I Grew a Supermarket Avocado and It Surpassed 2 Meters — Handle Repotting with Care!
Hello, this is Shushi, CEO at SoCalization.
This blog is a somewhat grand (and very real) record of the question:
“What happens if you grow an avocado seed from a supermarket?”
In the previous articles, we followed the journey of our beloved Demogorgon Brothers (our avocado plants) through germination and early growth.
But this time, the story takes a slightly bittersweet turn.
Yes—this is the tale of saying goodbye to both of them.
The Journey of How Two Out of Four Avocado Plants Withered
Originally, we had four avocado plants in our home.
Each had its own “personality” (so to speak) and distinct leaf shapes and they were all adorable in their own way.
The one I found particularly unique, along with the seedling that unexpectedly sprouted with two heads due to a mishap, was the plant on the far left in the photo: the one that grew its side branches vigorously.
I’ve been raising all of them with a “natural style” philosophy: no pinching, no leaf removal whatsoever.
While the others grew straight upward like well-behaved students, this one alone grew diagonally outward, with a wonderfully free-spirited growth style.
Here’s an early photo of the side branches. Technically, they’re called lateral buds or axillary buds, it seems!
According to what I found during my research, it’s actually fairly uncommon for lateral buds to sprout without performing a central stem cut (pinching or topping).
Apparently, the tip of a plant’s main stem (called the apical bud) exhibits a trait known as apical dominance, which essentially means:
“As long as I’m thriving up here, no need for any lower buds to show up! I’ve got this!”
That’s the hormonal command (from a substance called auxin) being sent down from the top.
Then one day, things began to change—the leaves started losing their color, and the lower leaves began to fall off one by one.
Was It Pests? Suspicious Soil and a Repotting I Regret
After observing the situation for a while, I started to suspect that the issue might lie in the soil.
That’s when a new theory emerged:
“The jumping bugs from another pot may have moved in.”
In that other pot, the leaves had also started falling off, as if parasites were sucking out the nutrients. Of course, this is all just amateur speculation on my part.
I even tried using a pest control spray like this one, but I couldn’t tell if it was actually working.
Worried that the real problem might be underground, I made a bold decision:
I threw out all the soil and went ahead with a full repotting.
Unfortunately, my hopeful thought, “This should refresh it and bring it back to life!” was in vain.
What followed was a heartbreaking development: the lower leaves continued to wither and fall one after another.
Looking back at photos from that time, I noticed that the roots were lacking healthy white roots and appeared generally weak and thin.
Apparently, when white roots are well-developed, you’ll see glossier leaves and more new growth.
Considering the plant’s overall size, the root volume felt insufficient.
It wasn’t obvious on the surface, but I can’t rule out the possibility that bugs may have slowly been eating away at the roots.
A Fatal Mistake: Repotting Without Proper Knowledge
I would later learn that repotting is actually a highly stressful process for plants, and at the time, I had no understanding of how delicate avocado roots are or how sensitive they can be to environmental changes.
Without any real knowledge of how to repot properly, I just went for it with an “oh well, let’s do this!” attitude.
In hindsight, I have so many regrets:
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Maybe I disturbed the roots too much
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Maybe I overwatered
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Maybe I didn’t manage the sunlight correctly
These kinds of lessons learned kept piling up one after another.
The plant eventually declined to the state you see in the photo above.
After that point, the leaves stopped falling, so I held on to a faint hope: maybe it’ll recover...
I waited it out for about a month.
I really wanted it to bounce back.
But… it didn’t. (It stayed exactly as shown in the photo.)
The branches were sparse, the leaves tattered… no signs of new growth.
And finally, I made up my mind:
“…It’s time to say goodbye.”
I also said farewell to the other plant—the one in the original pot where I’d suspected bug issues.
It had been growing new leaves at the top, but the lower ones kept falling off.
I’ll go into more detail about my follow-up research in a future post, but here I’d like to touch on one more point: the way the two plants lost their leaves was different.
For Mr. Arm-Zoom (the one with long side branches), his leaves gradually turned brown, but they never actually fell off on their own, they just stayed there, fully browned.
(Of course, I removed them because they didn’t look good.)
The other plant, on the other hand, had a different symptom:
its leaves remained green, but they fell off one by one from the bottom without any intervention.
I’ve heard that some parasites keep their host “alive but weakened”, and since I did see bugs on the surface of the soil, I decided:
this one’s done, too.
The Two Survivors and the Next Challenge
Two plants survived.
But these two weren’t just barely surviving: they were thriving, growing steadily and looking healthy.
The one on the right was in a slim white pot, and now that Mr. Arm-Zoom’s large brown pot was empty, I thought:
“Why not repot one of them into that pot to encourage more growth?”
That said… after the last traumatic repotting experience, I couldn't help but feel nervous.
And that’s when a brilliant idea came to me:
“Maybe I should ask AI?”
👉 In the next post, I’ll share the story of my “revenge repotting” adventure with ChatGPT, along with a growth diary of the two survivors—
“Raul” (left) and “Fukasawa-kun” (right), as renamed by my Snow Man-loving wife!
Growing avocados is harder than I expected— but it’s even more fun than I imagined.
Some days don’t go well, but on days like that, I figure I’ll just have a beer, laugh it off, and think about my next move.
At SoCalization, we carry a great lineup of craft beers and natural wines, perfect for those chill moments.
If you’re ever watching your avocado grow, feel free to take a look 👇
