Now many people are addicted to the cultivation of exotic plants. Certainly, and this has happened to you that eating brought out of the store exotic fruit or vegetable, there is a desire to try to grow it at home. And if you're still only about this wonder, many grown on windowsills in their tangerines, lemons, oranges, figs and other exotic delight. Not escaped this fate and avocado - alligator pear, as it is called by the British. And if you are not afraid of bold experiments, then we will tell you how to grow an avocado from bones.

As evidenced by archaeological data, the Aztecs cultivated avocados in the third millennium BC. Today, it is grown in Africa, Brazil and Israel. And if you want to feel like a planter, grow avocados at home. In nature, avocado grows in the tropics and subtropics, but you are on your window sill he may well be able to create such conditions. Avocado is a fast-growing tree, reaching a height of eighteen meters. But do not worry - you have so much he will not grow.

Germinated bone

This plant requires a sunny location. The soil should be fertile and well drained. During the fruiting plants require a lot of moisture. And if you are still wondering how to grow avocados at home, then carefully read on. Germinated pit avocado in two ways:

• Water

The stone is immersed in water. This requires a small vessel to bone peeking out of the water part of their acute. At the bottom position the charcoal, which will serve as a source of trace elements. Within three to six weeks of bones should appear sprout.

• Turf

Stone is planted in a special soil mix for which the peat with crushed expanded clay. Put the bone in the ground blunt end, the sharp must be above the soil surface, which should be well moistened. Cover the pot glass jar or plastic bag and put in a warm place lighted. Thus, you create a mini-greenhouse with greenhouse effect, and your pet will not face any one draft. In this case, the germ must hatch in a month.

Plant Care

Those who are interested in how to grow an avocado from the bones at home, will please immediately that this is not so difficult. The only requirement is that the process was successful - to create the necessary conditions avocados. First of all, this plant is necessary to heat and high humidity. It is equally important to choose the right soil with good drainage. At the bottom of the pot in which you are going to grow their exotic wood, concrete block, or put small pebbles. Watering, keep the soil is not pereuvlazhnyat - watering so that the base of the pot had no water. Even better water it is not very abundant, but every day to spray. Water for irrigation should be warm avocado.

The plant loves light. And it should be placed where a lot of light. But it should avoid contact with direct sunlight avocado, from which the leaves can develop burns. The temperature in the room where the avocado should not be below 16 ° C. For good growth and development of plants should be feed its mineral fertilizers. In the warm season - spring and summer - the plant should be fertilized at least twice a month. To plant is not a thing of the growth, it is necessary to pinch. If the time to pinch the top runners trees, it will be fluffy and sprawling. Transplanted avocado once a year, and to plant faster and better stuck in the new pot, it should be done in the spring.

Avocado requires a period of rest. And if your pet begins to drop leaves, do not worry - it just goes to "sleep." It can also go to the resting state, when the room temperature drops to 12 ° C. In autumn and winter, when our climate zone short daylight hours, avocados require additional lighting. This requires a special herbal lamp. Conventional fluorescent lamps for this purpose will not work - the plants need UV light.

If avocados foliage dries, you will most likely cause is too dry air. To add moisture to the plant, place the pot in a pan with a wet expanded clay or moss. Furthermore, for this purpose can be sprayed as a plant itself, and the air around it. Another cause of dry leaves is irregular watering. Make sure that the soil was not over-dry, but remember that this plant waterlogging is also not helpful. Stick to a stable regime of watering.

The ground for avocados should be moist and loose. Make sure to earth com does not cake and is not compacted. Avocados do not like acidic soil, so the landing is better to make a mixture in equal parts of which will be composed of humus, garden soil and coarse sand. It can be in the way for an avocado and add a little lime. In order that the soil is saturated with oxygen added thereto moss, sand, expanded clay or peat.

Avocado Pests

You should know that there is a plant pest - Jose scale and spider mites. Plants damaged by spider mites, lose their color, the leaves turn pale. On their surfaces appear yellowish spots, and their number is growing rapidly. They arise from the fact that pests suck from several neighboring cell sheet cell sap. At strong damage leaves can dry completely.

