Project Random Grow Update: Indoor Growing

I neglected to post an update on Project Random Grow after I moved all the plants inside my house to avoid the sub-40 temperatures. After seeing that the chili plants were going nowhere, I decided to dump them. The strawberry plant was also going nowhere and at one point was infested with well over 100 baby spiders. Sounds horrific, but when they’re the size of ticks and spread out it doesn’t look so bad! 

This is the window sill in the bird room which is where most of the plants occupy. This window seems to get the most sunlight. To the left is my tomato plant which I’ve trimmed down. Next to it is some kind of flower (a lily?) that hasn’t bloomed any flowers since its first bloom, and on the right is the mango tree which seems to have stopped growing.

It’s interesting note: the tomatoes that fell to the soil have sprouted! So if you want to grow some extra tomato plants from your existing one is to just drop some tomatoes on top of some soil and let it do its thing.

The avocado trees have had some problems with browning leaves which is why they are barren on their bottom half. Right now they’re around 40 inches in height—not including the buckets they’re in.

My fantastic meyer lemon trees which have had ripe fruit on them for a couple months now. I’ve left the fruit on for so long that it decided to keep growing more. See the white flowers at the top?

Obligatory lemon in hand shot. The trees consistently produce fairly large and super juicy lemons.

And finally, a little surprise.. Going to try to grow this big avocado seed! 

Project Random Grow Update: A New Garden Setup

Yesterday I transferred my garden from the patio table to this new setup since it was taking up all the space on the table. Later on I’m going to wrap a fence around it to keep away the animals (not sure how just yet), but the squirrels already took all my strawberries. The wilderness seems to not be interested in my peppers or tomatoes.

Although not ideal, I like this setup. It helps keep away pesky insects that like to eat the plants. Here’s what I spent:

Cinder blocks: 9 x $1.47 = $13.23

Wood (8x6x1): 2 x $11 = $22

Total: ~$25 (+tax)

The cinder blocks were bought from Home Depot. Note that they are very heavy (40lbs or so) so you’ll want some help if you buy some. I used whatever outdoor-grade paint I had on me to provide some weather protection for the wood. 

Growth Progress

I’ve already harvested a bunch of tomatoes from the tomato plant but I could never seem to find the right time to pick them. They would either be not quite ready (mostly red with green tops, not so nice to eat) or begin to spoil on the vine.

The tomato plant is looking a little sad lately but I think it’s because I stuck it in a tiny pot and have deprived it of fertilizer. Also, the pepper plant has a ton of peppers on it that I will pick within the next two weeks. I’ve yet to figure out what kind of peppers they are or when they’re ready to pick.

The lime basil has regrown a full set of fragrant basil leaves but is starting to show some yellow. The disposable cup I planted it in is mostly roots at this point but I am out of bigger pots for replanting.

The strawberry plant seems to have given up producing fruit and has been reaching out with its vines to seek more dirt to propagate itself throughout. If one of the “elbows” of the vine happen to come into contact with dirt, it’ll actually start to root itself and grow into another strawberry plant! At least I think that’s what I remember reading..

My avocado trees have been growing very well and have 1/3-inch thick trunks now. I may pick up some cheapo $2.90 10-gallon buckets from Home Depot to plant them in since my house doesn’t need any more large trees on the lawn.

My meyer lemon trees are progressing slowly, however. At this rate I won’t have ripe lemons until November again. I also lost 2 big lemons when a clumsy dog happened to knock them off with his leash :(

And one more thing..

I finally got a mango seed to grow!! I started the new seed on July 27 (pictured on the left). This seed was particularly different from the other two I tried to grow in that it was softer in texture and sprouted much more rapidly. I opted to grow it inside under my full-spectrum bulb which has brought tremendous results. It seems that direct sunlight is too harsh for initial growth of these plants. It’s only been three weeks so in a few months I should have a fairly large plant.

That’s it for now!

Project Random Grow Update: Fruit Blossoms Galore!

It’s time for another update! It’s been about three weeks since the last one and I wasn’t expecting such growth from my plants. The weather has been awfully good so everything has grown quite a bit.

I was checking out my plants today and I finally found what I had been looking for—a small green pepper to help me identify this particular plant. Behold! The Korean chili pepper:

Now, if you’ve been following my updates, you’d know that would mean the other plant is supposed to be the Korean melon. But.. 

