Avocado: 9 months along

As the weather grew a bit cooler in the last couple months, the avocados themselves have slowed their growth to match. They are getting bigger, but they are not growing like they were during the warm summer months.

One of the big changes is the formation of bark at the base of the trees. Though most of the trunk is still green and plant-like, the bottom inch or two has developed a tree-like bark. Both trees were damaged in their early stages, so there is a clearly visible point where the bark stops. This bark is a new development since the weather started cooling, so I am interested to see if the entire trunk becomes woody as we progress through the winter.

One other thing I noticed in the past couple months is that the avocados seem to go through a difficult dormant stage right around 7-9 months. The older avocado, for a long time, seemed to have stopped growing altogether. There were leaf buds visible at the crown of the tree, but they didn't seem to get any larger. The younger avocado also seems to have entered this stage because it shows the same set of leaf buds but exhibits no growth. A few weeks ago I pinched the dormant buds off the older tree and have been rewarded with a flurry of new growth. You can see the new growth in the photo.

I'm not sure how much I want to promote growth at this time, though. With cold weather approaching and the daylight time becoming short, it may be better for the trees to become a bit dormant soon.

There is a slight concern that the younger tree may be a bit anemic. I moved the pots around in the early spring to make room for other things on the veranda, and through the summer it seemed okay. However when the days started becoming shorter, the veranda wall was blocking most of the direct sunshine. Since the avocado tree is fairly short, it wasn't receiving any direct sunlight. I believe this is the reason why the leaves were very light green compared to the older avocado which had much darker leaves. I moved both trees on top of the storage box you see in the picture so that they can receive a whole day's worth of sun everyday. The leaves are no longer yellowish, so I take that as a good sign.

Here is the younger avocado. Note the small leaf buds at the top and the bark at the bottom.


Here is the older avocado. This one also has bark, but you can also see the new flourish of leaves at the top where it was pinched. The leaves always come out at an angle from the point of the pinch.

Avocado: Typhoon 13 and some soil changing

I was supposed to attend some training today, but we wrapped up all the material yesterday and so today I worked from home. This is a good thing because today we will be hit by a pretty decent-sized typhoon. When the rain and wind come, my train is one of the first to stop. So working from home is a whole lot better than worrying about whether I can get home in the evening.

Since I'm at home, I ate lunch with my family. We ordered some pizza. I think I mentioned a long time ago how weird Japanese pizza is. The key is to go along with the weirdness. If you try to fight against it, you will only be disappointed. Avoid the meat-lovers and Italian sausage pizzas and stick with the squid, corn, and potato pizzas. It must be a cultural thing.

This week I took a few minutes to change some of the soil in the older avocado's pot. The soil is a different variety for both avocados, and since the younger one is doing so well, I wanted to see if giving the older avocado some of that soil would help. It's only been a couple days, so it's hard to tell at this point.

I did not change the entire soil, of course. I scraped away about a centimeter of old soil from the pot and refilled the pot with a couple centimeters of new soil. What I found really interesting was that the avocado roots were right at the surface of the soil. I needed to take care when scraping the old soil because I was uncovering roots. The roots themselves were a couple millimeters thick and very wiry. I should have taken a picture!

This week, the younger avocado seems to be having another flourish of leaves. The buds at the top are growing very quickly. You can see one large bud growing in this picture.


You can see the darker, loamier soil in this picture of the older avocado. There is a set of leaf buds at the top of the avocado, but I haven't noticed much change there for a while. I am actually worried that this avocado may be sick.

Avocado: Strange weather in Japan

The weather this year in Japan has been very strange. First, we haven't had any typhoons at all. But instead of typhoons, we have had a steady stream of thunderstorms. These thunderstorms, quaintly dubbed "guerrilla rain", have been heavy and life threatening for those caught unawares.

The pictures today aren't very good because the sky already darkened and the camera's flash was far too strong to take a good picture.

If you can, note the small bud growth at the top of the younger avocado. It looks like a new flourish will be coming in soon, so I am hoping that the leaves are fully formed before the temperatures drop too far.


On the older avocado, there is a smaller bud growth, but I have a bad feeling that there may be something wrong with this avocado. It has stopped making leaves for a while and it is a bit droopy. The water seems to be fine, so I worry that it may not be getting enough nutrients. I noticed today that it did not receive any direct sun due to the angle of the shadows cast by the veranda wall, so I may have found my culprit. I have moved the pot a bit out of the shade and we will see if it can get on with photosynthesis and feeding itself.