If you notice a thin web of time, appeared on the plant, then you can get rid of the pest, plant arranging shower. To do this, place the pot with the plant in a plastic bag, wrapping it tightly around the stem. Then water the plant from the soul, from the top down, good water pressure. Then wrap the avocado big transparent plastic bag and return it to its usual place. Leave it in this form for at least a week, continuing to pour as usual. High humidity results in the death of adult pests. Ten days later the plant is completely free from the tick. The procedure should be repeated through a couple of weeks, t. To. The eggs of the pest are not destroyed in this way.

No less dangerous for avocado and Jose scale, which in general is dangerous for all houseplants. Leaves of affected plants become sticky scale insects and shiny as if covered with sugar syrup. Infected plants must be thoroughly washed under a shower of hot water, the temperature of which should not exceed 45 ° C. Be sure to wash with soap or detergent and window sill, on which stood a plant. After you have washed the plant, it is necessary to wipe the dried leaves of cotton wool soaked in the thick suds or 70% alcohol solution. Wipe should be carefully, not missing a single pest. A day later, the procedure is repeated. A week is to do three or four treatments.

Recently, modern kitchens are increasingly popular built-in appliances. Manufacturers produce all types of such equipment, and among them the cooking surfaces. Equipping your kitchen renovated, many people are wondering - how to choose the hob? Let's try to understand this issue.

Modern cooking surfaces are electric, gas and combined. With electric and gas stoves is familiar to most of the housewives. But combined surface for most people is still a novelty. Such surfaces are a combination of one panel electric and gas burners. The most common combination of the three to one - three gas burners and electric one, or vice versa. Moreover, electric hot plates from different manufacturers are represented as conventional cast-iron pancakes and glass ceramics.

Some manufacturers produce five hotplates, where four gas burners remain at their traditional places, and added to them fifth - electric. When people wonder how to choose the hob - gas or electric, it is difficult to recommend something because there are pluses and minuses, and those and others.

It all depends, basically, on whether there is a central gas supply in the house or not. If the house is supplied with gas, the gas hob is certainly preferable, since the use of it is cheaper. Although even if the house is not gasified can always use bottled gas. And if gas ended at a time, you can switch on the electric burner. But if you like electric cookers, then, of course, only the choice is yours.

The surface material

But what is really important when choosing a cooking surface, so it is the material from which it is made. In the market of household appliances today are mostly represented enameled cooking surface, cooking surfaces made of stainless steel or glass-ceramic.

The most familiar are the enameled surface. They are inexpensive, durable, and the choice of colors is quite extensive. But there is enamel and disadvantages: it is difficult to clean from nagorevshey food, over time it may be scratched and chipped.

More beautiful cooking surfaces made of stainless steel that are ground or polished. They not only look stylish, but also quite durable, durable. However, take care of them more difficult. They show any fingerprints, water and fat. To this surface it is always shining, her need to constantly monitor.

Glass ceramics mainly used in electric cooking surfaces. But in the gas today, it is no longer a novelty. The models are the largest manufacturers of plate hobs are called "gas on glass". Hob with gas burners covered with a layer of heat-resistant glass or glass-ceramic.

"Gas on glass" looks great, for a long time retains its appearance, because the surface material used for high strength, resistance to thermal and mechanical loads the material. These hobs are practical rather subject to certain rules and they are not difficult to keep clean. The only negative - such surfaces are afraid of sugar, so after cooking should be immediately thoroughly cleaned to products containing sugar, not hurt it.

The most common ceramic hob are available in brown or black. But, in addition, some manufacturers produce white surface "ivory" "anthracite black" black and gray dots, and the "cold ice", "specular color" or colored aluminum and stainless steel. Great demand for ceramic hob with a pattern. That, however, is not surprising - they are very stylish look.

We developed a new material - a porous glass ceramic. It is ideal for gas hob, as the pores in the glass-ceramic gas passed. This will get rid of the burner. Such surfaces are called "gas under glass." The only thing holding back the introduction of new products - high purity requirements of the gas.

