Avacado tree help

Adler

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I have recently started growing a couple avacado trees and I was wondering if anyone has tried to bonsai them before and if so can you give out any advice? Thanks for any help. If needed I can post a picture of the first one even tho it's still tiny
 
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sorce

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Welcome to Crazy!

I got an avocado from work last spring, 6ft tall, 1 1/2in trunk.

I don't know how in the hell the lady grew it so big in an apartment in the first place....with just sunlight!

But it didn't put much more trunk on when it was outside last year, and with no good place to put it inside, it has been failing inside all winter.

It'll live....

But to get the 1ft or so wide trunk you need to make it a convincing bonsai.....

It will never happen for me!

I wonder if Cali dudes haven't chopped back a real big old one?

Sorce
 

Adler

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Hmmm so it's probably not the best for a beginner like me . . . I'm currently working on a small cedar that needs to bulk up and a type of elm native to Missouri. don't know what type
thanks for the info tho

Wonder if it's possible to train an avacado to houseplant size because I have 4 growing with a ton of pits still sprouting that I will probably give to friends
 

sorce

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Hmmm so it's probably not the best for a beginner like me . . . I'm currently working on a small cedar that needs to bulk up and a type of elm native to Missouri. don't know what type
thanks for the info tho

Wonder if it's possible to train an avacado to houseplant size because I have 4 growing with a ton of pits still sprouting that I will probably give to friends

I fully intend to chop mine back and pot it in a more "bonsai like" soil, so I can winter it better next year.

This one was left in the basement at my work for a long time, and I would just leave the florescent room lights on, of course, I put it on a table so it could be as close as possible.

It came back from crisping well.

So a little light will be fine.

Our boy @Stickroot been a lil busy with a new lil one....

But he has some good prebonsai stuff available down there!

Sorce
 

M. Frary

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a type of elm native to Missouri. don't know what type
Put up a picture of one and we'll see if we can't nail down what it is. From my experience you can not go wrong with an elm.
 

Adler

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The elm was given to me with wiring on it and in a semi cascade style
Should I take the wire off for a while or no
In the last photo my little cedar can be seen to
Thank you for your help and advice
 

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sorce

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GSCarlson

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Here is my avocado I sprouted from seed about a year and a half ago. My advice would be to bend the shoot as it is growing because they get brittle. And as long as the seed is still attached they can take a lot of cutting back and root pruning. Even if they never get to the level of an actual bonsai, they are a good plant to play with for a beginner because they grow so fast and take a lot a abuse.
DSCF8431.jpg
 

Adler

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OK mine is maybe one-two months old and still tiny . . . Doesn't have any leaves even
 

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Adler

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Any specific styles to go with or avoid with avacados
 

Anthony

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Just first learn to keep it healthy.

At a much later date you will have to do one of two things -------------------- during summer fertilse for a month, then defoliate
Observe reaction -------- may need heavy sun before and after.
Do the leaves get smaller and you get more branches ?

Secondly, use a design that uses leaves as the main situation, avocados are leafy trees, not branchy.

If you can get at least 5 plants to work with.

See if you can ground grow / use a colander and a tile for the roots ------ read up on this.
Good Day
Anthony

^ And if it did fruit ------------------ only one please.
 

Adler

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OK thanks for your help

I have 3 sprouting
The seedling in the pic
And 10 trying to get started
 
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DSC_0158.JPGDSC_0159.JPGI've got around 60 germinating. My book learning tells me that they die from over watering and a number of fungal diseases connected to over watering. Supposedly a real nitrogen hog also. Book learning and experience says they die back to the next bud. Doesn't seem to scar super easy with being wired, the attached photos are around two months of wire. The attached photo of two little sticks is where I accidently broke off the growing tip and it back budded. I haven't found much in the way of photos of mature avocado bonsais so that is a little worrying.
 

Ruddigger

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I have several growing in my yard, for fruit purposes. They have weird growth habits, they want to be giant bushes, and the leaves dont seem to reduce. All in all pretty bad for bonsai.
 
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I have several growing in my yard, for fruit purposes. They have weird growth habits, they want to be giant bushes, and the leaves dont seem to reduce. All in all pretty bad for bonsai.
I've read a bit about commercial growers using copicing and have some ideas for reducing the weedy-ness but I didn't want to make too confident a proclamation at this stage.
 
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Welcome to Crazy!

I got an avocado from work last spring, 6ft tall, 1 1/2in trunk.

I don't know how in the hell the lady grew it so big in an apartment in the first place....with just sunlight!

But it didn't put much more trunk on when it was outside last year, and with no good place to put it inside, it has been failing inside all winter.

It'll live....

But to get the 1ft or so wide trunk you need to make it a convincing bonsai.....

It will never happen for me!

I wonder if Cali dudes haven't chopped back a real big old one?

Sorce

I had one around that size that I grew from a pit, I just brought it outside during the summer. My cat managed to kill it. I have a giant pot with five growing in it now but far far smaller.

When I pulled that big one out after it died, I either tore all its feathery feeder roots off doing so, or it really didn't have much in terms of roots, which surprised me. Maybe they're very delicaate.
 
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About a week ago I took all my avocado seedlings out of potting soil and put them in straight diotomaceous gravel. At the same time I chopped off the tap root and added a large pinch of osmocote to the surface of the container. They are still trugid and not dead. We are in the midst of a heat wave of over thirty Celsius and some spikes of over forty c.
 
Messages
92
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Location
Nanaimo, BC
USDA Zone
8b
About a week ago I took all my avocado seedlings out of potting soil and put them in straight diotomaceous gravel. At the same time I chopped off the tap root and added a large pinch of osmocote to the surface of the container. They are still trugid and not dead. We are in the midst of a heat wave of over thirty Celsius and some spikes of over forty c.
I am watering them three times a day ATM
 
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Most of the avocados I previously bent, snipped the tap root, repotted in diotomaceous earth, left out until freezing, are doing fine. I am also finding that the whip-sized seedlings (2 or 3 feet tall) are a little less prone to snap off when being wired than the really young shoots. I've got about twenty or so in my living room now.
 
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