For kicks, here's a shot of some strawberries that I've been growing for the past year. The shape is nothing to look at, but they are sweeter than any strawberry I ever got at the store.

Avocado: Comparing leaves

In the past couple months since I last updated the pictures of the avocados, there has been quite a bit of growth due to the warm summer. We've had plenty of rain and lots of sun, and the avocados seem to be making the most of the weather. They are still potted, and they are somewhat sheltered from direct weather contact, but they are outside and receive a fairly substantial dose of the natural world. The avocados here definitely aren't indoor plants.

So last time I wrote about the avocados, I mentioned that the leaves were different shapes. Since the avocados are grown from seed, they are genetically distinct and will have similar but different phenotypes. One easy to understand phenotype is leaf shape. The older avocado has a rounded end on each leaf. The younger avocado has a distinct pointy leaf shape.

Rounded leaf:


Pointed leaf:


At first I thought it might have just been a malady that was affecting the shape of the leaves of the older avocado. Several other leaves seem to be strangely-shaped due to what appears to be burns. What this is due to, I don't know. However, the basic shape of each leaf seems to be rounded at the tip, so I don't think the lack of a point is due to disease, malnutrition, or sunburn. It is a good idea to keep a close eye on it for changes, though.

Another interesting thing is that the older avocado's seed has completely dissolved. You can't see it well in the pictures, but the seed is almost completely gone. I am attributing this to the age of the tree, but I am a little worried that the tree used up the remaining food within the seed due to lack of nutrients in the soil. Is there a way to determine the nutrient level within the soil?

One last point to mention is that the younger avocado is almost as tall as the older one. This may be due to them being only a few months apart in age, but it may also be a genetic difference, causing them to grow at slightly different rates.

Here are this week's pictures:

Older avocado (white pot):


Younger avocado (black pot):

Avocado: No updates in a while

It's been a few months since the last time I updated the avocado information. There has been a lot going on, a new job, overseas travel, and the always-constant laziness.

Pictures can explain the situation better than a textual description, but I don't have pictures, so you'll have to make due with your imagination.

The avocado that I have been watching for the past few months has grown to almost a foot and a half. Due to the heat, I am worried that its growth may be stunted a bit. Sun damage is a definite possibility in the summer months. Given that the avocado is growing in a pot and not in an open soil area where its roots can spread out, I am curious if the tree will be stunted and will fail to develop a large canopy to protect itself from the sun.

The leaves have grown large, and there is a clear pointiness of the leaves. The older avocado has rounded leaves. Unfortunately, the latest leaves do not seem to be growing to full size. This may be just a little bit of overcaring on my part, but if the leaves fail to grow out, then there may be a real problem.

The little tomato plant that I temporarily put in the same pot as the avocado has been transplanted and has grown quite a bit. It had flowered, but the strong wind of the other day broke the top of the plant off. However, this is not that bad because the tomato plant itself is not big and mature enough to handle a tomato at the moment. This year may be a bust for the tomato crop. Next year I should probably start a month or two earlier to maximize the number of tomatoes.

Avocado: Heat, humidity, and rain

This past Saturday was Julian's birthday party. It was a joint birthday party for about 4 kids who were all born around this time of year at the same hospital. We all had a good time, and had way too much cake.

I made my increasingly famous nachos. And what takes center stage in the recipe? Why, an avocado, of course. So now I have an extra avocado seed and am considering sprouting another one. I have two seedlings already, this would be a third, and there is a fourth waiting in the unpeeled avocado in the kitchen.

Growing these things is my small way to combat global warming, or something...

This week was relatively warm. The humidity has become very high and yesterday it rained almost all day. This signals the start of the Japanese summer. The rain will last about two weeks in a mini-season called tsuyu. During these two weeks, the temperatures reach into the 90s and the humidity is maxed out at 100%. It's a terrible time for us humans. The avocados are responding very happily, though.

There isn't much growth news this week except to say that the main trunk seems to have been completely bypassed in favor of the secondary trunk. This is the growth that started from a little shoot on the side and has now grown into the main trunk. The only worry is that as the tree grows, will the joint strength hold?

I meant to transplant the tomato plant this weekend, but found out in the process that we don't have a shovel. I will need to transplant it this week.

Avocado: Skipping the metrics this week

Want some metrics? How about 4 days of a terrible cold and a 38.8°C fever. This week has been pretty terrible as far as my health goes. But I think I'm over the hardest part and finally on the road to recovery.

And the same can be said for the broken seedling! The reason I am skipping taking metrics this week is because they don't really make sense at this point anymore.

