baby avocado plant
September 24, 2010 9:42 AM
How do I keep a baby avocado plant alive?
I have a baby avocado plant. I just got it today. Some of the leaves feel kind of crinkly with a bit of yellowing, and some are just green and feel a bit dry at the very tips. The stem grows straight for the first 5 inches and then starts to lean over for the remaining foot. It is in a plastic pot.
I have it in an indoor studio. I don't sit by the window but the windows are very big and a lot of light gets in. The weather here right now is pretty humid and hot--I live on the east coast.
What do I need to do to ensure that it lives? And the leaves look like they need some help....but I'm not sure if it means it was over-watered or needs more water...or sun...
(I'll probably post a picture soon)
I have a baby avocado plant. I just got it today. Some of the leaves feel kind of crinkly with a bit of yellowing, and some are just green and feel a bit dry at the very tips. The stem grows straight for the first 5 inches and then starts to lean over for the remaining foot. It is in a plastic pot.
I have it in an indoor studio. I don't sit by the window but the windows are very big and a lot of light gets in. The weather here right now is pretty humid and hot--I live on the east coast.
What do I need to do to ensure that it lives? And the leaves look like they need some help....but I'm not sure if it means it was over-watered or needs more water...or sun...
(I'll probably post a picture soon)
Keeping it warm seems to work wonders. I have a small Avocado plant here in Portland, OR. As long as i keep it in a warm, well lit place in the winter, and then throw it outside in the summer, it seems to do very well. Even in the winter it does fine as long as it's warm-ish
The leaves on avocado plants (from what i've been told) will often brown and spot, and this isn't uncommon. I haven't been able to determine if there's a correlation between the spotting and over/under watering.
posted by furnace.heart at 10:56 AM on September 24, 2010
The leaves on avocado plants (from what i've been told) will often brown and spot, and this isn't uncommon. I haven't been able to determine if there's a correlation between the spotting and over/under watering.
posted by furnace.heart at 10:56 AM on September 24, 2010
First up and straight away, put it in a much bigger pot and water the hell out of it! Other things will depend very much on where exactly you are and what variety it is. Have a look at Wikipedia on Avocados. It's a really good resource and great example of what Wikipedia should be.
posted by Ahab at 10:58 AM on September 24, 2010
posted by Ahab at 10:58 AM on September 24, 2010
Sorry, I could have been clearer there. Yellowing and light green leaves makes it sound like it's recently suffered from a lack of water. So a good watering is appropriate. And avocados send roots out as far as they can. So if you have to keep one in a pot, it's best to go for the biggest pot possible. :)
posted by Ahab at 11:21 AM on September 24, 2010
posted by Ahab at 11:21 AM on September 24, 2010
Back again to say sorry some more.
I realized after my last post that another common cause of yellowing in avocado leaves is iron deficiency. If that's the case, it's most likely to show up in a young plant as yellowing between the leaf veins, while the veins themselves remain significantly greener. More information (but sadly, no good photos) here. Apart from a direct lack of iron in the soil, the biggest indirect cause of iron deficiency is that soil pH is too high (ie alkaline). This might also be exacerbated by hot dry conditions.
The easiest method of treatment would be to re-pot the plant in a slightly acidic soil, and give that soil an application of chelated iron just after re-potting.
But... I also realized that if you're somewhere that gets cold and dark over winter, you probably don't want to be repotting until spring. That's the case even if you can keep the plant indoors and in as sunny a spot as possible.
If that's the case, and you think you're looking at iron deficiency rather than just drying out of the leaves due to a lack of watering, you might want to go for a quick fix of applying a foliar feed of chelated iron to the leaves of your plant (keep it very dilute). Then for a longer term solution, a) test soil pH in the pot you've got, b) adjust that soil pH down to about 6.0 to 6.5 with agricultural sulfur, c) apply chelated iron to the soil, and then d) put it in a big pot full of healthy acid iron rich soil come spring.
There's also a good sidebar link to growing avocados in pots on the page I linked to above.
posted by Ahab at 12:34 PM on September 24, 2010
I realized after my last post that another common cause of yellowing in avocado leaves is iron deficiency. If that's the case, it's most likely to show up in a young plant as yellowing between the leaf veins, while the veins themselves remain significantly greener. More information (but sadly, no good photos) here. Apart from a direct lack of iron in the soil, the biggest indirect cause of iron deficiency is that soil pH is too high (ie alkaline). This might also be exacerbated by hot dry conditions.
The easiest method of treatment would be to re-pot the plant in a slightly acidic soil, and give that soil an application of chelated iron just after re-potting.
