlight because at this stage the leaves and shoot are very sensitive and weak. I think too much sunlight may kill the shoot. Well, just place it near indirect sunlight or maybe some places to catch the setting sunlight.

As you can see from the above photo, it is liked a mass production of growing avocado. I have no idea how I'm going to grow them as I have limited space in the house.

In the photo on the left, you can see that the shoot has bent towards the left. This is because the window is on its left and it will bend towards the light. You can rotate it 180 degrees and after one day, it will bend back. But this will cause the shoot or stem to be crooked. I'm still thinking of how to make the shoot grows vertically instead of bending. I have seen a lot of people growing avocado and their shoots are not bent as mine.

I have seen one person on the internet that he has grown the avocado in water the whole time. The plant is quite bushy and has grown quite well. He mentioned that he had put some ingredients or nutrients into the water so that the avocado plant can grown well. I'm no chemist and botanist and I'm not sure what nutrients can go into the water to support the growth of the plant. I may just try to place one avocado seed and leave it there in the water container for say half a year and see whether the plant will survive or not. I will keep track of the progress. So, feel free to bookmark my blog so that you can see the progress. Of course, you can contact me so that I can email you to keep track of the progress.

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Avocado Main Root Split Open

5/25/2015

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Avocado main root split open

The avocado main root will continue to grow downwards and it will eventually reach the bottom of the container. When it reaches the bottom, it will be blocked and bent. In my impression, I have not seen the main root split open before when it is still growing vertically downwards. Is it possible that when the growth of the root is restricted, it will then split open? I'm not sure but recently I have seen a couple of avocado seedlings with split opened main roots.

I'm going to do an experiment on this. I have transferred an avocado seed into a 1.5L bottle and this will allow the main root to grow longer in length downwards. The main root will have time to grow thicker and this may be able to prevent the splitting of the root. It is not proven yet but when it does, I will update in another post. So, stay tuned for the result of the experiment.

I observed that when the root split open, it will become darker and turn into brown colour. It is very obvious but I have no idea whether the root has been damaged. I have planted avocado seeds with roots in browning conditions but I can't remember whether the growth is restricted. In my earlier seeds, the roots did not split open and a lot of crystals accumulated on the root's surface. I need to find the picture of the root and post them here.

Yes, I have found the picture and you can see that there are are lot of white crystals on the root. The roots are white and not brown. When the stem has grown to about 7 to 8 inches with about 4 to 5 leaves, you can transplant the seedling onto a pot with good potting mix. I bought the potting mix from a local supermarket.

The first avocado seed that I had planted did not survive. The only reason that I thought was the timing of the transplant. I might have waited too long before I transplanted the seedling onto a pot. But I still cannot believe that this had caused the plant to wither. The leaves started to dry up and drop away one by one. Eventually, there were no leaves on the stem. Recently I think that the root cause is that I have under watered the plant that caused the leaves to turn brown and wither away. Avocado plant needs a lot of water to survive and yet you cannot soak the roots in water as the roots may rot instead. You will need to water the plant quite often, maybe every two days. Wait till the soil is slightly dried and you need to water the plant again. You may want to water the plant and drain the water from the bottom of the pot every month to remove the salt that has accumulated in the soil. Try to use tap water that has been staged overnight to remove the chlorine.

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Avocado Main Root Growing Downwards

5/24/2015

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Avocado main root growing downwards vertically

You would probably have put three toothpicks into the avocado seed and placed the seed with the base submerged in the water. You would probably be waiting patiently to see whether the seed has split open and the root is growing downwards.

It is a waiting game and sometimes it takes less than two weeks for the split to happen but others may not be lucky and you may end up with a rotting seed. I think my success rate is 70% meaning that if I had placed 10 seeds in the water, I would have 7 seeds germinating. Just remember to remove the skin of the seed and when you can open the avocado, do it gently and not cut too deep into the seed. After you have removed the skin of the seed, you can see whether there are deep marks on the surface. If you have done it probably, the surface should not have any cut marks.

Your task is not ended after putting the seed into the water, you need to change the water every week. It depends on the quality of the water, check the water to see whether it is still clear. If it is clear, then it is ok but at least change the water every week. I just pour the water away and top up with tap water. I did not use any distilled or tap water that has been staged overnight. I have used the water directly from the running tap. But it depends on the water quality from country to country, so you may have to do experiment to check what works best for your region.

The main root from the avocado seed (or pit) which is submerged in the water will continue to grow downwards. The new shoot in dull purple colour will grow upwards and towards the sunlight. Continue to change the water regularly. You will notice that small crystal-liked structures are clinging onto the root surface. I have no idea what are these. I was thinking that they were created when I changed water as there were air pockets that cling onto the root when put the seed back to the container. I will update in a separate blog on these tiny little crystals.

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Your Journey starts here!

Avocado pits turning black and drying up

Avocado Shoot Growth

Avocado Main Root Split Open

Avocado Main Root Growing Downwards

IXUS

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﻿Your Journey starts here!﻿

Avocado pits turning black and drying up

Avocado Shoot Growth

Avocado Main Root Split Open

Avocado Main Root Growing Downwards

IXUS

Archives

Categories

Your Journey starts here!