The reason I started taking them in the first place was to measure the progress of the avocado stem after it was broken. The stem would need to show consistent growth or I would have to cut this little experiment short due to a failed seedling.

What I hadn't counted on was the seedling bypassing the broken stem altogether. As you can see in this week's photo, the bud that we've been looking at for the past 2 or 3 weeks has grown into a full-fledged stem of its own.


The secondary stem has completely outpaced the original stem in growth. I believe the original stem has stopped growing and will probably dry out and fall off at some point. If there is no other growth on the original stem, I may prune it back.

The other avocado plant is still going strong. The new leaves are sprouting nicely. Summer is coming and the new set of leaves will help absorb a lot of sunlight this year.

Avocado: Variable weather week

Last week we had mid-winter weather, but this week we had all sorts of weather. The weather at the beginning of the week was terrible with a typhoon blowing hard and raining really hard. Then a warm air blast came in and brought the temps up to mid-summer levels. Then the past two days, the rain has come again and the temperatures have dropped back to the mid-60s. A few other plants here have succumbed. The avocados came through relatively unscathed.

The hot weather was not very pleasant.

The seedling had no discernable vertical growth on the main trunk. In fact, if you compare last week's measurement with this week's, you'll notice that the height actually shrunk by 5mm. I believe this is due to measurement error, mostly my imprecision in holding the ruler.

However, the real growth is coming from the bud on the side. What I first thought was a new leaf bud looks like it may be an alternate trunk growing out the side.

The little leaf peeking in at the bottom is from my trial tomato seedlings. They are temporarily planted with the avocado until they grow big enough to transplant safely.

The other avocado has a lot of new leaf growth from the little bud. Just compare the bud from a couple weeks ago to today. You can really tell how fast these things are growing.

Avocado: Summer arrives, then leaves, then returns

This week has been a very strange week for weather. It started off very warm, then it rained a couple days and was mid-winter cold, then the bad weather broke and we had a beautiful spring day on Friday and Saturday. Today, Sunday, the weather got very hot.

The next two days will be rainy and muggy. Just the kind of weather the avocados enjoy. I can't say as much for the humans.

This week in avocados, there isn't much to report. The seedling grew a half-centimeter.


The older avocado's leaf buds are coming in nicely.


One worry is that I've temporarily transplanted some tomato seedlings into the avocado seedling's pot. I was having trouble keeping them in the little paper cups they were sprouted in, so I rescued the spilled seedlings and planted them in the nearest pot. When they get a little bit bigger, I will try to move them again. Hopefully there won't be too much impact on the avocado.

Avocado: Using metrics

In the programming world, it is fun to use a lot of words to describe methods of performance improvement, but until you actually take metrics all the talk in the world is just bluster.

Since the avocado seedling broke off a couple weeks back, I've been blustering and doing a lot of hoping and hand waving. But that's not going to do any good, and it doesn't provide any significant data.

So I will measure the growth of the avocado seedling with a ruler. Though it is not visible in this week's shot, the bottom of the ruler is sitting on the top of the seed. As you can see, the stem is approximately 5.5cm.

I mentioned before that the broken stem may act as a rough "pinch" and though the damage is initially significant, the plant will find a way to increase growth. In fact, if you look at the stem around the 2.5cm mark, leaf buds are coming in laterally. These buds did not exist last week. The seedling is fighting back and finding an outlet for its energy.

On the other avocado plant, new leaf buds are coming in on the top where I pinched off the new leaves three weeks ago. You can make them out in this picture.

The brown area is the pinch point. The bud is red with a light green leaf emerging. Unlike the seedling, the plant is not producing leaf buds from the sides of the stem. I suppose this may just be the way avocados grow.

Avocado: The potted and broken

After the stem incident last week, I heard that the avocado seedling was pulled out completely and rolled around on the patio. Some nice angel came along and re-potted the seed. Now I can only hope that the seedling makes it through the next couple weeks.

Here is a shot of the current situation, including the broken part of the stem.


For kicks, here's a shot of the first avocado plant that is a few months older than the seedling that I've been blogging about.

Avocado: Tragedy strikes!

This weekend I transplanted the avocado seedling into a larger pot. The stem has grown to over 10cm and buds which indicate leaf growth are appearing on the stem. It was definitely time to move it to a soil pot.

I intended to take pictures of the avocado in its new home, but as I was grabbing the camera, my son grabbed the avocado and yanked it. The stem broke in half and the roots were slightly damaged. I don't think it is fatal, but the impressive stem is now an unimpressive stub.

I'll have pictures of it soon. Hopefully the exposed wound area doesn't get infected and the growth will continue apace. In some respects, this is similar to pinching, though a bit more aggressive than the typical pinch.