Dimensions and burners

The base number of models of electric cooktops presented many manufacturers standard dimensions in which the width is 60cm. But there are broader instruments - and 80, and 90cm. When installing the hob is necessary to consider some points. It is sometimes said that under the hob can not hold drawers. This is not quite true. Not only possible, but also it is very convenient. The best place for storing kitchen appliances can not come up with. However, since the surface of its bottom is heated in a box, which is located directly under it, should be made of the Charter of the perforations, or the bars.

Modern cooking surfaces are very diverse in the presence of various functions and burners. Without more information, to make a choice in favor of one model or another is very difficult. First you need to decide how many burners you need and what size they should be. Classic models hobs are available with four burners.

But, as mentioned above, there are those where there are three or even five or six. You should know that there are fundamental differences from electric and gas burners panels. If you think what gas hob choose, you should be aware that the size of the burners must meet the size of your dishes. Flames should only heat the bottom of the cookware. Then the food is prepared quickly, energy is used more efficiently. At the same utensils and lasts longer.

Standard surface has two burners average power and audio - low and high power. The latest models have a very powerful burner with several rows of tongues of flame. These burners are designed for ultra-fast cooking. They are two or more concentric rings of flame through a multi-level structure.

In an effort to make the surface more ergonomic modern producers did not escape his attention and shape of the burners. Beyond the usual round, produced hobs with oval and triangular plates. Burners triangular shape is very convenient because it does not require arrays: container can be placed directly on the cover plate burners. At the same time the fire warms the bottom of the pan evenly. Oval same burners are more suitable for cooking in an oval dish.

As for electric hotplates, cooking on their surfaces can be from two to six. Essentially they differ only by the type of heating element. In traditional, familiar to us enameled hob, used flat round termoelektronagrevatelnye elements - heating elements, which are placed in a cast iron body. These burners called "pancakes" and plates with them are still popular.

In such cooking surfaces found three types of burners: conventional, express - burners and automatic. Typically have an average power. Express - burners have high capacity and are used for rapid heating. They are marked with a red circle. Automatic cooking zone marked by a white circle. They are equipped with a sensor, which itself determines when the water began to boil, and then resets the power without letting the liquid boil away.

A more diverse in all aspects of glass-ceramic hotplate surface. They may be conventional, inductive, or halogen hob high-light. In conventional burners heat the metal by means of a spiral. The high-light burners used as heating element a corrugated tape. They warm up faster. In about three seconds. But the fastest recognized halogen burners which turn on and off instantly.

And last - induction burners. They are fundamentally different from all of the above in that the base of the pan is heated directly. The very same cooking surface is not heated. In it, a glass ceramic plate, is installed an induction unit which generates electromagnetic radiation. It's the bottom of the cookware heats. The only requirement is for cooking on such a surface requires special utensils, whose bottom has ferromagnetic properties.

The size and shape of the surface of the glass ceramic cooking zone, too, are very diverse: the oval and round, with an area of ​​expansion or without. But it is very important specifics of the pan, which should closely match the shape and size of the burners.

Options cooktops

Modern cooking surfaces are equipped with many convenient and helpful features. The choice is yours exactly what you need, depending on the habits and needs of cooking.

• Function breakers.

This so-called protection from overheating. Cooktop off when reaching a certain temperature limit, or after some time, provided that the control panel for the time not been touched.

• The function of protection against overflow.

Most modern cooking surfaces is disabled when a boiling liquid gets on the control panel.

• Lock function of time.

When you press a certain key on the control panel, it is "frozen" in this state.

• Removable magnetic knob.

When the plate is in the idle state, they can be removed, for example, in order to clean away from children.

• The "identification of materials and sizes of cookware."

It is important for the induction burners. In this case, the burner will start to warm up if the heating zone is pan or saucepan. Automation itself determines the size of the dishes.

• The "write to memory".

You can use it to program the cooking time, and control it. For each burner can be recorded more than one program.

• The function of rapid heating, defrosting and maintaining the food warm.

As you can see, the choice is very large - it all depends on your taste and financial possibilities.