Hydroponic Avocado

Showing off some growth and crazy roots here.

Brief, to the point update. Foliage! 

I’ve renamed Avo1 to “Trailblazer” since it’s the first plant tracked by this blog. Today, after being out of work since Friday (today is Thursday), I’m seeing new vegetative growth on this guy. Although I would have liked to have captured some images of few days prior, these are wonderful progress shots.

Subsequent posts are pretty much going to be simple progress updates from this point on. They may be a bit more detailed when I swap containers, but for the most part “business as usual” will consist of update photos, topping off nutrient solution, or increasing the strength of the nutrients. Happy to answer any questions though!

As you can see in this last photo, we are having some green growth on the inside! Pretty exciting.

The last and original post was essentially a combined few months which skipped the boring process of waiting for the seed to sprout. In this brief update, I will show you a 7 day difference of the original seed, now in a diluted (1/4 or so strength) General Hydroponics FloraNova Grow solution.

As you can see, we have a longer tail and some additional roots starting to form! 

The first steps I usually take are not shown here. However, I always peel off the reddish skin from a fresh avocado seed before dropping them in their little boat. Sometimes this takes a while to do. Often times I’ll let it dry first, then squeeze it until it cracks the outer skin. Once you have a few cracks you can usually peel it off pretty easily. Worth noting: you don’t HAVE to do this, but I find it helps prevent any residual flesh from the fruit from contaminating your water.

Here we have the first two seeds floating in their little AvoSeedo boats. I use Rubbermaid storage containers for their germination home, but there are AvoSeedo kits you can buy; but really, anything would work. At this point they have probably been sitting in them for about 3 weeks. As you can see, there is a little tail forming below the nearest seed which means it’s ready to get a new home.

Once I have a tail that is long enough, I’ll mix a pretty weak hydroponic solution and put it in a Gatorade or similar bottle. Any size works, but with the larger avocado seeds the opening of the 16/32oz bottles is perfect; it supports the seed without needing an additional grow basket to hold it.

So far with the few grows I’ve done previously, I used General Hydroponics Flora Series nutrients. This batch I am on now I have been using General Hydroponics Nova Series. I tend to prefer the Nova since it’s a single-part system, no need to mix 3 different solutions into one which I find to be a headache.

Once your solution is mixed, I’d definitely recommend covering your container with something to block out the light. Here I’ve used aluminum foil. You can paint it, put it in a bag, etc. Anything to keep light out which in turns helps prevent algae growth. I’ve also heard of people adding a few drops of hydrogen peroxide into their water or nutrient solution for that purpose.

I also a piece of paper towel around the opening to give a little bit more light blockage. This may be unnecessary but if it helps a little to prevent algae, I’m all for it.

 Stay tuned…