Growing avocado from seed. Luckily for me, I found this seed growing inside the fruit itself. I also had a lemon seed in the same condition. Mostly, due to our changeable climate, this phenomenon happens, but I think it is a good thing. You do not need to wait for the seed to come out of dormancy, it will grow on its own. The root seems healthy. I put it in a plastic bag with sterile water and put it in a shaded place. I use this method for large seeds such as avocado, mango, and walnuts. It works. I have an avocado seedling that grew using this method. I will show it in a picture.
I grew this avocado the same way as described, but it died when I tried to remove it from the soil and put it in the planting container, cutting off its main root.
Avocado does not grow true-to-type from seed. The odds of obtaining something as good or better than the parent are small – and that is dependent upon it being raised outdoors year-round in a temperate environment.
I use the water and vase method. It’s neat to see the roots through the clear glass or clear plastic. Once the roots reach the bottom, it’s time to plant them in soil. It does take some time using this method. Avocado may and may not grow true. If you have avocado with multiple trunk from one seed, it’s likely to be true to the parent. If it’s a singe stem, then plant it anyway and prepare to graft for best result.
Got a funky looking seedling. About a year old. Defoliated in the greenhouse last winter by December. All the new growth on it has a variegated look to it. None of my other 20 seedlings have this look so I am thinking not a virus, nor did the other 25 that froze to death. Most of them die (Wins old ruthless let ‘em freeze) and see whom lives.
Anyway, this one passed 32 degrees cold for a week last winter and still managed to wake up. Anyone see leaf color like this?
My understanding it’s polyembryonic. I currently have a seedling that has multiple trunks. I split some of them. I’m going to have to wait 10 years to observe if the one I got will be the same as the parent.
Best way to germinate avocado seeds is wrap in a moist paper towel in a ziploc bag or Tupperware.
I would suggest trying to find a more interesting seed than a Hass type from the grocery store since there have been trials of 50,000 of those and none are really better than Hass. But other types of avocado have more room for improvement and probably better odds of getting something better. For example I saw an avocado tree overhanging the freeway that was dropping fruit and it was like Bacon but bigger and richer fruit. A better Bacon or Zutano would be super useful.
These are all grown from seed and heavily neglected. I bring them in for half of the year during cold season and put them under growlights. They just went back outside and they are a little stressed from the full sun. They’ll probably drop leaves and grow back new ones.
Variegation can certainly occur. I found an albino avocado seedling in a corner of my yard. It likely will not survive for long but certainly a curiosity
Nah…just for fun although I’m reaching the point where I’m growing tired of dealing with them. That large tree has probably circled the bottom of the pot a couple hundred times by now. I almost want to plant them in ground, let them have a fun summer, and then let winter take them out.
I grow out avocado seeds by placing in a ziplock baggie with a damp paper towel until they split open to produce a tap root and then transfer into soil in a gallon pot. 100% takes. Also, if you want to get interesting, once the avocado pit spits open, you can actually cut it down into smaller pieces and as long as it has a piece of the center embryo still attached.
I found this out personally by accidentally breaking a pit in half and planted it as a joke, just to find both halves growing vigorously. I’ve heard of some people even quartering them or more with great success (mentioned by 2bgrafted)
I used to do that too and it worked, but as I understand it, moving them from water to soil can cause a pretty nasty transplant shock so I changed methods. Toothpicks and water is definitely quicker for getting one started, but idk how it compares after you need to put it in soil.
Not Richard here, but I can say it generally takes a while. Well, I’ve heard there can actually be pretty big spread. Joe Real’s “Joe’s Black Duke #1” apparently fruited in its 4th year from seed, but that is supposed to be fairly out of character for avocados. I think often it takes around 7-13 years. Then again, we had a fuerte seedling that never fruited in it’s ~18 years of life where it got quite tall, overshadowing our barn before a nasty cold spell killed it. I know of another avocado in my area that’s quite large, somewhere over 20 years old, but has apparently never even bloomed. Grafting the seedling varieties onto a more mature rootstock should help, but I haven’t tried this personally.
Obviously, grafting mature wood onto a seedling can produce quickly. I planted a small Gem back in july of 2024 at my mom’s that look like it’ll make a crop this year.
