Saturday 24 January 2015

Can my first avocado seedling survive?

The top leaves have turned brown and dropped off from the seedling. I think this first avocado seedling may not survive. I have missed the time to plant it into the soil and this have caused damages to the roots of the avocado plant. The seedling has not grown much since the last time I planted it. My wife told me to keep this plant for a while to see whether it can survive. I don't know what I can do now to help it grow except to keep it indoors together with my other two seedlings.

First avocado seedling - leaves dried up
I have removed the dried brown leaves. Now the seedling is quite bare except the tiny leaves along the stem.
 
First avocado seedling - will it survive?
Check back again in a few weeks to see whether first avocado seedling survive or not? I certainly hope it does...

Thursday 15 January 2015

Avocado leaf bends towards direction of sunlight

I was sitting on my sofa when I realized that there were no leaves on one side of my avocado plants. I was quite puzzled and upon investigation, I realized that the leaf had bent towards the windows. The leaf wanted to catch the sunlight and literally bent its stalk. Amazing it is and now I have rotated the pot to allow the leaf to bend back to normal. I think I'm going to rotate the pot every few days so that the growth of leaves will be even. I also noticed that the leaves away from the light source are small than the ones facing the light. Do not leave the plants in direct sunlight because this will kill the plants. Place them under indirect sunlight.



Saturday 10 January 2015

Third Avocado Seedling planted

The leaves were greenish brown and relatively small. The roots were quite developed and the stem was  at least 10 inches tall. I realized that it was time to plant this seedling. I planted this third seedling and the second seedling on 1 January 2015. The leaves curled a little bit after I placed the third seedling under direct sunlight for less than an hour. I think that the seedling is not strong enough to place under direct sunlight. It has to be under some shades or indirect sunlight. The second seedling is placed beside the window and it was doing fine. I put the third seedling beside the window and the leaves started to become flat and turn towards green colour. I watered the seedlings every weekend to prevent the roots from rotting.

Third avocado seedling
The stem is a bit crooked and I will probably need to rotate the pot to let the stem straighten up. I will let the seedlings set in their new environment before I prune them. It is crucial to know when you want to transfer them to pots because the first seedling had missed the time and currently it is not doing well. I will do an update on the first seedling soon. Stay tuned!

The three seedlings have different colours to the pits. The first seedling has green pit now, the second seedling has brown pit and the third seedling has beige pit.

Green pit - First seedling
Brown pit - Second seedling
Beige pit - Third seedling
I wonder whether they are from different species or the pit's colour changed over time. Maybe it will be interesting to take note of the colour of the pit a month later to see whether there is any change. The first seedling is a bit malnutrition and probably I have left it out on the balcony and the chilly winds in the night had injured the seedling. I have moved it indoors and will monitor its progress.

Tuesday 6 January 2015

Second avocado seedling planted

Finally, I planted the second avocado seedling. It was planted on 01 January 2015. I had planted a third avocado seedling on the same day. I used potting mix bought from the local supermarket store and a 2kg pack can plant two seedlings.

Potting mix that I used
The second avocado seedling has few but big leaves whereas the third avocado seedling has many small leaves. The colour of the leaves for both plants are different too. The second seedling has green leaves whereas the third seedling has greenish-brown leaves. I will post the photos of the third seedling over the weekend.
Second avocado seedling
The second seedling is doing well and the leaves have not changed colour. This is a good thing I hope and I have not watered it since 1 Jan. I intend to water it once weekly and monitor its progress.

Roots of seedling
Roots of seedling

Crown above the soil

Planted in pot - need to remove the toothpicks
After planting into the pot, you need to remove the toothpicks carefully. I rotated the toothpick a bit to turn it and then pulled it out gently. At this stage, you try not to be overwhelmed and excited because you might damage the plant. I watered the soil thoroughly until I could see water coming out from the base. I will leave the plants indoors and see their progress.