Growing Avocado

Like I've said before, my gramma really inspired me with my planting. She spent a lot of time encouraging me to grow in my own space. She also encouraged me to try finding new ways and things to grow.

Sometimes that meant saving my watermelon seeds, rooting up wild daffodils and tiger lilies, or even embracing sunflowers that grew under our very messy bird feeder.

Her real specialty were her fruits and vegetables. I never knew a year that gramma wasn't growing tomatoes. She also grew rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, cucumbers, corn, and squash. 

Together we had a lot of fun “playing with our food”, so when we found out you could grow an avocado from the seed pit, which we usually throw away, we were excited to try it ourselves. We actually ran out to buy an avocado that we didn't even need (but we did manage some lovely avocado and tomato sandwiches as not to waste) and started our little experiment.

The instructions are simple. Get an avocado pit and clean it. Then, using 4 toothpicks, suspend the pit over a cup of water until the bottom half of the avocado pit is submerged. Refill the water occasionally to keep the pit partially submerged. After about a month, you should see roots forming.

My gramma and I tried out this experiment. It was a blooming success! (Yes, pun intended). Once the avocado had rooted, my gramma planted it. She kept it in her breakfast nook so she could look at it ever morning while she had her coffee. That meant a great deal to me.

It just so happens that Texas is crawling with avocados and I was making tacos, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to try my own hand at growing avocados.

A cleaned avocado pit...which is actually one REALLY big seed

As with the plumeria, I used some refashioned water bottles into planters. And using some toothpicks that I definitely did not steal from a restaurant....(wink-wink).

Definitely not stolen...

I cleaned the pits, I used my definitely-not-stolen toothpicks to suspend the puts over water.

Using 4 for maximum suspension is best

The exterior layer of the pit is soft and the toothpicks only need to be poked in until the thinner, pointy part is secure. Do not stab the toothpicks all the way through the pit or you will destroy the pit.

 Due to a lot of bird (and lizard!) activity outside, I wanted to keep these little guys safe while they sprouted so I'm harboring them on my bookcase until they can be planted.

Note how the pit is not fully submerged in the water

And while we're “playing with our food”, my husband sweetly gave me the seeds out of his oranges the other day because he desperately wants an orange tree. And he wants to see if it would grow.