Re: growing an avacado == WAS THIS A WASTE OF TIME?

[Guest guest]

SARAH -- PLEASE SEE THE BOTTOM - READ ABOUT THE SWEET POTATO VS YAM -- THAT YOU

WOULD NOT LIKELY FIND - BUT I FOUND 987,000 REPLYS TO YOUR QUESTION WHEN I

DECIDED TO LOOK!!! DID I WASTE MY TIME??? I WILL ALWAYS HELP WHEN I CAN, BUT

**PLEASE** MY TIME IS AS VALUABLE AS YOURS -- BOTH TO ME, AND MANKIND AT THIS

MOMENT.  JUST A GENTLE REMINDER TO ****ALL***** LOOK, THEN ASK.  THANKS - Like

I said you would not have found the Yam-sweet potato answer easily - and few on

this list noticed the difference I don't believe, plus the 3d one looked pealed

-- was there a season this was not metnioned in the wrtie up?

-- just like you do from the sweet-potato -but first a

few words - the first two were yams, and  needed LONGER - THE LAST

ONE WAS A 'SWEET POTATO' AND THEY do grow faster than yams in general --

believing that I wrote it down somewhere -- that the first 'organic' one to

sprout did so poorly can be due to MANY different reasons just as parsley can

take an average of 90 days before germination, some take closer to 120 days, 4

months and a Greek (Cypress) variety holds the record at over six months before

germination, but then from the first signs of germination to seed is less than

30 days! -- yikes!  -- thus the saying that parsley must go to hell and

back before she'll sprout. 

 

The one that DID sprout so rapidly was difficult to believe

-- not saying I don't, only that it was difficult since using a compass and a

quick guestimate shows that she grew roots about 4x faster per unit area of

leaf surface than ANY plant I know in the entire family -- not easy to do since

the potato family comes from the high desert where, once it rains, the rain is

about done and as far as the plant goes the die is cast as far as rate of

growth and size of tuber.

 

The size of the sweet potato also influences the growth

pattern and rapidity of both roots and leaf surface -- it looks to me like one

was given far more sun than the others, and went through a daily rotation of

the potato which it did not appear that the yams received. 

 

Questions for which I have answers but you probably don't

include: why would one 'organic' potato grow so slowly and poorly and he others

far faster, but without the necessary power to kick-start the growth of their

energy factories - also why, after by my count, more than about 2 months in

water constantly why would the bottoms not have started any 'rot' in any of the

60 day in water potatoes which would most certainly have shown the first

tell-tale-signs of tuber-rot esp. since potatoes are NOT rot-resistant, even

when bred for it (in fact most yams are VERY prone to rot thus they need both a

great deal of water AND super well drained soil, the perfect conditions found

on the cultivated slopes of the steeply ascending volcanic soils one the rain

HAS started.    Most yams MUST have some

period to 'dry out' a bit and be given time to produce oxygen to help control

the anaerobic bacteria. 

 

So how do YOU explain the differences between the three

types of potatoes, and how do you explain the link to 'cancer' which has not

been established in the film - it's like 'here are the facts BUT WHAT IF

'ANCIENT

ALIENS' BROUGHT POTATOES WITH THEM -- (HOW ELSE WOULD OR COULD THEY HAVE

EVOLVED ON THE ALTO-PLANO) THOUGH YAMS (which need more warmth in the soils)

HAVE CO-GENISIS IN BOTH Africa and in the low-lying areas of the

Americas. 

 

Yams are far less resistant to molds and fungi than are the

sweet potatoes, and sweet potatoes are far more are alkaloid free ( " poison

free " ) than yams, though yams have the most powerful alkaloids of the two

families, enough to kill a person or certainly make them sick over time since

they carry heavy metals which build up in your body.

 

So I do suspect that the first two specimens grown are Yams

and the third specimen is a sweet potato - like comparing a goat to a

domesticated cow when it comes to rate of growth and disease resistance. 

So, right off I have a 'funny feeling' about the 'experiment' which was not

made on purpose, but by the 'common name'   - thus the scientists’

abhorrence of using a 'common name' over a " Linarian " name - one

great difference is that the 'great morning glory' sweet potato sequesters, if

I recall correctly 20x-50x more aluminum in the tuber than the 'morning glory

yam' for those who are worried about using aluminum cookware or storage

containers. 

 

Also, with the help of a specific person in a health food

store a student would be able to pick out (or be given) a species which grows

faster (more leaf area and root length in less time) than another species - how

then do you explain the 'organic' 'potato' with such spindly leaves to that

with such a greater abundance of leaf production. I’m not saying it was

done on purpose, it could well have been an ‘uncontrolled variable’ which at

her age is more likely to be over looked than at an older age judging. 

 

It could also be that because these are tropical and

sub-tropical plants, very small differences in temperature make a GREAT

difference in how rapidly they will grow, if at all.  So a tuber set out

in water in a window which gets x hours of light a day, and the water stays y

degrees on average, increasing the daylight by 15 minutes a day, and raising

the temperature by 3 degrees F, and you can increase the growth rate of a tuber

by FIVE times that of a tuber started earlier  -and they don't 'catch-up'

-- being tubers, their genetic make-up makes them start - and remain - at a

specific growth rate throughout a season with less than a 2%-5% difference in

variation of growth.