But... I also realized that if you're somewhere that gets cold and dark over winter, you probably don't want to be repotting until spring. That's the case even if you can keep the plant indoors and in as sunny a spot as possible.
If that's the case, and you think you're looking at iron deficiency rather than just drying out of the leaves due to a lack of watering, you might want to go for a quick fix of applying a foliar feed of chelated iron to the leaves of your plant (keep it very dilute). Then for a longer term solution, a) test soil pH in the pot you've got, b) adjust that soil pH down to about 6.0 to 6.5 with agricultural sulfur, c) apply chelated iron to the soil, and then d) put it in a big pot full of healthy acid iron rich soil come spring.
There's also a good sidebar link to growing avocados in pots on the page I linked to above.
posted by Ahab at 12:34 PM on September 24, 2010
furnace.heart, do you get good-tasting avocados from your tree? What variety do you have? I'd love to grow my own avocados but preliminary reading suggests that creating optimal fruiting conditions might require more effort than I can put in.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 4:21 PM on September 24, 2010
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 4:21 PM on September 24, 2010
Your avocado needs:
full sun (8 hours a day)
good drainage (there must be a hole in the pot to drain into a saucer)
You don't need to repot it unless the pot is too small, or the soil has sunk, or is crappy.
Other than that, it is hard to say, especially without a photo. Baby avocados are normally bright green, as new growth on avocados is lighter than last season's (I have a baby and two thirty-year old avocado's in the backyard. The baby is generally lighter than the big trees). The leaf tips could be brown from fertilizer burn. This will happen without drainage when fertilizer builds up, or with over dosing.
Fertilizer is not necessary for the first year of an avocado's life. It's usually not necessary at all when not fruiting if your soil is good- many commercial avocado growers do not fertilize their crop. If you pot in good, (not-Miracle-Gro crap) organic soil you might fertilize lightly in spring with a fertilizer that has a good dose of nitrogen, manganese, and zinc. Iron deficiency is actually uncommon in avocados. It shows up on the newest leaves as interveinal chlorosis with distinct green veins. Zinc deficiency manifests as a mottled green and yellow, with green veins. Pale yellow leaves on an avocado are most likely due to overwatering, secondly to nitrogen deficiency (which is exacerbated by overwatering). Only fertilize if your pot has drainage, and only at 1/4 to 1/3 the recommended amount on the label. I like Fox Farm's liquid fertilizer. If you overfertilize, you'll just make the tree produce weak growth that is prone to disease. When watering, let the top inch or two of soil dry out in between.
If it's bent over, it probably was not getting enough sun in its last home.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:44 PM on September 24, 2010
full sun (8 hours a day)
good drainage (there must be a hole in the pot to drain into a saucer)
You don't need to repot it unless the pot is too small, or the soil has sunk, or is crappy.
Other than that, it is hard to say, especially without a photo. Baby avocados are normally bright green, as new growth on avocados is lighter than last season's (I have a baby and two thirty-year old avocado's in the backyard. The baby is generally lighter than the big trees). The leaf tips could be brown from fertilizer burn. This will happen without drainage when fertilizer builds up, or with over dosing.
Fertilizer is not necessary for the first year of an avocado's life. It's usually not necessary at all when not fruiting if your soil is good- many commercial avocado growers do not fertilize their crop. If you pot in good, (not-Miracle-Gro crap) organic soil you might fertilize lightly in spring with a fertilizer that has a good dose of nitrogen, manganese, and zinc. Iron deficiency is actually uncommon in avocados. It shows up on the newest leaves as interveinal chlorosis with distinct green veins. Zinc deficiency manifests as a mottled green and yellow, with green veins. Pale yellow leaves on an avocado are most likely due to overwatering, secondly to nitrogen deficiency (which is exacerbated by overwatering). Only fertilize if your pot has drainage, and only at 1/4 to 1/3 the recommended amount on the label. I like Fox Farm's liquid fertilizer. If you overfertilize, you'll just make the tree produce weak growth that is prone to disease. When watering, let the top inch or two of soil dry out in between.
If it's bent over, it probably was not getting enough sun in its last home.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:44 PM on September 24, 2010
Jeeze, ignore that hideous grocer's apostrophe up there. Ugh.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:45 PM on September 24, 2010
posted by oneirodynia at 4:45 PM on September 24, 2010
I had an avocado plant grown from seed that lived at least a year (until someone threw it out) by just having the seed set in the opening of a full water bottle, which was refilled repeatedly. Despite not getting much sun, it showed very few signs of being unhappy with its life.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 5:55 PM on September 24, 2010
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 5:55 PM on September 24, 2010
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posted by ShootTheMoon at 9:44 AM on September 24, 2010