21.01.10

today the last leaf dropped; the avocado stem is naked. there has been progress though: a new axillary bud has appeared just below the apical one, which is showing a leaf primordium (notice the hook in picture below). new leaves should come out of these buds. for now i will keep the plant warm and watered and give it lots of light. also, i fed it a serving of (15,15,18) fertilizer today. we'll see how the recovery goes.


bud development


other life around here is thriving...


potted hyacinth budding

hyacinth roots in a glass vase

21.10.09

i gave the avo plant another dose of fertilizer yesterday.

avo, oct 21st, 1 day after fertilizer

developing leaves, oct 21st

13.10.09

on october 8th i brought home a ziplock bag of bright blue, powdered (15,15,18)* fertilizer. it was given to me by my horticulture prof for a take home growing experiment. i decided to share it with the avocado and gave it a light sprinkling of the solution.

the avocado continued to grow vertically and the number of axillary buds increased, but they remained very small and undeveloped. the apical dome and leaf primordia remained hidden under unopened developing leaves at the top of the shoot.

avocado leaflets, october 13th, 5 days after receiving fertilizer


*these numbers represent the percentage of macromolecules nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, respectively, present in the fertilizer. different plant species have different fertilizer preferences.