Avocado plant in water

I have three avocado plants growing in water. I wanted to try growing them in water instead of soil. I have seen someone in the internet who grows his avocado plant in water and is growing well. He has concocted the nutrient recipe for the avocado and added to the water. He didn't reveal the formula and I think maybe can dilute the fertilizer to a ratio that is gentle on the plant. When I planted the seedlings in soil, I have to prune them to stop them from growing too tall. When I grow them in water, I'm thinking whether I need to prune them because I'm not sure whether this will hurt the plants.

Growing avocado in water

I have used a bigger bottle for the root to grow longer. My initial intention is to prevent the root from splitting open. However, this does not help and the root still split open. Two small roots have grown downwards. Overall, the seedling looks healthy and I will probably wait from a few more days before I start to prune the seedling. It has about seven leaves and it should be right for pruning now. 

Avocado roots

Avocado roots

Third Avocado Plant - Third Pruning on 14 May 2015

My third avocado plant is now sitting in my study room near the window. It has catch the western sunlight every day but not strong light. The leaves have all moved to the direction of the light and you need to periodically rotate the pot to let the leaves expose to equal amount of light.

I have let the avocado plant to grow at least 5 leaves before I prune away the rest. Today, I notice that the new branch has grown 5 leaves. It is time to prune the third avocado again. This will be its third time.

Third avocado with new branch

I have used a cutter to prune away the new leaves.

Using a cutter to prune the branch

Third pruned area

A small branch can be seen at the 2nd pruned area but from the lower leaflet.

A small branch from the 2nd pruned area

African Avocado

I saw the local supermarket selling these little small avocados from Africa. I had planted avocados from New Zealand but not from Africa. These avocados are smaller than the New Zealand or Australia. I left them for one day and the inside was already blackened. I think the avocados were damaged during transportation. They were selling at $3.95 for 3 avocados. The ones from Australia Avanza were bigger and at the same price. I took one from Australia and two from Africa. The idea is to grow a variety of avocados from different regions. Currently, I have 4 avocado plants from Avanza New Zealand and one Sunfresh Australia still in the water. The two African avocado pits are in the water now and next will be the Avanza Australia pit.

So, now, assuming all pits can grow into seedlings, I will have 8 avocado plants.

African Avocado Pit

After the toothpicks are inserted into the pit (but not too deep, I say, maybe 2 to 3mm into the pit), you need to make sure that the small bump area at the bottom is in the water and not the other way round. The top part should be round and without any bump. You can see a parting line around the pit dividing the avocado pit into half. When inserting the toothpicks, try to avoid this line. After two weeks or so, the pit will split along this line and root will emerge at the bump area in the water. When the root is about 1 inch long, a shoot may grow from the top. Change the water every 3 days or so. Sometimes, I change the water after one week. Place it near a place where it can get some indirect sunlight. 

Avocado pit in water

New avocado branch bending towards the light

New bud emerged and soon grew into a new branch. This is on my third avocado plant and from the second pruning. The shoot is red in colour and bends towards the window. I rotate the pot to face the shoot at the opposite direction. The shoot will straighten up and continue to grow upwards.

Branch bent towards light

I will let the new branch to have four leaves before I do the third pruning. The browning on the leaves seemed to be in control. I think it is due to insufficient watering that caused the browning. Another reason may be due to the water that I used. I didn't let the chlorine to escape from the tap water before watering. Now I will fill one 1.5L of tap water and rest it overnight before watering the avocado plants. Also, you need to make sure that water drains from the bottom of the pot when watering. Do at least one draining of the water per month. This will keep the browning of the leaves at bay. Another thing that I observed is that the second and third avocado plants have leaves that are drooping instead of leaves spreading out horizontally.

Pruning my fourth avocado plant

The last time I pruned my 4th avocado plant is 14 March 2015. It has a new branch growing from the cut area. It is not branching out horizontally but instead it grows upwards. It has grown 6 leaves already and I think it is time for its 2nd pruning.

4th Avocado Plant

I'm not sure what will happen after I nip off the top two leaves and leave the remaining 4 leaves on the branch. I hope there will be new buds growing out from the other areas. I'm thinking of achieving a bonsai effect with regular pruning. I'm not sure how this will affect its growth and maybe its ability to bear fruits after 7 years. I have the patience to wait that long just to prove whether my avocado plants will bear fruits.

Thick branch from cut area

A thick branch growing from the cut area. It is thicker than the main stem. I hope the main stem can support the new branches' weights.

