Yeah that sounds like a big downside, One of the sites i was on said it usually takes anywhere from 5 - 13 years for the tree to even begin to have fruit. Most trees usually take several years though, But to me 13 years did sound a bit long. Steve
encourage
Actually, plants make edible fruit for the purpose of seed dissemination. Animals pick up the fruit and carry them away from the original tree. In some cases, the seeds are swallowed and later deposited right along with a little pile of fertilizer. This happens mostly with birds, but there are some mammals that also disseminate seeds in their poop.
In the case of something that has a pit, the animal in question generally drags the fruit away to eat elsewhere, but doesn't swallow the pit.
In the case of nuts, the tree grossly overproduces. The nuts that the squirrel buries but never digs up is the nut that grows.
You may notice that fruit tends to be sour or bitter before the seeds are mature. They are generally inconspicuous, too. It's only after the seeds are ready that the fruit ripens and changes color to attract the animals.
Ray Drouillard
Too true. ;-)
Keep us posted on your progress..... Funny, we've never had them break in half to the point where they fell apart??? That's wierd. :-)
K.
Now you know why I sprang for grafts. They are guaranteed to fruit within 2 years.
K.
I think I kinda sorta said that, but you put it much better. "spreading the progeny" is the way I had meant that.
Yah. Ever seen racoon poop full of wild persimmon seeds?
Gods. I know. I have been digging up and cutting up pecan trees all over the yard due to squirrels and a tree down the street!
Neat post. :-) Well stated.
K.
Not all toothpicks are created equally. Y'all need to get the square in the middle rounded on the ends heavy duty toothpicks.. they don't break easily, and they'll hold up a pretty big pit, and won't break under insertion unless that pit has dried too long..in which case, poke through the hard surface with the ice pick or finishing nail or something. ;-)
Janice
Squirrels hereabouts don't worry about waiting for things to ripen! I bought an apricot years ago.. sweet heart I think.. that had an almond like pit with the apricot fruit. I never saw a one of them, squirrels cut every one of them, and it had a heavy load of fruit on it, off the tree while they were green.
Chickens roosting in the tree split the tree, and I didn't even attempt to save any of it because I knew that I'd never get anything from it with squirrels around.
Ah hates squirrels! I need a herd of trained Maine Coon Cats .. trained to catch and dispatch squirrels to the "nut house beyond!"
Janice
Border collie, or whippets. ;-)
No doggies, they just bark up the trees and soon become neurotic and run out and bark bark bark at the base of trees even when there are no squirrels. Cats just go get 'em!
Janice
Guess it depends on the doggy... ;-) I had a whippet named Mark that killed _lots_ of squirrels, and my border collie has been killing rats.
She has tried to get the tree squirrels, but just has not been quite quick enough.
Cats I think are variable. One of my best hunters, Tigger, used to kill my pigeons which is why he got exiled to being an indoor cat. He never did kill any squirrels.
Used to have a gray tabby female tho' in california that left squirrel parts on the front porch for me to step in on a regular basis. :-P
Rabbits too. She was quite the little hunter! :-)
Her name was Patience.
K.
You could always go down to your local tractor supply company store and get an electric fence charger and a few yards of wire. Squirrels are really hard to keep out of a tree, but two strands of electric fence (one too low to crawl under, and one too high to jump over) will do the trick quite nicely.
Of course, that assumes that there aren't any other trees close enough for the tree rats to jump from one to the other.
Other solution? Squirrel pot pie, of course!
Ray
I like squirrel quartered and lightly sauteed in extra virgin olive oil with a touch of garlic. ;-) They are surprisingly tender and tasty!
Be sure to get them very wet tho' before you skin them so the fur does not shed all over the meat! One of my co-workers taught me that trick.
:-) He grew up eating squirrel and I have fond memories of having the ones that dad shot when we went boondocking during the summer when I was little. Mom used to make squirrel stew.
K.
We used soft drink bottles. Remove the cap, cut the top off and invert it into the lower portion of the bottle. The top then becomes more or less a funnel to hold the seed in position. Fill the bottle with water, enough to cover the bottom 1/2 to 1/3 of the seed. Refill as needed. Yes the seed will split, but still be supported by the neck of the bottle. When it is grown enough to plant, the bottle can be cut off using a strong pair of scissors. The bottles with wider caps, may allow the root to be lifted through the opening without damaging the root.
We used that method to avoid fighting with the tooth picks working loose, and to prevent "mechanical damage" that could bruise the seed and cause rot.
Cautions:
If the fruit was picked too green the seed may not sprout. Try and have the avacados ripe as possible before attempting. The riper fruit means better guacamole anyway.
Try to let the water set out long enough to neutralize the chlorine and chemical additives if you are using water from a municipal supply, and not make any extreme temperature changes when refilling.
Whether they bear fruit depends on the hybridization used to create the original fruit, pollinators, and environment. All takes time. We never tried to plant the trees in the ground, the climate was too severe. However they made lovely tropical houseplants, until they got too big to move around. Takes several years for that.
Good luck
Thats a good idea, Need to go out and buy some softdrink bottles it may work with Thanks, Steve
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (Sunset Zone 16/17, USDA Zone 9) and there are avocado trees (with fruit) around my neighborhood. I've found a couple of healthy avocado seedlings (one in an outdoor pot, one in the ground) near the house, likely planted by squirrels who probably mistook the pits for black walnuts from another tree nearby. ;-)
A nice site to visit is
-- dkra
I envy you... ;-) I don't really have an ideal climate for Avocados!
Am planning tho' on building a greenhouse, and maybe trying to dwarf an avocado, and maybe a lemon tree.
Thanks for the link!
K.
The splitting is normal, the seed does that when it germinates. We used to grow them as house plants in Montana. They are not cold-hardy, but will grow fine indoors in near-darkness, and can be pruned to any shape or size. None of our indoor avocados bore fruit, but they looked nice.
We got tired of doing the toothpick thing and just started sticking them into pots with any soil that was handy, point-up, and every single one grew (sometimes they take a while to sprout). This was much better than the success rate with the water and toothpick thing.
~REZ~
I always thought the water/toothpick method was not for realistic starting for a long-term plant but was for children to learn about roots and leaves and how they grow in relationship to the soil line (water line in the experiment). Rather like an ant farm, not practical but it's educational for seeing the process while putting accuracy and actual "implementation" by Mother Nature aside.
The avocado seed, being a large seed, has all the basic characteristics of other seeds (roots, leaves, seed splitting, etc.). Unlike a bean seed, it will do very well in full light for an extended period of time living only on water (and much easier to keep upright and watered!). By the time the child is bored of it all, the plant usually hasn't yet given up. Slower starting than smaller seeds, it's more realistic to compare with the seeds they start in the soil. If memory serves correctly, when started at the same time, the avocado will start sprouting about the same time the bean seeds start poking their heads through the ground.
Glenna
The method I have used to start avocados is to place the seed with damp paper towels in a ziploc bag. I place this under the sink (or another dark place where I will not forget about it) and check it every few days until it has a root. I then plant.
Even if you do forget about the seed, I have had luck planting a seed that spend a couple months forgotten about under the sink.
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