Minnesota Horticulture: Avocado - Eating and Growing a Tree from the Pit

How do you know that it is ripe?

You feel it. If it feels like you can squish it a little, it is ripe.

If it is hard, it is not ready.

So. You have a ripe avocado. You cut it open, you scoop it out. You make guacamole dip. Or, you eat it plain. Or, you put it on a piece of toast with miracle whip.

Now you have a couple pits. You suspect that you can get a plant growing from them, but how?

Well. It's easy. Find a jar, some toothpicks. Put a cut across the pointed side of the pit, stick the toothpicks on the sides of the pit. The pit should be flat side to the bottom. Fill your jar with water to the brim. Use hard water, not water that has gone through your softener. Soft water will kill your avocado.

Set the jar on a windowsill. Keep pit half submerged in water. Be patient. Eventually it will split and a root will go into the water and then, a stem will push upwards.

When the plant gets a few leaves on it, you will have to plant it in dirt. I have heard that you should snip off the top so it sets the root. I cannot verify if this is true since I have never gotten an avocado pit to live that long.

Perhaps we shall together see what occurs.

Stay tuned.

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I suppose I gotta type it now... I made substitutions because I did not have Lime juice, so I used lemon... and I did not have regular sour cream, so I used Top the Tater. Oh, and I did not use regular salt, I used a seasoned salt.

Guacamole

2 avocados, mashed

1 can green chilies

1 tablespoon minced onion

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup Top the Tater sour cream

2 tablespoons Lemon Juice

1 teaspoon McCormick Perfect Pinch Mediterranean Herb seasoning

1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

I love the taste of avocado by itself. The recipe that I found used lemon juice, onions and a few other ingredients.

See how wet it looks? It has a mooshy look to it? Well. An under ripe avocado will not be moist.

Ready to mix with your ingredients for guacamole. Does anyone have a good recipes?

I find that frozen garlic cloves work the best. I like to keep a jar of cloves in my freezer. I buy them in bulk. I cut them right from the freezer.

grab the clove, make a few slices, lengthwise, then flip sideways and slice across. It will make little squares.

Cut rings thin, then, cut across the rings.

Potato masher is easiest

lemon juice, sour cream, tabasco, green chilies

half a cap full is enough

these are good....

The project requires a jar, some water, and three toothpicks.

Be gentle, but firm. Push three toothpicks into the pit. Remember to put pointed side of pit up and angle your toothpicks so that the bottom side of the pit is resting in the water. Caution: toothpicks are fragile and will break if used with too much vigor and force.

See how it is done? Poke them in the side of the pit. Preferably at an angle so the pit will hang in the water.

Wait to see it sprout. It seems to take forever but it will eventually sprout. If there is a bad odor and the water turns black, start with a new pit as your pit has succumbed.

Will update with pictures as I see development.

I flipped the avocado over to see what was happening and on the one avocado pit, the pit has split and the root is starting to make it's way down into the water. That means that soon I will have photos of the 'tree' emerging from the top of the pit.

How exciting!!!!!

As soon as I saw the root emerging from the bottom of the pit, I decided to take action. I saw the small white root starting to grow. Actually. Both of the pits that I was rooting were showing some root growth.

I filled a bucket with potting soil. I made a small hole for each pit. It was a small hole, since you only wish to put the pits in halfway. The tops MUST be sticking out of the ground. I don't know why that is the case, but it is true. You must consider that in the wild, they fall out of the tree and lay on the ground until they become a tree, so it must be so.

In the past, I have left the avocado in the jar and just added dirt. Two problems occurred. The first problem was the you cannot transplant unless you break the jar and two, the avocado got so big that the jar broke and my avocado tree fell to the floor and I was unable to replant it.

There is some more nonsense that you must break off the top leaf once there are six leaves so it will get thicker. I am not going to do that. I am going to see how big it gets without human intrusion.