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So you’ve eaten your avocado pear and you’re left with a pit. You know it won’t break down in the compost any time soon, but if you plant it will it grow?
Well, it depends. Avocado pits (or stones) will usually grow if they’ve been taken from a nice ripe avocado. They also need to be kept continuously warm and moist. If you have a heated propagator, use that. Otherwise enclose the pot in a plastic bag and put it in the airing cupboard or in a spot near the radiator.
There are two ways to germinate an avocado pit. The first is the one that many people have seen – push a few toothpicks (gently!) into the stone so that you can balance it on top of a jar or glass and then fill the container with water so that the bottom of the avocado pit is always in the water, but the rest of the pit is not submerged. Keep it warm, keep topping up the water and in anything from 10 days to 5 weeks your pit should start to root. You’ll now if it’s not going to – the water will go cloudy and start to smell. If that happens, throw it out and try again with a new pit.
The other way of doing it is to bury the bottom half of the pit in a pot of compost. Again, keep it warm and damp and wait for it to germinate. The disadvantage of this method is that you won’t get any advance warning that the pit isn’t going to germinate – you’ll just be waiting in vain. And, of course, it’s not as much fun for kids to watch because you can’t see the roots sprouting.
Oh, and make sure you plant your pit the right way up. Most are egg-shaped and the pointy end should be at the top. If you have one that is oval then one end should be slightly wrinkled – that’s the bottom.
Once roots start emerging you need to shield them from too much light. So if your pit is growing in a jar and on the windowsill, wrap some paper around the jar so that you can remove it to look at the roots, but they’re not always exposed.
The next thing that happens is that the first shoot will emerge from the top of the pit. When it gets to about 6 inches long you need to be brutal and snip off the tip or your avocado is going to try and grow into a tree! Don’t worry if there are no leaves left once you’ve snipped the tip out – it will grow some more in a week or so.
Your avocado will survive in its jar of water, or its small pot of compost, for several weeks. If you want to keep it after that you’ll need to pot it up into a larger pot of compost. Avocados come from tropical climates, and so unless you’re lucky enough to live in a hot area it’s unlikely that your avocado can live outside, or that it will ever fruit.
However, they do make quite attractive houseplants, so you might want to keep it anyway. You’ll need to prune it to keep it from taking over the house, but other than that they’re easy to take care of. Give them a liquid feed every 2 weeks when they’re actively growing – it will have dormant periods as well. Wipe the dust off the leaves occasionally and if the air is dry your avocado will appreciate being misted with water. Then just step back and admire the exotic touch it brings to your living room!
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Author Bio Box: Emma Cooper
Emma Cooper is the author of Growing Vegetables is Fun. She also has a weekly gardening podcast, The Alternative Kitchen Garden, all about growing your own food in an environmentally friendly way. Check out her website for her gardening blog and more articles.
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