Pruned on 7 Apr 2015 - 2nd pruning

Pruned the top leaves, leaving 4 leaves on the branch. This is the second pruning for this 4th avocado plant. This plant does not have any browning of leaves and I think the browning of leaves is caused by either lack of water or accumulation of salts. Draining of the soil will be done once a month to remove excessive salts and watering is done every two to three days.

My Sixth Avocado

I was at the Bukit Timah Market and Food Centre for my brunch on 28 Mar 2015. I passed by a stall selling fruit juice and I noticed that it had avocado juice. I ordered one cup and asked the stallholder to give me the avocado seed. He told me that it is impossible to grow avocado in Singapore but I told him that it is possible as I have done it already. He reluctantly gave me the seed in a plastic bag. The avocado is from Sunfresh Australia. The colour of the skin is lighter and brighter green as compared to Avenza New Zealand. The seed was quite big and I removed the outer skin of the avocado and put 3 toothpicks into the pit. The seed was a bit old but I think it should be ok.

Sixth Avocado Seed

The base of the seed that is in the water started to crack open and I noticed that the root is going to break through the crack. It is now one week already and I think in another week, new shoot will appear.

Sixth Avocado seed

You can see that the pit is splitting in the above and below photos. At this stage you have to be careful not to drop it because the pit will split open. In the below photo, you can see a new root emerging.

Pit split open

Root growing out of the pit on 8 Apr

New root appears today. I change the water. In the next few days, the root will grow longer and new shoot will appear on top of the pit.

The pit split open and a new shoot appeared. It is almost 3 weeks since it was in the water. The root has grown longer. At this stage, you have to be very careful not to drop the pit or damage it. The pit is very fragile and you don't want to cause the pit to separate into two. The pit will die if it breaks into two halves.

New buds appeared on third avocado plant after second pruning

Two weeks after I pruned my third avocado plant, new buds appeared on the branches. This was the second time that I had pruned this plant.

New buds appearing

I have placed this near my window where it catches the late afternoon sun indirectly. I noticed some leaves have bent inwards. The browning of the leaf tip has stopped. It didn't become worsed because I had performed water draining every month. This helps to remove the salt accumulation.

The plant on the third week of pruning.

Growing bigger each day

New growths have emerged. Hopefully these can develop into new branches and make the plant short and bushy.

Time to prune my third avocado plant

I had pruned the 3rd avocado plant two months ago. The pruned area has grown 5 leaves and now new leaves are emerging. I think I will prune away the top leaves and monitor its progress.

New leaves appearing - time for pruning

Prune it today, 13 Mar 2015

I had also pruned my fourth avocado plant on 14 Mar. I had also done draining to the plants. I kept a bottle of overnight tap water to remove the chlorine and watered the plants until water drained out from the bottom. This will help to dissolve the salts in the soil.

Planting avocado seedling - My 4th and 5th avocado plants

Following my posts in this blog and SG My Garden Is Good blog, you can tell when the avocado seedlings need to be planted into the soil. But I have seen in the internet that people use just water and the plants grow quite well.

The first avocado seedling that I have planted last year did not make it because I have missed the time to plant it. But wait, maybe it is because I have planted it in the soil that makes it worse and it becomes very small. Or maybe I have planted it into a recycle bottle instead of a proper pot. There are many reasons why the first avocado seedling did not survive. So, lessons learnt. Now I plant my seedlings into proper pots and plant them when they have at least 5 leaves and ready for pruning. However, I don't prune them until they are planted into the soil for a couple of weeks or so.

It is Chinese New Year now and noticed that the second day of Chinese New Year is a good day to plant my 4th and 5th avocado plants. I do not want to wait further because the seedlings may miss the time for planting (that was what I thought).

When I planted my 4th and 5th seedlings, I realized that the 2nd and 3rd seedlings have leaves that turned brown at the tip. I was shocked and quickly googled and found the reason for this. Well, again it could be due to few reasons. The browning of the leaf tip may be due to salt accumulation and under watering. I noticed that for a few times, I had used water directly from the tap without letting the water staged overnight. Could it be due to the Chlorine in the water? I'm not sure and now, I let the water staged overnight or at least for a few hours before I water the plant.

Leaf tip turning brown

Yesterday, I poured 1.5litres of water into the pots for 2nd and 3rd seedlings. I let the water ran out of the pots and waited till no drop came out from the bottom of the pots. I was trying to flush out the salts accumulated in the soil and hopefully this would remove them. I will monitor for a few weeks to see whether this will improve the leaves browning situation. I will water the plant every two days and to make sure that excess water drips out from the bottom and not to let any water stays in the bottom tray.

