Why is my avacado tree basically a tall bare stick?

Question

I started a new job and became the proud owner of the office avacado ” tree”. It was started from seed and plunked into a pot of soil. It’s basically a 3-3.5 ft tall green stick that splits into 3 branches with little numbs growing all over.
It doesn’t look particularly unhealthy but it has never gotten leaves?! Do i need to transplant it?
It’s it in need of more water?
I’ve been researching online and i still haven’t found one as tall or bare?! ( there are tiny little plants with Many leaves!)
Can someone tell me what is wrong or tell me how to improve our stick plant!

Answer 1

This has everything to do with office lighting, and how there isn't near enough to sustain a very high light requirement tree. It is becoming tall in search of light that it will not find, and therefore will not produce leaves, since there isn't enough light to sustain them.

If the tree does get put back into a suitable light condition, it will not stop the stretching that has been initiated. It will likely reach a height of a few more feet very quickly and snap in half.

In short, this tree is destined to death, whether it be long and slow or immediate.

This seed needs to be exposed to very bright lighting THE VERY MOMENT that a taproot is visible poking out. 12 to 20 hours of direct sun, or about 200 watts of light per square foot of tree. (ground pattern wise, obviously) This will get you started until the seed shell runs out of food for the young tree. Then it needs nutrients.

After this, you will need to consider a separate tree with the opposite flowering habit in order to get a fruit harvest. They will not self pollinate, and you have to identify which sex flower opens at what time in order to find the opposite tree. Unfortunately, it can be as long as 10 to 12 years in container before you see your first flower.

In short, you will not want to have high expectation for fruit. This will, most likely, be a species to have just to have a large leaved tree in the house.