Well... it's 2 yrs old, started in the compost pile & spent the first summer outside in the veg garden. I dug it up in the fall, since it had grown rather tall & looked happy. I was too tender-hearted to condemn it to death by frost. Currently 2' tall (+ that 2" new growth I mentioned) & living in a 1 gallon plastic pot of garden soil/compost. It has a little over an inch of thin bark coming on at the base of the trunk. I've been using 1/8 strength 3:1:2 fertilizer for about a month, usually about every week or 10 days. None of the new leaves since fertilizer have had crispy tips - I think they're from last summer when I let it get a little too dry - it really hasn't been a leaf-dropper at all. At the equinox, I'm going up everybody's doses to 1/4 strength for a while. Everyone just got a pot flush yesterday (no food) since the weather was so nice - my S-facing glass-roof deck was out of the N wind & "warm" w/ the glass magnifying the sun. All the plants are getting southern exposure at this point & the 'Cado is right by the window. Anyhoo - it will get a root prune & repot into fast mix in June. Maybe a move to a 2 gal pot; we'll see what those roots are doing... then it can eat as much as it wants. I may very well defoliate the trunk at that point. I think it will enjoy spending the summer outdoors. I'm after a taller plant, so when I lop, it's just a few cm off the top. The last cut (only the 2nd lopping) brought 2 buds: the slacker & the over-achiever. If the slacker gets it's @ss in gear, that'll be enough balance for now & I'll let those shoots grow the better part of a foot or so before I chop them. If not, I'll take another few cm off the top & hope for more balanced budding. Thanks Josh for sharing your experience on this thread - I think Avocado is something most people try, simply because it's around. You're proving that it can actually be a viable & attractive houseplant, given one is willing to put in some initial work. GB

Well, mostly my blueberries, which I am just thrilled with. They are thriving in pots, which allows me to regulate their pH, and apparently, I'd dead on, because they're getting huge. First time I've been able to successfully grow blueberries. I'll have a small crop this year, and now that I've got them behind some significant screening, I'll be able to harvest all of them, without feeding the roof rats or ground squirrels, yippee! And, both my 'Chester' and my 'Prime Jim' blackberries are going to give me some lovey blackberries this season, too. My fav berry above all others. And, I just bought two 'San Diego' tomatoes I'm going to plant tomorrow, and also create some hardware cloth surrounds for them as I did for my blueberries. And, an Anaheim and a Sante Fe Grande pepper as well. Lastly, I'll need to pick up some Cilantro as well as a Tomatillo plant. That way, I have all my Pico de Gallo salsa ingredients! Have to buy my avocadoes for a year more, until my avocado trees start producing, but I just checked, and 3 of my larger trees are setting avos, yea for me!! So, I'll have Littlecado, Sir Prize and Lamb Haas avos next year. The rest of my avos are still a year or more beyond that from producing, but I'm a patient gardener :-) Patty S.

Hello, dear avocado lovers. My indoor avocado tree is 1.5 year old and up till now was doing great. Recently we moved to new flat and then problems started. First of all, its leaves became "sad", looking downside. Second, almost all old leaves have a brown tip. At last, it started to loose its old leaves. Could you help me to find what has happened with my avocado tree? Some info regarding its environment - germinated from a seed in a glass of water, whole life has been growing in a pot without hole. Based in Lithuania, so it almost does not get direct sun light, but it was not a problem at least till now. Could the problems be caused by floor heating? Thank you in advance. Marius

So I finally got around to this project, took awhile to get everything ready and moving but it's finally nearing completion. Most of the big trees came from Maddock, at $54 they are a great value. I also sourced from Durling who had great value at about $50 for similar trees. Most of the rare varieties came from Atkins and Persea and while small I was just glad to be able to find them, hopefully they catch up with the others. Hopefully this photo displays ok, will probably be hard to see the small trees in the back. Starting at the left, in the front and going back... Column 1: Carmen Hass on Dusa, Lamb Hass on Zutano, Sir Prize on Zutano, Hass on Zutano Column 2: GEM on Zutano, Lamb Hass on G6, Sir Prize on D9, Hass on G6 Column 3: Kona Sharwil on Zutano, Pinkerton on G6, Nimlioh on Zutano, Queen on Zutano Column 4: Reed on D9, Empty Hole (Jan Boyce still MIA), Fuerte on Zutano, Nabal on Zutano Some trees are showing shock with some leaf drop but that is to be expected. I have them on drips for the time being until they get established then I will go to microsprinklers. Thanks for your advice guys, hopefully these trees take off and I'll be swimming in avos in no time.