Avocado is a large berry type of fruit that contains a large seed inside, along with the tasty light-green colored pulps. This plant originally belongs to the south-central part of the country Mexico. This fruit is hugely used for several purposes such as food preparations, beauty care, skincare, etc. Thus, it would be great if, we can cultivate this functional fruit in our own garden area under the natural climate, isn’t it! Many gardeners are now seemed affectionate to grow this fruit on their own, because of the amazing adaptability of avocado as a crop. Hence, let’s check out the proper cultivation procedure of this super tasty fruit along with its storage process and health values, take a look-
Growing Avocado:
1. Soil:
- The avocado plant needs a soil-type that is well-drained and low in saline percentage.
- One of the most applauding qualities of this plant is that Avocado can bear almost any sort of pH level. Though you can keep the level in between 6 to 6.5 to get the best outcome of your crop.
- It doesn’t want even any high fertilization or compost to germinate as well! It has been observed that the soil for growing Avocado plant require heavily fertilized after the duration of 1 year only, till then, you can carry on the care with some kind of simple organic compost to nitrify the soil.
- After a certain gap, you need to use some time-released fertilizer to nourish your soil twice a year.
2. Season:
- Avocado trees grow best in the warmth climate thus; it will grow best in the season of late spring or early summer.
- Though this plant can turn some years to get the fruit, yet it will be better if we can keep the temperature warmth for the foremost times.
- 60 ̊F to 85 ̊F temperature is essential at the initial stage of the plant, but once the will be established or germinated, you can keep the temperature in between 32 ̊F to 28 ̊F with moderate humidity.
- This plant demands full sun when it is tender, so sow your plant when it could get plenty of sunlight throughout the whole day.
3. Planting:
- To plant the avocado tree, select the place in your garden and prepare the soil at that place first with perfect excellences as we mentioned above.
- Now, dig a hole with the measurement of 5 to 6 inches deep and put the sprouted seed into the hole. Make sure that the planting process couldn’t harm or damage any root-part of the current germinated seed, while you are putting it into the hole!
- Then, cover the plant up with some composted soil from the top and water the plant with the plenty of water.
- Remember that avocado tree has a very sensitive root system, so try not to disturb it for a single second and provide a fine aeration to it.
- Losing up the soil around edges will help you a lot towards a healthy plantation.
- Water your plant 2 to 3 times in a week, when it is in the gentle form and then, gradually increase the amount once the tree begins to grow healthier.
- Now, have patience for a few years and take proper care of your plant to get some tasty and healthy fruits from your cultivation.
You may also be interested in growing asparagus and growing brussel sprouts .
Growing Avocado Tree From Seeds
4. Care:
- After completing the planting session, place some rocks on the base of your plant, they will help to run the drainage system more easily.
- To provide the best watering system to your avocado plant, water the soil when it is a bit dry by sun heat. This way, the roots will be able to drag the essential eagerly.
- The avocado plant requires a less water when it is in young from, but a mature tree needs at least 20 gallons of water a day!
- Fertilize your tender tree on a weekly basis, once it will start to grow. The avocado plant needs zinc and nitrogen element to keep the growth consistency healthy, hence try to choose a fertilizer in which these objects exist richly.
- Mulch you plant in young form is another imperative part of this cultivation. Using coarse yard mulch will be the best choice to mulch an avocado tree.
- Protect your tree from freezing and windy atmosphere, especially during the young stage.
How to Grow Avocado from Seeds:
- To grow an avocado plant from its seed, you need to take a ripe avocado first.
- Now, cut it out from the middle and remove the seed gently.
- Then, wash the pit off to clean it properly with lukewarm water, but be careful that you are not damaging the light brown colored cover over the pit while rubbing it with your hand!
- Take 4 toothpicks and insert them into the central section of the seed to a deepness of at least 1-inch.
- Now, fill a jar with filtered water that has a wide opening part to have room for the full measurement of the seed
- Now set the toothpick added avocado seed on the top rim of the jar so then, it could waterlog half-a-way into the water.
- Keep the pointed end up and the rounded up down when you are setting the pit over the jar.
- After that, place the jar near a windowsill and wait for a few days till the seed starts to This time, try to keep the pit under an average temperature of 65 degrees F until it begins to sprout.
- Never forget to change the water after every 1 or 2 days until the roots reach an adequate width.
- After a gap of 2 to 3 weeks, you will see the pit begins to split from the top, and after one more week, a taproot will begin to come up at the bottom of the seed as well.
- Take intensive care of your plant accordingly and never disturb the pit for a single second during it whole sprouting session.
- After the seed unfolding a leaf-bud keep the pit in the same condition and then, carefully transplant the sprouted leafy seed in a prearranged garden area or a proper garden container.
