AVOCADOS - FROM THE GROUND UP
It’s summertime, and avocados are delicious and plentiful. While you enjoy eating them, remember that the most vigorous avocado trees are those started from a seed planted directly in the ground. This is because avocados are particularly averse to becoming potbound. Once the root system has become balled up in a pot, the tree will always be a stunted weakling. After germination, the tree quickly develops a large root system, and it’s difficult to grow them in a pot to a size large enough to graft before they become potbound. If you do grow them in pots, they should be moved to larger sizes rapidly, and put in the ground before they get too big, even before they are grafted. But the best and easiest way is to just plant the seed in the ground. Store-bought avocados may have been kept too cold for too long and may not germinate reliably, but the planting is no effort at all, and you can start to give TLC if and when they germinate. It is absolutely necessary to select a site that is well-drained. Twenty-four hours in standing water will kill a mature avocado. I prefer a location near the top of a slope, even a slight slope will do, so long as water runs off immediately. Full sun is preferred, but half sun or more will work. A shovel-full or two of manure (Bruce and Donna Thompson have all you want for free) will hold moisture, suppress weeds, and nourish the seedling. If it doesn’t germinate, you haven’t spent much time on it. You might plant more than one seed in the same spot and select the strongest if more than one germinates.
After the seed comes up, let it grow to about two feet tall before grafting. Avocados are relatively easy to graft. If you don’t know how, many of our members do, and will help. Avocado grafting can be done anytime, but is most likely to succeed in the cooler months. I can supply budwood for a number of good varieties. Most cold-tolerant are Brogden and Day. Tolerant, but somewhat less so, are Marcus and Choquette. There are countless other varieties with varying resistance to cold, ranging in size from tiny to huge. The very largest, (Simmonds, Pollock), unfortunately, are also the least cold-tolerant, but there is a good selection of delicious avocados that are well-suited to our climate here in Manatee County.
So don’t throw that avocado seed away. Take a minute to put it in the ground, and look forward to a future bounty..
By Peter Ray
