Avocado Plant

Avocados are yummy and healthy. But growing avocados commercially usually needs a lot of water, per one kg avocado around 1000 ltr. of water. So much water can have a huge impact on the land and fields and farms. So is there a way to eat avocados with a good conscience? Yes! Just grow them yourself. However, growing them yourself, you have to do an air layering method, to get a quick result. It works if you have already a big avocado plant or maybe your neighbour has it :P lol. In Indonesian we often shared plants as well. 

Anyway, I will explain the air layering method later in my blog. 

Some Experiences in Indonesia 
Avocado is one of my favorite fruits. When I was in Indonesia, I loved buying avocado juice. I had a favorite fruit juice seller who made a tasty iced avocado drink. Unfortunately, when I was back home, he didn't sell it anymore. 

However, in Germany, they don't eat avocado in that way. They eat it with bread or toast with  some salt and pepper. The first time I heard about it, it sounded weird, but right now I also like to eat it like that. Another story about avocados was   when I was in a mountainous area in my city, I saw a big avocado tree which I said to myself, "wow, that's great." Then I tried to observe it closely but to my horror! I saw a lot of caterpillars munching on the leaves. That shocked me >. < What a nightmare! I never thought about this situation before. 

So, I promise this is the last story about my experience in Indonesia dealing with those pests. When I was at home, I always had to deal with caterpillars while cleaning my parent's garden. Sometimes, I also saw caterpillars crawling on the leaves. We didn't use any chemicals to kill  the caterpillars. I tried to keep them away from my plants because they ate some leaves. Some of them were even bigger than my finger. There are some caterpillars as well if they come in contact with your skin, you would be in stabbing pain and itchy. I had many bad experiences with caterpillars :/

I am so happy that in Germany, caterpillars are rarely seen. At least, I just saw them once during my  12 years living in Germany. When I told my German family and friends about caterpillars, their reaction was like: "Why are you afraid, they are very sweet though!" But when I told them that I have some spiders that crawl  on the trees in my garden and I take care of them as well. They got scared ^^ I love plants very much, but I am afraid of caterpillars. It's not understandable. 

The Quick Method in Growing Avocados 

I grew them just within 6 months, they are different ages

Last summer, I tried to grow an avocado with the toothpick method. It took about two months till the  avocado seed cracked. It made me impatient. Fortunately, I found a very simple method. To do this method, what you need is a wet tissue, a cling film, a rubber band, and a bowl. Next, wrap the avocado seed in the wet tissue, then put it in a bowl, cover the bowl over with cling film, and tie it with a rubber band.

From what I’ve  experienced, after one week the seed will crack, and after about two weeks you can see that the root is already emerging . I use this method for my mango seed as well. The mango seed will usually crack within a  week. I keep using this method until I have many avocado plants.

I think I have about eight avocado plants right now, and there are still some seeds that are not cracked yet.

seed already cracked

If your avocado seed already has a root, you can put it in  a bottle with water. The root should be in the water. If you don't have a bottle, you can also use a glass with toothpicks to keep the seed from going underwater. In this case it's okay that you use toothpicks because your seed is already cracked. To do this you will need a glass and two toothpicks. Pick your avocado seed with a toothpick in the middle on both sides of the seed (left and right). Please, don't pick in too deep.   I placed my cracked seed in a glass as well with toothpicks, if I don't have enough bottles, as you can see in the first picture. Before you do this method, please peel the skin of the seed first. This makes the seed crack faster.

Avocado Plant Care

the fitting bottle for the seed

Avocado plants need a lot of moisture. The air in winter is very dry because of heater. It's very difficult in the winter for them, but luckily, all my avocado plants survived. You should not place your avocado plant on  a window in the south because there is a lot of direct sunlight all day long. A young avocado plant can get sunburnt quickly . 

I thought sunburn could never happen to a plant but it's happened . The leaves started to become  brown color, then they get dry, and fall to the ground. It happened to one of my avocado plants. I was very sad. Luckily, not all the leaves have fallen. The reason was  that I put them three days on the window in the south. The best place is the window in the west so far. Maybe it could work when placed on the window in the north or east, I never tried it though. 

If the leaves just got dry, even without placing them on  the window in the south. There are other reasons for example, it could be overwatered, or too much fertilizer. The young avocado plants don't need fertilizer. They still can get nutrients from their seed. If they are between five or six months old, it's recommended that you  fertilize. In the spring you can give them some fertilizer two to three times a month. 

Let's talk about the substrate again! I have planted my avocado on different substrates. For the very first plant I mixed the substrates with sand and soil. For the rest of avocado plants, I made mixed substrates from coconut coir, perlite, quartz graveland plant granulate. 

air layering on my lemon tree

Usually, I pot them when they already have big leaves and their height is around 25cm.  If you are growing an avocado from a seed, it will take years until you get the fruit. I plant my avocado because I want to create a tropical vibe. But there is a faster method. The air layering method as I mentioned before. To do this method, first, you choose a tree trunk of a big avocado plant, wound it until about 4cm, and to retain the moisture, cover the wound with sphagnum moss or a cloth, in the end, you cover it again with plastic or cling film to lock in the moisture. I try this method for my lemon tree. I will keep an update if it's succesfull :)

I hope these  tips can help you to grow your avocado plants. See you in the next article. I am looking forward to writing again. I will try to post my article every week, sunday or saturday :)
If you would like to see some updates on  my avocado plants, I also published them in my videos on Instagram (ritasjungle). 

Stay healthy!

Xoxo, Rita

Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links to products on amazon Germany. If you use the links to navigate to amazon and buy something (even if it is not the item the link leads to) I will receive a percentage of the purchasing cost. It doesn't cost you any extra but really helps me. So, feel free to use these links for any purchases you might want to make. Thank you guys!

Here is a list of the items that I have linked to in this article:
nature plant pot 
bottles for the avocado seeds 

PS: my mango is growing very fast :)

right: mango, two days ago

today