I’VE BEEN FOOLED! It appears I’ve acquired two packs of the same plant. Now I will have too many Korean green chili peppers. I broke off a branch of this plant by accident while trying to get a good shot of the disappointment. The stems seem quite crisp to the point of easily snapping.

But on to the cherry tomatoes.

Here are one of many bunches of tomatoes. Definitely the leader in fruit production at the moment. It would be even better if I used a 10-gallon bucket instead of a tiny 8” pot.

Tip: If you want to get on the tomato growing action, I discovered that Walmart has a ton of varieties of tomatoes that ranged anywhere from 50 cents for starter plants to $6+ for big plants.

Look at the cojones on this sucker.

A friendly spider that made its web on my lemon tree.

New strawberries underway. Still disappointed that I probably won’t get $2.50 worth of strawberries out of this plant.

Much healthier-looking avocado trees, but a few leaves still have the brown crippling disease.

This is all that remains from my two mango seeds. The first mango seed that was showing promising growth suddenly shriveled up and died. The seed disintegrated and there were no roots to be found. Now this growth looks slightly brown and I wonder if it will survive. Perhaps I need to read up on growing these things again because I might be doing something wrong. 

And that’s all for now. The next update will be when I see fat fruits.

Project: Random Grow/Update on Other Growing Projects

Hey guys!

It’s time I update you on what I’ve been growing around my house. In addition to my Meyer Lemon trees, I’ve also started growing two mango trees from seed and a few more avocado seeds. I also tried to grow two pineapple tops but they just ended up attracting slugs with no results.

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to H-Mart (a Korean grocery store). They were randomly selling a bunch of starter plants for $2.50 so I picked up four new plants.

My new Meyer Lemons are well underway and the largest lemons are slightly larger than the size of a quarter. I would have had a few more growing but unfortunately a very clumsy and wild dog knocked them off. Now I have to leave my lemon trees outside where they will most likely get infested with bugs.

Here’s one of the new plants I picked up. These are either Korean peppers or Korean melons. I forgot to separate the two on the ride home so I do not remember which was which. Aphids seem to love this plant. 

Here is the other plant that is either the Korean pepper or melon. I had to plant it a water jug I cut up because I ran out of pots. It’s growing rapidly but the bugs have been picking at the leaves. If anyone can identify these plants, please let me know in a comment below.

Here is some cilantro that I was growing for my guacamole nights because I never use up the huge bundle whenever I buy it at the grocery store. I still haven’t replanted it into a container so it’s growing funny.

In the front container is a cherry tomato plant and in the back is a strawberry plant. I had one strawberry that was growing but that dog ate it. :( It seems that strawberries are kind of bad investment because they only produce 2-3 clutches of fruit. I couldn’t help but think I was engaging in some real-life Farmville at this point.

This little but strong-looking guy is the sprout of one of the mango seeds. So far the other one has yet to peak out any growth. It’s growing very slowly inside a Lactaid milk jug. 

Last but not least, here is one of the avocado plants from Project Avocado Tree. It has exhibited the best growth out of the three seeds. Originally it had three stems but the plant decided two was best for its needs. The other two avocado plants are in bad condition with some sort of leaf disease so I decided not to show them off.

And that’s it! The next update will be whenever I see some good fruit production from these new plants. 

Tips for Growing Your Own Avocado from Seed Indoors

I’ve had fairly good growth results by treating these seedlings like my meyer lemon trees. Here are some tips I want to share with you if you’re going to grow your own avocado plants AFTER you’ve achieved growth in water:

1. Plant in well-draining enriched soil with pH levels of 6 to 6.5 (most sites recommend sandy loam soil). I used a soil meant for citrus plants since it is rich in nitrogen, which is what avocado trees like.
2. The root growth of these plants is quite aggressive, so I suggest starting in a 6” to 9” pot and replanting to a larger pot as necessary. 
3. The first week you’ll want to water regularly to keep the soil wet to transition it from all water to soil. 
4. After the transition, water deeply when the soil is at least 50% dry. Check the soil from the bottom of the pot as they do not like soggy roots. A slow-drip watering system is recommended, but I am lazy and dump it all in there at once. Brown leaves are a sign of insufficient watering.
5. Provide plenty of sunlight—at least 8 hours of direct sun or full-spectrum lighting.
6. Pruning at a young age encourages sprout growth. Avocado.org recommends cutting the new growth to half its height at 6-7 inches and again when it reaches 12 inches. This encourages the plant to grow a more complex root system. Most may just want to pinch off half of the leaves from the top to encourage more bushy growth at the top.
7. Avocado plants are very susceptible to salt burn—an accumulation of salt in the leaves and soil. If you notice your leaves start to look like they’re burned at the tips, it’s because your water or soil is too salty. If this is the case, do a hefty slow water drip to wash out the salt from the roots and allow plenty of drainage.
8. Do not fertilize for the first year of growth.