In other news, I pinched off the older avocado plant a week ago and some new leaves are emerging from the stem. If I've learned nothing else, it's that avocados can take a beating and still grow like crazy. I hope this holds true for the broken seedling that we've been watching.

Avocado: Stem about 5cm

There isn't much news this week except to note that the stem has grown to about 5cm above the seed. Last week it was only 1cm, so the plant is growing pretty fast.

Boy's Day is coming up soon, so we got the big samurai armor out for display. This took up all the room that the avocado was using, so the avocado and glass are now sitting in the shadow of the samurai armor. This means that the seedling will be getting less direct light. Hopefully it doesn't permanently damage or stunt the avocado.

Avocado: Ooh, a new variety!

Last time I was mentioning that the avocado type I am growing is Hass, but according to the University of California avocado information site every seedling is different and distinct from the parent tree. So while the parent was likely a Mexican Hass avocado, the seedlings I am growing are a hybrid of Hass and another type of avocado.

Avocado: What kind is it?

Although I don't have any solid evidence, I believe that the avocado trees which I am growing are of the Hass variety. The skin was rough and pebbly and dark purple to black, so it seems like Hass is the variety that fits the bill.

There is more on avocado varieties here at avocado.org.

I haven't seen any other varieties except for Hass (or what I take to be Hass at any rate) here in Japan. Looking at all the different varieties is certainly interesting, but not quite as fun as tasting them. I wonder where I can get my hands on some non-Hass varieties.

Avocado: Stem peeks out

Last week's entry mentioned that the avocado had developed a stem. In just a week, the stem has grown enough to be plainly visible above the edge of the seed.

The stem should grow another couple weeks before sprouting its first set of leaves.

Here is a diagram of an avocado seed.

You can see the various parts which I have been describing. The cotyledons are visible to the naked eye, but they are obscured a bit by the strange growth around the hypocotyl. The rest is easily discerned.

If you look closely at this week's photo, you can see that a few root hairs have sprouted from the main root.

Lots of changes this week!

Avocado: Strange growth in the seed

The avocado root is growing quickly and is wrapping around the bottom of the container. Soon, it will need to be transplanted. (I say this every week, but I never get around to it.)

What bothered me this week was a significant growth of white nodules around the origin of the root and stem. You can see it in the picture. It looks like cottage cheese between the root and the stem.

If anyone knows what this is, whether it is normal or some sort of disease, a little help is much appreciated.

Avocado: Reaching the bottom of the glass

I swear, every time I make an avocado entry I have some kind of cold or something. Today I seem to be afflicted with a sore throat. This is worrisome because Miki had a sore throat last week and is still coughing. If I caught the same cold, that's going to be bad news.

This weekend was really cold and rainy. The avocado outside is not a happy camper, especially as the wind is strong and its leaves are getting battered. But inside, the seedling is enjoying the warmth, and it shows.

The root has reached the bottom of the glass that it is sitting in. It is curling a bit at the end, so I am thinking of how I can keep the growth relatively straight without changing containers. I have a feeling I can rotate the seed a bit and get the root to climb sideways along the bottom of the glass for a large coil. If it works, I'll try to update the pics next week.

This week, the picture shows the longer root and a little bit of the coiling going on at the bottom of the glass.

Avocado: Split widens, root lengthens

This weekend was the worst two days of pollen this year. I was knocked out all weekend. Some of that may have been the allergy medicine, but most of it was just exhaustion from sneezing and blowing my nose all day long.

This week the avocado split a little wider and the root grew about 5cm. The weather has warmed up a lot and the average temperature inside the house is getting higher. This is leading to more growth from the seed than earlier when it was very cold in the evenings.

The split in the avocado seed is getting wider. The stem is becoming visible. It looks like a little green nub on the base of the root. Once the stem comes out of the seed, I'll transplant it into a pot.

Avocado: Taproot emerges

Today I am down with a cold or something. I'm feeling pretty terrible, so I am staying home in the morning hoping that I can get better and head off to work later today.

Today I noticed that my avocado has grown a taproot in the past week. A taproot is the large root that grows straight down and will anchor the seed as it grows in the first stages of its life. Later. the root system will grow sideways and provide a wide area which the avocado will use to absorb rainwater. Right now, it's sitting in water, so it's happy as a clam.

In the last week, the root has gone from a little nub in the middle of the seed to an easily recognizable root feature almost 4cm in total length. The root extends past the seed about 1 centimeter. In a few more weeks, the root will grow even longer with more root fibers.