Our Married Tree

Our avocado tree is flourishing!  Rich started this tree from a pit a few weeks after we were married.  It's beauty and strength to flourish is a reminder to us of our marriage and God's blessing in our lives.  This tree is 8 1/2 years old and has had a lot of things happen to it.  When Rich put the pit in the water it sent down roots right away but the leaves would start to come up and wither, this happened several times and I was about ready to give up on it.  Then we got the bright idea to cover the jar with paper to make the roots have darkness and it worked!  Up came the a big beautiful leaf stem.  When it reached 8 inches high we took the plunge and cut it down to 4 inches taking all the leaves.  I didn't have the courage to do it, so I had Rich do it.  This caused it to branch out and form a beautiful tree shape instead of just going straight up.  Then we planted it in a pot.  We lived in S. California at the time so we put it outside and it flourished into a beautiful little tree.  Then in 2005 we moved to Oregon.  We had it outside for while but when the temps began to drop we brought it into our bedroom in the condo we were living it.  It was a northern exposure, not getting much light so we put a grow lamp over it and that helped.  Because of the low light, the leaves became huge, each one was bigger than my hand.  Then the leaves began to fall and I realized it was not getting enough drainage.  Too wet of soil is a big enemy of avocados and can be lethal!  I fixed the problem but it wasn't in enough time to keep from every leaf falling off.  All we had was bare stubs and avocados are not deciduous trees.  We moved to the house we live in now.  We put it by a Southern exposure patio door and in about 2 weeks it sent out leaf shoots and was all leafed out by the time it got warm enough to set it outside.  It has been re potted several times to give it more room for the roots.  We have a greenhouse we put it in the winter and it likes that better than be putting it in the house.  Oregon winters are too cold and too wet for it to survive outside.  This spring we had another scare.  When Rich set the tree outside, he sat it in some mud that blocked the drainage holes and I didn't notice it and I watered and fertilized it too much.  Root rot began to set in!  I went a bought a big pot with large drainage holes on the bottom side, so that they wouldn't get plugged again.  We trimmed off all the rotted roots and put a lot of fresh soil in it.  We had kind of a cool wet spring, so it just sat there with yellowish green leaves, looking very sad.  I worried about it and even shed tears, thinking it would not recover and we would lose our beautiful Married tree that has been with us through so many things. But by late June, things began to turn around and it began sending out new growth!  I was thrilled.  It now is sending out it's second growth spurt.  It usually only has one growth spurt during the summer.  So, it is so happy and it makes Rich and I smile every time we see it.  Rich took some pictures of it on Saturday.  Maybe we will have avocados to harvest off of it one day and that will be a celebration all of its own!

Mac had to get in the action too!