Mentionable here that you can even sow an avocado seed directly in the garden plot to cultivate the plant, if you want!
Also learn how to grow tomatoes from seeds and growing broccoli.
What you may be missing: Growing Avocado
How to Grow Avocado Indoor:
- To grow avocado plant all along indoor circumstance, take a terracotta planting tub first, which must have the wide face of 10-inch and at least 12-inch depth.
- Make some potting mix with compost merged sand-base soil into the pot with 2/3 part of it.
- Now take a sprouted avocado plant and plant it into the soil in 5 to 6 inches deepness.
- After that cover, the plant with compost soil, pat it slightly, and water a little over the top.
- Now your plant needs bright light for several hours, hence arrange some artificial lights or heat to warm-up the soil perfectly.
- Make sure that your plant could get enough coolness at the night, as it is necessary for blooming and having fruit in your indoor plant!
- Provide a proper support with a stake in your avocado plant if you are cultivating it in an indoor area.
- Always fertilize your plant with water-resistant food in a monthly basis to keep the plant nourished.
- Generally, the avocado plant has less possibility of fruit, when you cultivate in indoor climate, but the dwarf category has a better change in such matter to produce fruit in the indoor circumstance.
- Prune your plant, whenever you see any unwanted stems or weeds near the avocado plant.
- Keep transplanting your tree, whenever you find that the pot seems unmatched with the bushier plant.
- The most important thing is to make available adequate space for the growing avocado tree if you want it in your indoor area, as a fully matured avocado tree could reach the height of 80 feet in a garden pot!
Also read how to grow pumpkins and sweet potatoes.
5. Harvest:
- To get fruit from an avocado tree, after cultivating it from the seed, you need to wait for at least 3 to 4 years from the beginning.
- When you see some full-grown fruits are dropped from the tree, decide to take out the entire fruits from the plant, as it is the perfect time to harvest our avocado plant.
- You can recognize the harvesting time by the color of your fruit as well, because, the fruit will be seen in a greenish-brown shade when it is fully grown on the tree. Though, the color varies by the variety of the plant, as different kinds of avocados emerge in the different shade when they are totally grown up!
- Utilize a pole pruner with a mesh to pick the fruits from a fully grown avocado tree.
- Try to pick the largest one first when you are plucking the fruits off the tree.
- It will be better if you can start your harvesting process when the tree and fruits are dry, as it helps to increase the storage capacity of an avocado plant!
- After harvesting the fruits, you need to store them in a proper place to ripen them naturally, as the avocado fruits don’t ripen on the tree, and they just have to perverse artificially for a while, to prepare as a matured fruit.
How to grow avocado tree best method
6. Storage:
- Keep your newly harvested avocado fruits in a cool dry place in your house until they turn soft and ripe naturally.
- Now, you can store these totally ripen super tasty avocado fruits for a long while in both the cut and uncut forms.
- To preserve the fruit in uncut form, keep them in your refrigerator.
- If you cut down a ripe avocado then rub some acidic agent like lemon juice or vinegar over the sliced side and keep it in an airtight container
- Another way too perverse a cut avocado is that wrap tightly the halves of the avocado with clear plastic wraps and them place it in your refrigerator.
- If you want to get only the flavor of this tasty fruit, then we will recommend you to make a smooth puree from the pulp and make some freezing cubes from that puree.
You can store the flavor for more than 2 or 3 months in this way, but never forget to take out the seed and husk, before making the puree of it!
How to Ripen Avocado:
You can ripen a harvested avocado naturally in several different ways! Let’s check out some of them-
- Keep the fully grown unripe fruit in your refrigerator and it will ripen in a slow but steady way soon, within 4 to 5 days.
- Some people thought that avocado tastes great when it get ripen under the heat of direct sunlight, so keep 2 or 3 matured avocados on your windowsill for four to days ,where they could get full sunlight, and they will beautifully ripen soon!
- Take a brown paper bag or the ordinary lunch bag, place some fully grown avocado fruits inside the bag and seal the open part with a paper Now, wait for 2 or 3 days and you will get amazing soft and ripe avocado fruit in your hand soon, than ever!
- Keep the mature fruit in a bag with some all-purpose flour would be another wonderful trick to ripe the fruit naturally.
Calories and Nutrition of Avocado:
Avocado fruit not only taste amazing but at the same time, it is also enriched with various beneficial nutrition facts in its every bit! This fruit contains numerous protein contents like vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin E, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, thiamine, etc. along with some highly functional minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, zinc, fluoride, etc.
Every 100 grams of ripe avocado fruit is rich with 160 calories, along some saturated fat, dietary fiber and a little bit of sugar content.