Growing Avocados Indoors - The French Alternative

According to Jackie French, you can have large, beautiful house plants without spending hundreds of dollars - you simply grow your own! Jackie likes to grow avocados as indoor plants because they're easy to propagate. Also, you first need to eat an avocado, which is no hardship at all!

Growing your indoor avocado

Fill a pot with potting mix. Plant the avocado seed pointy end up with the top of the seed just at soil level. Keep the pot moist and in partial shade. Sometime in the next month to a year the seed will split open and a shoot will emerge. When the seedling is about 30cm (12") tall, transfer it to an attractive pot, bring it inside and place it next to a well-lit window. Feed with liquid fertiliser in spring and summer, keep well watered and wipe the leaves with a damp cloth to keep them free of dust every month or so. Your avocado will not fruit indoors, so just enjoy it for its size, lushness and generally expensive look!

Further reading

For more tips on growing indoor avocados, see Jackie's article in the March edition of the Burke's Backyard magazine. It's available at newsagents and supermarkets for $4.95.

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