Avocado Tree Growth Stages


Understanding the life cycle of an avocado tree will help you become a better gardener. What are its growth stages?
By     

Avocado trees are evergreen trees that produce creamy fruits with numerous health benefits. The tree’s lush, vivid green foliage also provides beautiful aesthetics. They have 4 to 12-inch long elliptical to egg-shaped leaves, and the tree’s foliage can grow very tall or wide.

These trees can live for 400 years or more, with some of the oldest trees still bearing fruit. Cultivating avocados from seeds, also called pits or stones, takes patience and a lot of time. It can take 13 to 15 years for the tree to start flowering. 

Knowing how avocados grow will aid you in giving the plant and fruit the attention they require.

Seedling Stage

The journey of the avocado begins with a pit planted in the ground, usually taking 4 to 8 weeks to germinate. The pit divides in the center along the fracture line.

During the seedling stage, the plant’s primary leaves appear. After six weeks, a root should emerge from the seed’s base, and a sprout should emerge from the top. The sprout ascends while the root reaches down into the soil.

After a while, the first true leaves appear. The seedling is ready for transplant when the stem is 6 inches tall, and the roots are thick.

an avocado seedling with small leaf sprouts

Vegetative Stage

The tree’s juvenile stage lasts for the first two to three years. During this time, the plant is small and grows slowly.

Avocado plants develop from seedlings to young trees called saplings. The tree will begin to grow taller and produce more leaves.

After reaching a height of 6 to 12 feet, the tree continues to expand, and the growth rate accelerates. For the next 6 to 8 years, the tree will grow its main trunk and branches, as well as larger and more leaves. Up to this point, the tree has not bloomed or produced fruit.

healthy young avodaco plant leaves

Reproductive Stage

The avocado tree is ready to bloom about 10 to 15 years from planting the seed. Flower buds often grow in the winter in preparation for spring flowering. Buds can develop into fruit-bearing reproductive flowers or remain vegetative. These vegetative buds do not become fruits and will most likely wilt away.

Before forming the recognizable fruit, the plant first produces typical yellow-greenish flowers. These blooms open and close over two days, once as functionally female and once as functionally male, suggesting that avocado trees can self-pollinate.

While most of these flowers will fall off the tree, any fertilized blossoms will develop into fruits. The ovary develops into a full avocado fruit after fertilization, while the ovule develops into the seed.

After pollination, the flowers close and continue to form fleshy fruits.

mature and flowering avocado tree

Mature Stage

The tree produces buds in the winter to prepare for spring blossoming. The cycle of blooming and fruiting lasts several seasons. The avocado tree can generate up to one million flowers annually, but only about 100 to 200 flowers per tree become fruits. The flower to fruit cycle spans 8 to 15 months.

The fruit-bearing development pattern of an avocado tree is periodic, with growth and rest phases. Typically, the buds develop during the period of rest.

The avocado tree yields fruit alternately, meaning that the tree may produce a large yield one year and a modest harvest the next. 

Avocados do not ripen on the tree; ripening begins after the fruit is harvested. At normal temperatures, an avocado takes 7 to 10 days to ripen.

a fruiting avocado tree
Phillis Butler
WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.