 

Experiments with the edible flower (tip of my tongue --

vine, many pastels of color, soil at 68*f-72*f, sunlight >15 hrs a day -- tastes

peppery - you all know it -ANYway - force the seed indoors, put it out doors,

an growth will never exceed 60% of regular plant, flowers will always be slow

to develop, and small in size and the 'hot' in the 'peppery' flavor

(NASTURTIUMS!!!!) will always be stronger than the 'peppery' and always be a

bit bitter, though the 'peppery' flavor will strengthen over a summer, but

never approach the normal flavor –

 

Because responding forces me to type at less than 20 WPM

(NOT my normal 100-120 WPM) AND a buffer overflow problem, I have cut this

short – a simple 2 page or less reply like this takes me well over 2 hours to

write and correct, when normally it takes me about 10 minutes or less – I

thought I’d have time to answer with greater thoroughness than I have time for

– I actually have real work I am doing though the snow outside keeps me in by

the fire, a very comfortable place to stay.

 

So about the Yams vs Sweet Potatoes – grow it like you would

normally, when you see roots VERY GENTLY POUR SUPER SATURATED STARTING SOIL

OVER THE ROOTS IN A PAPER CONTAINER OR IN TO A GALLON NURSERY CONTAINER OR MAKE

YOUR OWN STARTING CONTAINER OUT OF PAPER MACHE)  (Please excuse the all caps,

the processor doesn’t keep up and

the quick strike of the ‘key caps’ is often lost as is the space bar, or

even

delayed until into the next work somewhere, it’s all quite frustrating) . 

Keep it in a WARM sunny window – and keep

the soil damp at a depth – using paper straws will help you here – it keeps

the

seed at soil level yet pulls the roots down. 

 

You won’t be able to graft onto better roots for faster

growth or greater production so keep the crown above soil,  The MOMENT you see

roots start out the holes

at the bottom of the planter, take the entire planter and place it in SANDY

soil,

and mix bone and blood meal just below the container which you have place in a

fine sand or silty soil, and place it about2-3-4 inches BELOW the first layer

of soil which is the sandy loam – then put in a foot or more of bark or other

soil admendnent depending on the type of soil you have, and add a handful of

dry ammonia sulfate along with some sulfate if your soil is low in sulfur and

much soil is – the Amonium sulfate will give soil bacteria enough nitrogen to

break down the bark chunks AND produce enough nitrogen for your trees to grow

by the time the roots reach them – keep he plant insie AT LEAST one year, two

is better, so you may need a  5 gallon

contaier  agin make it out of paper

mache if you can, as this is easy to plant, cannot hold too muich waer, allows

for good breathing nthe roots, and bio-degrades when planted out side.  

Plant  at least two trees about 20 feet apart as they can reach 60 feet tall

and a good 20-30 feet in diameter but most pople don’t have 90 feet in length

to grow 2 trees. 

 

If they sprout (expect about 30% - 40% failure from seed )

you are about in the high 80% to be able to harvest fruit in 5-10 years after

you plant them outside – where they need frequently DEEP watering with a

mixture of 10% compost tea and multiple surface waterings (2 inches of water

every few days if you have the proper soil) and do this watering ONLY in the

late morning and early afteroon as it’s purpose is to evaporate and keep the

leaves cool. 

 

Knock off any fruit the begin to develop in the first  5 years to allow the

tree to grow deep roots

and a strong branching system to hold the fruit which can exceed a ton per tree

when grown.  At 5 years keep only 10% of

the fruit, and see if it is producing fruit of enough quality that you would

personally give it as a prized gift, if not, do not let it produce fruit for

another five years.  Then allow 10% of

the fruit to develop – if it still does not produce superior fruit, cull the

tree – thus the need for several trees as they do FAR better when they have a

cultivars from which they can fertilize as MOST self-fertilized trees do not

produce good fruit – yes, some do, but it would be less than 5% the quality

one

would get from a better cultivars pollinating the tree.  And recall, here we

are speaking of ONLY

avocado trees, not other types of trees, it would be like talking about corn

and maze – or corn and squash – each has their own habits which exploit a

weakness to make it stronger  --

sometimes the best survival strategy is to not self-produce at all but need

another tree – other times it’s best if you can self-pollinate and produce

the

finest fruit.  Sometimes it’s to use

another tree to produce inferior fruit while using your own genes to produce

the seeds which are NOT attacked as ‘weak’ ones are by environmental

stressors.  And so it Goes! – Good luck

– I just pulled up a LOT on the web about growing Avocados – wonder why you

asked the group such a general question when there is SO much information

already out there-

 

GROWING

AVOCADO TREES AT HOME produced 987,000 ARTICLES!!!! WAS THIS A WASTE OF MY

TIME?  Or is your time just more valuable than

mine? Next time please ask the group what you see the problem migh tbe so we

can spend out time NOT reinventing the wheel!

" Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. " Carl Sagan.

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>To:

>Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 7:29 AM

>Subject: growing an avacado

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>Hi all, I have an organic avocado pit here. Is it possible to grow a tree from

this? If so, how would I go about doing that? Thanks.

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