Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Avocados from Mexico

Find a piece of nature that you can hold in your hand (leaf, twig, rock, berry, etc). Describe it as closely and carefully as you can. Use any means available to you to examine the object (magnifying glass, scale, all of your senses) and practice your descriptive writing skills. My favorite entry today will receive a Nature MB. *Leafo*

Did you know that avocados are a fruit not a vegetable? Possibly originated in Mexico, a member of the family Lauraceae,(Persea americana)

I grew an avocado tree from a seed in the winter of 2018. Using an unrefrigerated pit from a fruit, stab in 2 or 3 toothpicks one third of the way up from the flat end. Place it in a small glass or jar in luke warm water. It should sprout in 3 to 6 weeks. I planted mine in a plant pot that has multi vines and other plants growing in it. However, the kitchen is cold. and, the plant pot was not getting enough water so it eventually lost the struggle against a lack of water and not enough space for its root system.

This summer I started another tree from a seed. The seed is from an avocado I bought at Walmart in the grocery store section. The label pasted on the fruit said it was from Mexico.

Avocado trees are shallow rooted trees. They put out the root system in the top 6 inches of soil. The tree can live for more than 50 years. The fruit will not be produced by the tree until the tree is 3 to 5 years old.
Hass avocado orchards depend on bees for pollination. The fruit is the large green fruit you see in food markets. The fruit grows from the blossoms of the tree. A well tended tree can grow 15 to 30 feet tall. In the proper climate it can blossom twice in a year. There can be 150 to 500 blossoms on a tree depending on its health and age.

My second attempt at growing an avocado tree is planted in a pot that is presently one foot deep and two feet wide. It is filled with a plant growing product from Walmart.

The trunk is now 45 inches tall. It is about a quarter of an inch thick and a beautiful bright green color. The leaves start out small and grow very large. The leaves on mine are 14 inches long from the base of the stem which is emerged from the trunk. Each leaf has veins running out from the central stem about 1 inch apart. the veins run from the base of the leaf to the tip. The shape of the leaf is similar in shape to a gondola. The leaf flares out from the base of the leaf to about 5 inches than gradually shape back to a point at the end of the leaf, They are a vibrant green color. The texture is like a thin soft leather. I am keeping the tree in an East window because it gets what ever early sun happens out in the winter. My tree takes a great deal of water. And, it is suffering from lack of sun and heat. We have only had about 3 days with real sun in the last month.

As the trunk of these trees grows up new leaves sprout from the top. As, the tree grows bigger the leaves get larger, they stay on the trunk and grow bigger and grow out into limbs with more leaves. I grew mine before I knew there were You-tubes about the way to do this so I put this here because it has some valuable hints I did not use.

I found out online that it has become a fun thing for many people to try, growing fruit trees of all types, avocado, mango, lemon, and others. I would never be able to set this tree out because it could not survive the weather in zone 5.

Happy trails I hope the snow clipper expected today and tomorrow misses everyone.