4

I live in western Arkansas / eastern Oklahoma. There are generally mild winters with snow and hot, humid summers where the temperature is often over 90 °F

For the past year I have been growing an Avocado that I started from a seed. About 6 months ago the original stem lost its leaves and turned brown, but it is still there in the pot. Right after this happened another "plant" started growing in the same pot. Since we moved a couple of months ago, I moved the entire contents of the pot to a much larger 20" pot and kept it outside for the summer. I've already looked at many of the other posts about avocados but none of them look like what is now growing in my pot.

Link to pictures

My questions are:

  1. Is this plant still an Avocado or is it something totally different?

  2. Do I need to prune it back or should I continue to let it grow?

J. Chomel
  • 3,729
  • 3
  • 15
  • 35
Muldoon
  • 41
  • 2
  • 1
    whether it produces fruit or not depends where you are in the world - in the UK, no. – Bamboo Jul 29 '13 at 12:20
  • I live in western Arkansas / eastern Oklahoma. There are generally mild winters with snow and hot, humid summers where the temperature is often over 90 °F. – Muldoon Jul 29 '13 at 18:41
  • 2
    If you want to keep it inside- which you will need to in the winter if it freezes- you will want to prune it. You can keep it shrub like if you do, but otherwise you'll end up with something much too tall for your house (35 ft or so). http://ucavo.ucr.edu/General/PruningSmallTree.html – Meep Dec 30 '13 at 02:31

1 Answers1

2

Some details needed. What type of avocado is it? Generally one started from seed is not going to grow true to it's parent plant and it will be 7-10 years before you know whether it will even produce fruit.

The plant in the pictures looks right in line with an avocado tree.

Your general Avocado trees are very finicky as far as weather. The slightest cold spell can kill them. If you get snow, your climate is too cold.

If you are truly interested in growing avocado, have you looked at maybe getting what is referred to as a "hardy" avocado variety that can succeed in your climate? It will also have been started from a graft which means the end adult plant will be exactly what you expect.

gggeek
  • 421
  • 3
  • 5