Quick Guide

Avocado Flask is a modern pot designed to offer you a unique experience in your own home: all you need is water, a little light, and touch of patience to watch a seed transforming before your eyes into a lush seedling, day after day.

The Avocado Flask was created to be a small home habitat for germinating and growing a seedling from an avocado seed. A relaxing, fulfilling activity that can be done alone, with friends and colleagues, or with the family; either at home or in the office or workplace. The result of this slow, gradual growth will be a charmingly stylish verdant decorative feature, to which you yourself will have made a vital contribution.

In recent years, you may have noticed that houseplants are making a strong comeback, one symptom of a reborn collective awareness that drives people to surround themselves with and devote themselves to the world’s more natural elements. They seem to be everywhere, in houses, in shops, in offices; plants that come to cover entire green walls or even the façades of modern buildings. A great collective effort to embrace nature and keep it closer to us.

A trend that offers several advantages, which once known and appreciated, become essential. It has been proven by multiple studies that adding living plants to rooms oxygenates and purifies the air, but not only that: it also has positive influences on stress, making people happier and more relaxed.

We hope you will have a lot of fun and enjoy watching this little miracle of nature through your Avocado Flask.

We have chosen to dedicate this product in particular to the avocado, because it is a highly appreciated, delicious and nutritious fruit, grown all over the world. However, we believe that what is most incredible is that inside each avocado there is a surprise: a smooth, perfect seed that can result in a real plant.

It would be a crime to throw it away! So why not take care of it?

For years, anyone who wanted to try their hand at growing an avocado from seed have had no other means than the popular practice of toothpicks stuck into the kernel, and then precariously balancing this on a glass filled with water. Unfortunately, piercing the seed with toothpicks runs the risk of damaging it, making it less likely to germinate and more prone to rot; this can mean weeks of hopeful anticipation ending in great disappointment.  Not to mention the anti-aesthetic impact of these domestic “hydroponic systems”, which need to remain exposed in the home for months.

Avocados can be grown at any time of the year, but remember that it is a tropical plant, so it should be kept warm and in an environment that is preferably humid and never overly dry.
Growing an avocado seed is a fairly simple operation. The seed is tough and robust and is usually quite cooperative, even with those who cannot boast of having a green thumb.

The lazier among you should know that filling the Avocado Flask with water and placing the seed in it, with the pointed side up and the wider side facing down (here the seed usually has a small circle in the centre called a knot), may already be enough to successfully initiate germination.

But if you want to get the best results, we recommend following these simple steps, in which we will reveal all the tricks of the trade.

Preparing several seeds at once will certainly give you a better chance of success, especially if you are a beginner.

First of all, the seed must be taken from a ripe avocado; the riper the fruit, the better. To speed up the ripening of the avocado, simply place it in a paper bag or wrap it in newspaper; it will ripen even faster if placed next to fruits such as apples or bananas. Remember that avocados should never be stored in the refrigerator.

The first stage takes place in contact with water and is called “imbibition”, where the seed becomes permeable and hydrates by taking in oxygen and water. The second stage is called “digestion” with the synthesis of enzymes and hormones in the seed, nutrients that will be transferred to the growing tissues. In the last stage, the seedling starts to develop in a recognisable way, the radicle, from which the roots will be generated, sprouts at the bottom, while the plumule or plumula, from which the stem and leaves will originate sprout at the top.

There is no definite time frame, the wait to see the first root sprout from the seed depends very much on the strength of the seed, the temperature, and of course the season in which you have decided to start growing.

If, after 4 to 6 weeks, the taproot has still not developed, consider whether you should start again with a new seed.
In winter, however, the seed may remain dormant for a long time and take even more than three months to start germinating.

Once the seed has germinated and the first small leaves have sprouted, the plant will start to produce its own nutrition through photosynthesis. As a result, you will start to see the roots grow rapidly, as well as the main stem, which will sprout vertically and develop a clump of leaves.
The leaves and stem will tend to lean towards the light source in the room; rotate the pot at least once a week to ensure better exposure and uniform growth on each side.

The best time to plant your avocado plant in soil is when it has reached a height of 15/20 cm (6/8 inches).

After long weeks of waiting, it might be difficult, almost inconceivable, to think about the idea of grabbing scissors and cleanly cutting the stem with its beautiful green leaves. However, pruning the avocado plant is not a compulsory practice for cultivation, but be aware that cutting the stem early is a good thing, as it encourages regeneration and growth.

We recommend the first pruning, when the plant has reached a height of at least 20/25 cm. 

Pruning can be repeated periodically, both on the stem and on new branches, to initiate new branching processes, thus shaping the plant and guiding its growth.

You will have to take care of your plant for many years before you see it produce avocados; an avocado tree takes an average of 5 to 13 years to bear fruit. But it may never produce any, as several mature plants are needed for cross-pollination by insects to occur.

There are over 500 varieties of avocados in the world and they differing in colour, size, shape, texture and degree of ripeness attainable. However, the most widespread commercial varieties are “only” around 15.

