A few months ago, I set an avocado pit to root in a jar, suspended over the water with three toothpicks. It has developed some roots, one thicker one and then some thinner ones around it. Now it's got a sprout coming out the top -- actually it's about 6 inches tall. The sprout has a little leaf bud at the tip. Should I pot it up now or wait till the roots are stronger? What should I consider when potting it, in terms of soil and amount of water and any kind of plant food? It was a fun experiment. I didn't really know what was going to happen with it. I wonder if it could grow and bear an avocado in a couple of years.
Wait with potting till the sprout has a few leaves. Choose a porous and rich soil. Fertilize it once a month during spring and summer. When the plant has 10'' (25 cm) you may want to prune the top to make it more bushy. Water often enough to keep soil bit moist, but not wet. Basically if leaves are getting brown - water more. If yellow - water less. If the air is very dry, it likes being sprinkled with water from time to time. Avocados are fun to grow, good luck
MaryAnn This is interesting-as at one time I had an Avocado seed and let it dry but never did anything with it. Hmmm I wonder if I could even find it now. Did u let the seed dry before using the toothpicks? Or did you start this process right away? If I even was to find the one I had, it'd be dry by now-I wonder if it would still work if it sat in just a little water?
Petunia, I set it in the water right away after I ate the avocado. The thing that happened to it was interesting. First, the pit split open under the water and a white root grew out of it and then several other brownish ones. Then the pit split even more around the top and the stem grew out of that. The splits are so big, I was expecting the whole thing to break apart and sink to the bottom of the jar. Very interesting. I should try to take a picture of it so you can see it. Dominika, thanks for your tips. I will wait till there are a few more leaves. That makes sense. Did yours ever produce an avocado? How big do they get?
cool beans 8) I haven't done that in a long time. Next time we make guacamole you can bet I'll save the pits!! My mom started one when I was in high school. It got really tall, no fruit but I loved that tall, spindly thing :-D I think you might need two for pollination
I was just reading a link that Jewell posted about avocados in reply to someone else's question about growing them from seed and it said that avocados grown from seed can take 7 - 15 years to produce fruit! And that the taste is very different. Isn't that interesting? But maybe it will be a pretty plant anyway and surely has a humble beginning.
DB, I started a seed before and when I found out that it would take 'forever' to grown, I was disappointed. But I hadn't heard that they would taste different. It was fun to watch the process though. I love avocados!
I think it's a really neat thing to share with a little kid I have the best mom in the world and she did stuff like that with us 3 girls
I think it's a really neat thing to share with a little kid I have the best mom in the world and she did stuff like that with us 3 girls
Mine was about 15 inches. Sadly, it died from the lack of water when we went for 3 weeks holiday. I forgot to tell my neighbour to water it
Deanna, it must have been great fun as a kid to grow that from a seed. But guess what!!! Austin (the naughty cat) ate the top of it right off today! It was about 5 inches or so tall and he ate about 2 inches off of it. Can you believe it??? Something I read yesterday said to cut it back so I hope it will grow another leaf.
DB, sounds like you have a real helper on hand. Austin must have read your mind. That is so funny. Hope it didn't hurt him. It will probably grown two leaves for that one.
Oh boy, Austin sure is a helper (not!). But he is a fan of Garden Stew. He must have been browsing the forums while I was at work!