After two weeks, I will update whether this method works. Stay tuned!

Pruning avocado seedling to keep it dwarf

I planted the avocado seedling on 1 January 2015. After 10 days, I think it is time to prune the seedling. The third avocado seedling had seven leaves and I thought I would leave only 3 leaves after pruning. However, I did not want to over-prune it so I just cut away the top 2 leaves.

Third seedling

I used a sharp penknife and cut at an angle to remove the top two leaves. In the internet, some people recommended not to use a pair of scissors because the cut would not be clean. Most recommended a razor blade or sharp knife. The cut area will be able to heal faster and less likely to get an infection.

Sharp penknife to cut the stem at an angle

The cut area is clean and there is no juice or sap coming out from the cut area. I did not clean the area. I hope this is the correct way and will monitor the health of the seedling for the next few weeks. If everything goes well, new buds will appear at the base of the leaves and new branches will grow from there. Some people recommended to remove the small leaves along the straight stem. I'm not sure about this so I just keep them.

The cut area of the seedling

I will update this in SG My Garden Is Good blog. Come and visit the blog to see the progress of the seedling. I will also show the pruning photos of the second avocado seedling.

Growing avocado in Singapore - Transfer to pot

Growing avocado in Singapore! It may take a long time before it can bear any fruit or not at all. However, there is nothing to do except some time wasted but at least I try…

I cannot remember when I started to put the avocado in the water. I guessed it was in August 2014, about the same time when I started to sow the strawberry seeds. Well, after 3 months or so, I think the avocado seedling is ready to be planted into a pot. I used up the pot for my pineapple, so I guess I will use recycle plastic bottle for this until I can find a better pot.

Avocado seedling in water

I have about 5 leaves on the avocado seedling but two leaves started to turn brown and I trimmed them away. I think since the leaves started turn brown, I better plant it into soil medium instead of water.

Roots of the avocado seedling in water

Roots of avocado seedling out of water

I used a plastic bottle and cut it into halves. Made a few holes in the cap and re-cap it. Turned the top half upside down and placed it onto the bottom half. That way, the excess water can be drained into the bottom half.

I kept the toothpicks to secure the seedling into place (centre) and then poured the soil into the container.

Toothpicks can be used to secure the seedling

After putting the soil into the container, I removed the toothpicks carefully. At this stage, the seedling is very delicate and can be harmed by excessive forces. Tried to twist the toothpick and held onto the seed and pull out the toothpick carefully. Do not cover the crown of the avocado seedling. Kept half of it above the soil level.

Half of the crown is exposed. Do not cover the seed.

Avocado seedling planted on 30 Nov 2014!

So today, 24 November 2014, an avocado seedling has been planted. I will update the growth next time… 6 years to go before it can bear fruit… meanwhile I will need to prune the seedling so that it will not grown into a tall tree...

Growing Avocado from Seed in Singapore

A couple of months back, I picked up some avocados in the supermarket. The avocados were green in colour and I cut open one of them. The fresh was pretty hard and the colour was not what I had seen on the internet or those advertisements that showed the avocado when it was cut in halves.

I was disappointed. Then I thought, it must be something that I had done wrong because the supermarket couldn't be selling bad avocados. I took out my iPad Air and google for information on avocado. Bingo! The avocado is not ripened yet. Avocado will not ripen on the tree. It will start to ripen when they have been cut and remove from the tree. One way to ripen it will be to put them into paper bag for a couple of days and they should ripen. Some suggested to place a ripe fruit (such as an apple or banana) together with the avocados. This will help to speed up the ripening process if you need to eat them in a couple of days.

Have you ever wondered whether you can grow an avocado tree in Singapore? I have seen avocado trees in Australia and New Zealand but I have never seen one in Singapore. It is due to the climate or there is something that has been modified that the seeds from those avocados we bought in the supermarket will not germinate. Some said that even if it germinates and grows into a tree, it may not bear fruits. Avocado tree will probably take 5 to 7 years to grow into a big tree and then maybe bear fruits. I was wondering whether we need two trees to have flowers for cross pollination or maybe one tree will have both the male and female flowers. Well, that will need to dig into the details from the internet. Also, the tree will be probably 6ft tall and will need to plant outdoors. However, as land is scarce in Singapore, most people will need to keep the plant indoors or along the corridors. So, how to grow the tree indoors? In the next few posts, I will update you on this… So in the meantime, feel free to comment on this...

How to prepare the seed for growing in water