Guacamole seems to be the new craze in restaurants, sandwich shops, weight loss, etc. What is the main ingredient you may ask? An oval shaped, slightly wrinkly avocado! You all may be wondering why I am talking about avocados in this post and it is because I have been seeing a lot of post/pins etc. On how to grow your own avocado plant and today I am going to share a foolproof way on how to grow your own!
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Let me first start by saying it is a neat little project to germinate one of these plants, you should see results fairly soon, and my method is as fool proof as it gets, plus who does not want to experiment growing a plant where you can acquire the pit at your local grocery store!
Personally, I myself, have tried all the methods of growing avocados. The first method I tried was the typical insert three toothpicks into the avocado pit, submerge half of the pit into water and wait. (You have to regularly switch out the water, and this method can fail very easily) Second method was wrapping it in damp paper towel, putting it in a plastic container leaving it in a dark room at room temperature, and wetting the paper towel regularly. (This method rotted the seed and I had no success not once but twice.)
Feeling defeated I decided to do some research on the avocado and how to grow them and here is what I found:
1. Avocados love damp soil HOWEVER the soil has to drain water from it easily or else the avocado will rot because the soil is too wet.
2. Avocados love sun and warmth but are extremely picky and will die if they get direct sunlight, their new leaves will burn VERY VERY easily.
With this information I decided to create my own way of germinating the pit and to my surprise I have succeeded not once but 4 times, and haven't lost one yet! So here is my extremely simple seven step way of germinating your own avocado, pictures included, I hope you enjoy!
SUPPLIES YOU WILL NEED: Avocado, knife, plastic cup or your small pot of choice, a handful of small/medium sized pebbles/rocks, dirt, and of course water!
Step one: Go to your local grocery store and purchase an avocado (organic or non organic doesn't matter)
Step two: Take a sharp knife and slowly cut the avocado open horizontally being careful not to hurt the pit. If you are having a hard time taking one half of the avocado off grab a spoon and lightly take it off.
Step three: Now that you have the brow pit out you are going to run it under warm water and CAREFULLY take the brown coating off of your avocado, grab your knife in your hand at a 45-degree angle and slowly but carefully scrape that later off not damaging the pit. You want to see the pale/nude skin underneath.
Step four: I am cheap so I grabbed some clear plastic cups from my local Dollar Store to germinate the pit in. After acquiring the cups, I take one and make a fairly good sized hole at the bottom of the cup to let the water drain out. Next you can go outside and fill your cup almost halfway with some pebbles/rocks (I am not crazy I promise, just stick with me here!) NOTE: Even if you do not use a cup and use a normal pot add rocks to the bottom. Take the pebbles inside and run them under warm water to wash them off a bit. These pebbles are going to act as your soil drainage so no water sticks around in the bottom of your cup when you water. Now fill the rest of your cup up with soil. Honestly, I just take left over soil from the bags I buy at my local garden store, or, if you are cheap like me just go get some dirt from your garden. You do not need a lot.
Step five: This is the critical part of planting your avocado pit. Look at your avocado, you will see that your avocado pit looks similar to an egg. You want your avocado to sit in the dirt with the pointed end upwards. You do not want to plant it upside down or the taproot (which is the root that comes out of the avocados bottom side first) will have no where to go and you will have an unsuccessful avocado plant. Once you have figured out what is the pointier side take your fingers and make a hole in the dirt that is fairly deep but, be sure not to squish the dirt too much or else you compact the dirt and no root wants to work extremely hard to push through dirt. Place your pit in the hole and make sure a tiny bit of the avocado top is sticking out above the dirt.
Step six: I had a lot of success in germinating the pit it my little plastic table greenhouse. If you do not have one of these, take a larger pop bottle cut the top of the pop bottle off so it sits flat puncture a few holes into the bottom of the pop bottle and put it over top of your plant to create a greenhouse affect keeping it warm and damp. If you do not have either do not sweat it, just put it in your window sill, mine grew either way. I just feel the plastic greenhouse worked a bit faster but if you are not impatient like me windowsill it is!
Step seven: Water your avocado pit! Warm water works best, make sure the soil is damp after you water also be sure to check that your little pebbles/rocks are doing their job and draining a good amount of water out of the cup. For the next few weeks water your pit, only water your pit when you see and feel the top layer of the dirt is pretty much dry, then take a bit of warm water and dampen the soil. In no time I promise you will have a beautiful avocado plant to enjoy and show off to your guests in your house!
I hope you all found this helpful and learned something new. Have a go at it and give me your feedback! Happy growing. :)
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