You can see the results, it's pretty clear that one method is better than the other. Growing avocados has become really popular, and you guys like me may have seen a lot of people grow these in the same method, which is basically taking the seed and placing three toothpicks into the seed and submerging it in a glass of water.
I've grown avocados in this way before and had some really good results, but I have always wondered, is this really the best way to be growing avocados? It's certainly not a natural way of growing them or a way that would just happen out in the wild where avocados come from.
So today we're going to be actually finding out which method is best. If growing avocados in water truly does make them sprout faster and grow better, or if you plant them directly in the soil, do they sprout at all?
Do they outperform the ones growing in water? Who knows? We're going to find out today. So let's just get right into the video, go and plant these things and see what happens. Okay, so I'm going to use four avocados.
I've got two of the Hass variety and two reed avocados. The reed ones are much larger, so we'll open those up and get the seeds out of them. As you can see, the reed avocado has a much larger seed, really quite massive compared to the hash avocado.
So we'll start with the toothpick and water method. So to start off with, with this method, it's best if you actually take off the very outer skin of the seed. Otherwise it tends to start to break down in the water and start to mold, and then it turns the water bad and it can just affect the seed.
So basically, I just run this under some water and peel it off. Some seeds are really easy to peel off and for some reason some others take a bit of time. So just persist and try and get as much off as you can.
Next up, we're just going to place our toothpicks into the seed, just avoiding those crevices that are down the side of the seed. If you place your toothpick in that, you might split your seed, so just put them to the sides.
So I've got two glass jars filled up with water, and I'm just going to place them in here so that the seed is half submerged in the water. So. As for the other two seeds, we've got one hash and one reed avocado left.
We're going to be placing those seeds into their own individual pot of soil. The soil here is just some fine potting mix, and I'm just making sure that I plant it the right way up. Basically, to tell you just want the flat side of the seed facing down and the more pointed or rounded end facing up.
It is kind of easy to tell because the bottom of the seed often has kind of a base to it. Hopefully that kind of makes sense because it's winter at the moment. I am going to place these seeds on a heat mat just to give them a bit of warmth and hopefully get them going a bit faster.
Avocados do tend to do quite well. If you give them some warmth, they will germinate a bit better and a bit quicker. All right, you guys. So it's been two months, and this reed avocado has sprouted, and it's got an amazing root system on it.
You can see it's curling all the way around in there. It looks really, really cool. And this top is sprouting on it as well. As for the other seeds, the other one in water isn't growing at all. And then the ones in soil, I don't know if they're sprouting roots or anything.
It's hard to tell because obviously they're in soil. But I have just put the plastic containers over the top, basically because the soil was drying out really fast because of the heat pad. So the containers just help retain the moisture and the humidity in the soil.
But, yeah, I'll check back in once we have some more results and see which ones start to sprout next. All right, so the reed avocado has continued to grow really well. It's got nice green leaves on it.
It's looking really good and is definitely overdue to be transplanted into soil, so we'll do that today. The hash avocado in water has started to sprout as well. It's got a little root coming out, so glad to see that one's going well.
As for the ones in soil, the reed avocado has sprouted, and it's looking awesome. It's got a nice, healthy, thick trunk. And the hash avocado, nothing there yet that I can see, so. Yeah, not too sure what's happening, but we'll see if that one starts to sprout as well eventually.
But let's move on to transplanting this one into some soil. So I've just filled the bottom of this pot with some regular potting mix, and I'm just going to hold the avocado up here and carefully place soil around it.
And you just want to be really careful when you transplant avocados. They don't like root disturbance, so just be really, really careful not to break or disturb any of those roots. Now, I do just want to give this some water.
Obviously, at the moment, this plant is adapted to living in water, but you don't want to keep the soil too moist for too long. Basically, I'm just going to water it fairly well for a few days and then start to taper back on the water.
If you keep watering and over watering your plant in soil, you might cause root rot, which is pretty common with avocados. So basically keep it moist for a bit and then taper back on the water until it can adapt to living in more drier conditions.
Okay, so for this update, we've got some interesting stuff happening. The avocado that we transplanted last time is looking a bit sad, a bit droopy, as you can see here. I guess he's just suffered a bit of transplant shock and is still recovering from that.
But meanwhile, the other Reed avocado has overtaken this one. It's looking really nice and tall, really great healthy leaves on it. And yeah, so even though this one took a lot longer to sprout initially, it has grown a lot faster and a lot better than the one that we started in water.
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