Avocado help

[Lifestream]

Hi all. Just looking for some advice in regards to a few avocado pits I'm growing.

First of all, I have this pit that I've had in water for about 3 months now, and it's struggling to grow a proper stem. It has ok roots, I've been changing the water and cleaning it off every 4-5 days or so because any longer and I start to see the slimy bacteria build up in the water. It's in good light and is currently very warm here in Spain (30-40°C). I've grown a few other pits so far and I'm only seeing this strange situation for the first time - it tries to grow a stem but a day or two later it starts to go white on the top and dies off. A few days later there's a new shoot trying to do the same. As you can see in the photos it now has some 15-20 mini stems, some dead and some new ones. Is there something I'm doing wrong? How should I proceed with this as I can't seem to find any info for this online.

Secondly, I have attached a photo of an avocado tree that's about 2 years old that I also grew from the pit (I didn't know about pruning the tree when it gets to 6-8 inches the first time I tried this, which is why it's quite tall and sparse I guess). It started off really well and had amazing growth earlier this year. However it was in a small pot and was getting too large, so about May time I moved it into it's current larger pot. Shortly after I noticed some of the leaves started going Brown from the tips backwards. It slowly got worse and they started falling off. Reading online I have diagnosed this lilely to be salt burn as it shows the symptoms. Since then I have tried to use only bottled water from the store rather than tap water but it still seems to be happening. It lost about 75% of its old leaves but has since started growing new leaves. How does one go about curing a salt burnt plant?

Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance to anyone who can help.

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

The germinated Avocado (Persea americana) seed kept in water in the OP is an unusual situation. Normally, it is best to germinate an avocado seed in soil, as both toothpick punctures and being constantly emersed in water is likely to cause the seed or seedling to rot. Regardless of that, this is certainly an interesting experiment. It appears that the initial, terminal bud of stem of the plant did indeed die, but that subsequent, axillary stems have continued to emerge from the seed. This is not normal germination or growth for an Avocado, but it is quite intriguing.

The decline of the Avocado in the second photo could be due to poor drainage, being rootbound, or possibly salt damage. I would recommend reptting the plant into a large container, with good drainage and placing the plant gradually into more light. Always irrigate the rootball complete so that some water does drain from the container. Do not let the plant sit in a flooded sauce. Fertilize occasionally with a complete, liquid fertilizer.

Avocado (Persea americana), in the Laurel Family (Lauraceae), originally native to southern Mexico and Central America, now grown worldwide for its flavourful, oil-rich fruit. Also commonly grown as an ornamental houseplant.