Not all seeds will germinate, so if you find that nothing is happening after a few weeks then just toss the seed and start a new one.

All this work! What will it get me?

Unfortunately I hadn’t realized how much sunlight and warmth these avocado seeds needed which significantly slowed down my results. It has taken a ridiculous 20 weeks to reach the point where I am now when it really should have taken roughly four to six weeks. 

And there is a good chance I won’t see any quality fruit growth from these seeds.

Growing avocados from the seed is likely produce a sub-par plant compared to the mother tree of which it originated. This is because avocado seeds are not genetically exact to the tree they came from and pollination also plays a big part. Sometimes you get lucky and get something close to the original tree and sometimes you get a dud that inconsistently produces poor quality fruit. The odds are against you.

So how do I get my tree to grow me some avocados?

To get the same quality fruit, a branch from the mother tree is grafted—a process of splicing a scion (a section of a branch from a fruit-producing tree) onto the rootstock (your avocado plant). This is done when the seedling’s stem is around the thickness of a pencil. It ensures you get the same tree of which the scion came from. Doing this will allow your tree to produce fruit in 2-3 years as opposed to the 7 to 10+ years it would take if you did not graft your young trees. You can even graft multiple species of a fruit to one rootstock. 

You might be thinking, “Why can’t I just grow a scion in the water and have a tree with awesome genetics from the start?” The truth is that it is actually very difficult to get the plant to root using this method. If you have access to a good tree to begin with, there’s no reason not to graft. 

There’s absolutely no problem in growing an avocado tree to produce some quality shade, but a tree that produces fruit is so much more awesome to have around. If I can find someone to ship me some avocado scions then I will definitely try it out and make another in-depth post on grafting. 

Until next time, happy growing!

Project: Grow an Avocado Tree - March Update

My avocado growing setup: Pots on top of my bird cage with 48” full-spectrum florescent light bulbs. 

Avocado Plant 1

A bunch of new growth up top since it was attacked by a bird. It’s about 6.5 inches in height.

Avocado Plant 2

About 6 inches in height and this one seems to have two sprouts.

Avocado Plant 3

Three sprouts out of one seed?! What’s going on! I didn’t think this one was going to grow at all and it sure is taking its time. 

I also recently found out these guys will never bear edible fruit! More on that next week.

Project Meyer Lemon Update: 10 months and Counting

It has been 10 months since I received my two meyer lemon trees from California. Since then the trees have undergone growth of tiny blossoms to six giant lemons (three per tree). A meager harvest from what could have been, but at least the plants are still alive!

As for the lemons I have now, I’ve used two so far; one in cooking and the other to make a strawberry margarita. It is very satisfying to be able to walk over to the tiny trees and grab a fresh lemon that’s perfect in ripeness. I wish I had many more trees of different fruits so that I would rarely have to take a trip to the grocery store for minor details. I’ve been waiting on Project: Grow an Avocado Tree, but the lack of warmth and sun in the winter has severely stunted the seeds’ growth. 

Don’t mind the yellow in the leaves. The tree was having an off day here.

Still waiting to use one of the bigger lemons. Supposedly they’ll stay ripe on the tree for three months. 

After breaking off one lemon, this tree is eager to grow its next batch of lemons. Hopefully more than three this time. 

New Project: Grow an avocado tree!

With the leftover seeds from last night’s guacamole and sangria night, I’m going to attempt to grow these seeds into Hass avocado trees.

If you’ve never done this before, you basically just stick three toothpicks in the seed just enough so that the seed can balance on top of a cup or glass. You then fill the glass with water so that half of the seed stays submerged. Replace the water every 1-2 days to ensure that no mold or bacteria grow and make sure there’s always enough water in the glass. It will take 4+ weeks for the seed to grow enough to be planted in a pot and another few years for the plant to grow some fruit if you can get that far.