Avocados

Another fruit tree you won't normally see in someone's back yard, or in my case front yard, is the Avocado tree.

Apparently Avocados are one of the most nutritious foods on the planet, so I thought what the heck, sounds like something worth growing. But did you know how easy it is to sprout an Avocado from a store bought fruit?

There are ample videos on the net that describe the process, but it's as simple as poking some toothpicks into the cleaned Avocado pit and then letting approximately 1/3 sit in water until the pit cracks and a root pokes through.

Here's a pic of one that I put together today:

There's actually very good grow instructions on the Australian Avocado website that also recommends to cut the plant back while it's young to encourage new shoots, so it's something that I'll definitely be trying.

One thing that I read up about is that while Avocados can self pollinate, they do a lot better if you have more than one plant from the two different pollination groups, which are known as the "A" and "B" group.

So knowing that I had a Hass Avocado pit to grow and this was in the "A" group, I set about finding something in the "B" group. I've been popping into my local Bunnings for about the last 2 months and always head to the nursery looking for an Avocado plant but to always leave bitterly disappointed, so I decided to check out my local Aumanns store and low and behold, they had a Bacon Avocado. Not only is this a plant from the "B" group, it's also known as the most cold tolerant Avocado and can stand temperatures down to -5C!

And here's a pic of the recently purchased Bacon Avocado.

Doesn't look real good at the moment, but you can't expect a garden nursery to treat your plants with the same love and respect that I will :)