One of the best summertime fruits is avocado. Try saving your avocado pits to grow into avocado trees the next time you're slicing an avocado for a salad or preparing guacamole.
The rich, flavorful, pear-shaped fruits are a great addition to your diet, either as an eat-alone or as a condiment. Since the trees are warm-season plants, frost and cold can easily harm them. Having said that, in order to enjoy homegrown fruits, gardeners in the north must learn how to grow avocados indoors.
1. Extract the seed.
Start by removing the pit from the avocado carefully (without cutting it), and then washing it clean of all the avocado fruit (often it helps to soak the pit in some water for a few minutes and then scrub all the remaining fruit off). Be careful not to remove the brown skin on the pit – that is the seed cover.
2. Pierce the seed.
Some avocado pits are slightly oblong, whereas others are shaped almost like perfect spheres – but all avocado pits have a ‘bottom’ (from where the roots will grow), and a ‘top’ (from which the sprout will grow). The slightly pointier end is the top, and the flat end is the bottom. In order to get your pit to sprout, you will need to place the bottom root end in water, so it’s very important to figure out which end is the ‘top’ and which is the ‘bottom’ before you go piercing it with toothpicks.
3. Soak the seed in water.
Rest the bottom half of the avocado in water, so therefore the toothpicks need to be wedged in there firmly. I recommend sticking them in at a slight angle (pointing down), so that more of your avocado base rests in the water when you set this over a glass.
4. Let the seed sprout.
In about three to six weeks the top of the avocado pit will begin to split and a stem sprout will emerge from the top and roots will begin to grow at the base. When the stem grows to about five or six inches, pinch out the top set of leaves. In another two or three weeks new leaves will sprout and there will be more roots.
5. Trim the sprout.
Once the sprout tail grows to 6 or 7 inches, trim it in half to encourage new growth.
6. Prepare to plant.
Place enriched potting soil in a large flowerpot (maybe 8″ to 10″ across). Fill the soil to about an inch from the top of the pot. Make a small depression in the center of the soil and place the pit, root-side down into the depression. Give the soil a drink to water the pit. Water it generously so that the soil is thoroughly moist.
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