Seed #2 planted

It is so cold outside, and the air is really dry. I planted the second seed in a large planter, but I doubt it will sprout for a while.

I had considered starting the avocados indoors, but I don't have much space for a couple jars of water right now. We bought a new TV and TV stand, and it doesn't have as much spare room for this kind of indoor starting that the old one did.

I wonder if there are any more avocados for breakfast. I have at least one more pot free.

Secretly starting over

I have quietly planted a seed this morning and I intend to plant another one tomorrow morning.

Since coming back to Japan, we've been having avocados for breakfast. Slowly, I should be able to rebuild my mini-veranda orchard.

Leave for 6 months, lose an orchard

I suppose it was bound to happen. My 6 month trip to Seattle resulted in all my avocados here in Tokyo drying up. My wife pulled the worst ones out and left the strongest looking one. It really doesn't look too great, actually.

Maybe time to start over.

Patience pays off

What really gets me about avocados is how fast they grow once they start. You can plant them or stick them in water and they do nothing for a long time. Sometimes they even start getting moldy and you consider throwing them out. Then one day it sprouts. And the next day it's grown an inch. In a week, you've got yourself a little tree.

That's what happened this morning in the veranda garden with a seed that I had all but forgotten.

Last January or so I took my son out to the garden to plant an avocado. It would be his own little seed and, eventually, tree. Sure we watered it, because it was planted with the bougainvillea so it got whatever water was left over. But for months nothing happened.

Then while I was moving some plants around to protect them from the wind, I noticed a little stem sticking up from the soil. It's a new avocado tree!

If I don't transplant it, I'm sure it will kill the other plant and the shallow pot may not be the right thing for it.

I'm busy this weekend, but maybe next weekend I'll pick out a nice pot for it.

First day of spring 2010!

Two of the avocados made it through the winter relatively unscathed. The other one is very sick.

The oldest avocado is growing vigorously in the warm weather. It has grown in height and is producing new leaves in the crown. I'm hoping that it develops some branches this season.

You can see the strong leaves and increased height in this picture. In fact, I had to move the camera back because the whole tree doesn't fit in the frame from the normal spot.

The middle plant is very sick. There have been no new leaves and the growth seems to have completely stopped.

Before the winter, I moved it from the small black pot to this large green pot. However, it has not responded positively.

The crown was shriveled, so I pinched it back last week. I hope this helps stimulate some growth. However, even this doesn't seem to have helped.

The smallest avocado is bouncing back from winter well.

While it looks at first glance that the plant is doing pretty poorly, the trunk is strong and the crown is producing many new leaves. I expect a few of these dry leaves to shed this season and see some significant new growth.

I've expanded my blogging activities to include all the vegetables in my garden. Take a look at Veranda Gardening if you have some time!

Will the second avocado plant make it?

It's been almost a year since the last time I wrote about the avocado trees. They are growing well, but no serious updates about their growth.

As usual, they are getting bigger but at a slow pace. The oldest avocado has rebounded and is very healthy. The middle avocado plant is very ill. It doesn't seem to be taking this cold weather very well, and its leaves have dried up considerably. The third avocado is doing fine, though I am concerned about leaving the small offshoot at its base. I may cut it soon to let the nutrients go to the main plant.

Here are the latest pictures from this afternoon.


This is the oldest avocado. As you can see, it has grown in height significantly and its leaf production is very good.


This is the second avocado. The leaves are all droopy and some are dried out. Most worrisome of all is the lack of new leaf production in the crown.


The third avocado is doing great. You can see the offshoot trunk at the bottom of the plant. For the sake of the whole tree, I am thinking of removing this offshoot.

The plants have a thick layer of insulating soil on top and are well guarded from direct rain and snow. However, since they are outside, the cold is still affecting them. We'll have to see how the second plant does this season. If it makes it, I may prune it way back and try to get it to restart at a smaller height.

Golden Week 2009

Golden Week started last Wednesday for many people who took Thursday and Friday off. For those lucky people, their holiday lasts 8 full days. A few companies, in order to cut costs, have asked contractors to take Thursday and Friday off next week as well for a total for 11 days of straight vacation.

It would normally be a good time to travel.

But with highway tolls lowered to 1000 yen for unlimited mileage, everyone is out on the roads trying to make the most of this week of vacation. Not wanting to spend hours upon hours stuck in traffic, we are limiting our travels to the immediate vicinity. We may take a short drive to Kawasaki to eat tonight.

The weather has been warm and sunny. We had some heavy rain a week or so ago, and that brought some life back to the plants. Unfortunately for us humans, the nice weather will go sour on Monday. [Update: It went bad on Monday evening and hasn't let up since (it's Thursday now)]

As for the avocados, things are looking very good. The older plant is developing a very strong set of new leaves. You can see the growth at the top of the plant. There was a second branch, but the plant seems to have decided on the larger one to continue growing. I may need to provide a little correction to make sure it continues growing straight, though.


The younger avocado had been looking very anemic in the past few months. Then we had some very strong winds and all the weak leaves fell off. What seems to have happened afterwards is that the plant has resumed growing upwards with a new set of healthy leaves and stopped trying to put so much energy into the sick leaves. Hopefully this is a good sign and the plant will be healthy from now on.