Avocado Fun

You may already know this, but if you don't, here's a fun thing to do with Avocado pits. You can grow your own houseplant!

Start by enjoying an Avocado. I'd suggest an avocado sandwich, which is a thinly sliced avocado on a wheat bread bun with mayo, red onion, provolone cheese, dill and a little salt & pepper. Delicious!

Then, wash off your avocado pit with soap and water. I scrub off all the fruit using a scotch-brite, because some of the fruit can be quite stingy to remove.

Pierce your pit with toothpicks in thirds, with the flat end down and the pointy-end up. Suspend it over a glass of water. Like this:

In 3-4 weeks (but sometimes up to six) your avocado pit will sprout. If it hasn't sprouted in that time, throw it out. It's a dud. If it does sprout, it will look like this:

Once it sprouts, wait to transplant it until it has 2-4 leaves. Once it does, pot it in a medium to large pot with good potting soil. Water it very occasionally, as it doesn't like to be watered everyday. The plant pictured below I started last year in March. I kept it in a glass of water for one year, which I do not recommend. It seems to have bounced back. (See explanation below.) I know I should cut off that secondary shoot, but I can't bring myself to do it. I have pinched the tops to encourage branching.

Explanation...

So, once I transplanted my avocado plant originally from it's cup to a pot, it looked like this,

which is a pretty terrible state. I had low hopes. The plant dropped off all it's leaves but one, so I thought it was a goner. Then, suddenly, it looked like this:

I had hope! Now, the plant pictured above is healthy and happy out in the full sun all day long. When the cool temps come (as in 60 or below) I'll bring the guy inside for the winter. How fun!