At the top of the podium is the Hass avocado, the world’s most widespread, and popular for its flavour and creamy texture. Suffice to say that 80% of the avocados marketed in the US are of this variety. Other well-known types are the Bacon, Reed, Fuerte, Pinkerton, Gwen and Zultan varieties.

The long history of the avocado is extremely compelling and curious. From prehistoric times to the present day, it has seen several name changes, monopolised economies, involved prehistoric animals, Aztecs and Mayans, lucky postmen, film stars and even the Super Bowl. But how did this tribal fruit turn into a globally consumed and appreciated foodstuff?

What seems fairly certain is that human cultivation of the avocado began in Mexico and Central America, becoming an integral part of the culture of pre-Columbian peoples such as the Maya and Mokaya. In fact, in the fourteenth month of the Mayan calendar we find the glyph of the avocado, as well as on some tombs, underlining the social and ritual importance of this fruit. The avocado was well known even to the Aztecs; documented traces of avocado cultivation dating back to 750 BC have been found in Peru.

It was the Californian traders who, faced with the initial poor commercial success, decided to conduct a rebranding operation; any reference to intimate parts and threatening reptiles was removed, relaunching the more exotic and simple name “Avocado”, which has officially and almost universally been used since then.

The cornerstone in the history of the commercial spread of avocados is due to the American, Rudolf Hass, a postman by profession and amateur horticulturist. In 1926, Hass began to buy plants and to conduct several experiments, with crosses and grafts, but with little success. Just when he was about to throw in the towel, he almost accidentally obtained a particularly tasty and creamy variety of avocado, which he patented under his own name. Today, the Hass variety is the most widely grown in the USA and the most popular and consumed variety all over the world.

In the 1920s, there was massive publicity for the avocado in American magazines and newspapers. It was during this period that it probably began to imprint itself in the collective imagination as an aristocratic, luxury food.

In the following decades, the avocado enjoyed increasing popularity and crops began to multiply; the largest producing countries to date are Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Colombia, Indonesia, the United States, Chile and Brazil. In Italy, avocado plants have been cultivated for several decades in Sicily, Calabria and Sardinia.

Other epochal commercial boosts came during the 1990s, when Californian growers went to great lengths to propose guacamole (avocado-based) sauce as the official snack to be consumed during the American football final on the famous Super Bowl Sunday. According to many, the strong following of Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow, a great promoter of this superfood, contributed to the avocado’s strong revival in the 2000s, so much so that in 2013 she included it in her popular healthy cookbook “It’s All Good”.

The strong expansion of the global avocado industry has unfortunately led to its cultivation becoming increasingly difficult and environmentally demanding. So much so that it poses a serious threat of deforestation in some areas of Mexico. Indeed, there is a tendency to cut down wild trees to make room for Hass avocado plants, and that is without counting the enormous amount of water needed to grow these plants.

In response to these environmental but also political issues, numerous initiatives and brands have sprung up to promote a sustainable cultivation concept and the fair trade of avocados throughout the supply chain. This awareness has been helping to make the sector safer and fairer in recent years.

One of the most astonishing aspects of the avocado’s history lies in the fact that over the centuries, this tropical fruit has managed to reach the whole world and enter many different cultures, literally making everyone who has come into contact with it fall in love with it.
Today we find avocados on toast, in sushi, burritos, salads, smoothies and… in so many people’s hearts!

With Avocado Flask, we hope to stimulate your curiosity and transmit your passion for nature, encouraging you to turn a seed into a flourishing avocado plant.

Share pictures of your seedling with us on social media, we look forward to seeing your progress.

#AvocadoFlask

It can be said that growing avocado seeds is an activity that never gets boring, but should you wish to experiment with something different, your Avocado Flask can be adapted for germination or hydroponic cultivation, of dozens of fantastic little seedlings.

Using a similar procedure to that of the avocado, you can easily sprout sweet potato tubers and beautiful tulips from the bulb.

Other spectacular plants can grow and thrive for a long time in hydroculture in the Avocado Flask, requiring much less effort and care than a plant grown in the ground; they simply need to be kept with their roots submerged in water. Those that are best suited to this type of cultivation, with the certainty of a good degree of success, are: Pothos, Philodendron, Dracaena, Croton, Zamioculcas (Zamia), Clusia, Anthurium, Zerbina, Papyrus, Pilea, Chlorophytum (Spider plant), Singonium, Monstera, Aglaonema, Spathiphyllum, Sansevieria, Calathea and Strelizia.
You’ll be spoilt for choice!

Like any object designed to hold water, the Avocado Flask may also be subject to limescale build-up in areas where water tends to evaporate. To remove that annoying matt patina, a mild limescale cleaner would suffice, but what we recommend is a more natural, simple, eco-friendly and economical solution: lemon!

If the build up is stubborn and difficult to reach with a sponge in some places, fill your Avocado Flask with a solution consisting of the juice of two lemons, vinegar and warm water. Leave it to sit overnight and rinse the next day, after wiping with a non-abrasive sponge.

You will be surprised at how clear and shiny the glass will be again.