Ever grown an avacado?

[tangentgirl]

From a pit?
...the stem is about a foot tall and has sprouts on it.

Holy guacamole! Did you start the pit in water or dirt?

[smilingcat]

just stick them in a pot of dirt and keep it moist. It will sprout.

Avocado trees are really finicky and you do need two trees. You can keep them pretty small about 10-15 feet tall. When my partner had her house, the avocado tree grew to be about 25-30 feet tall. low hanging fruit were eaten by her dawgs.

It does need warm climate year round though...

Too hot, it drops fruit,
too cold, it drops fruit,
Too much water, it drops fruit
too little water, it drops fruit
Too windy, it drops fruit...

And if the trunk gets exposed to strong sun, it will get sun burned.

Oh our dogs loved avocados. They didn't care if it was still really green (unripe). We would find the evidence. The pit. the fruit would be chewed off and licked off. Do have to admit, our dawgs had the bestest coat evar...

Another critter that loved avocados were possums. I have a Haas avocado growing from a pit. The new tree will be planted this summer.

[malkin]

We did this all the time as kids. I thought everyone did.

Stick 3 toothpicks into a pit that hasn't been refrigerated and place it over/in a jar of water. Like a pickle jar or a peanut butter jar. Keep the water about halfway up the pit. It does matter which way the pit points, but I don't remember. My recollection is point up.

Once you get roots, let the water level lower a little bit because the pit will sometimes rot and it can get stinky (unless you like that sort of thing).

They can get tall and leafy. I think though, that if you want big avocados you need to graft a proper variety.

It is as exciting as sprouting a sweet potato!

I grew up in a sticker patch between an orange grove and an avocado grove.
Maybe they were the good old days, but I don't miss the snakes and the occasional wrap of barbed wire around my ankle.

[Zen]

Holy guacamole! Did you start the pit in water or dirt?

Water.

Sounds like no good will come of this

[SadieKate]

You can do it as a houseplant. Fruit in the market is from grafted trees, so what you'll be growing is just a beautiful house plant. The leaves are gorgeous.

http://www.avocado.org/about/growing-avocado

[malkin]

My grandmother loved them, and often had several going at once and they could get up to around 4' tall, ok, she had alzheimer's disease, but she was really wonderful.

But to get fruit, you're probably better off sneaking into the grove to steal it.

[smilingcat]

For a commercial growers, you do want a root stock and a scion graft. Scion is chosen to be a prolific producer but the root may not be as strong...

But for home grown avos. the single tree from the pit will be just fine. It will produce IF THERE IS ANOTHER AVOCADO TREE NEARBY. IT'S ONE OF THOSE THINGS WHERE IT NEEDS A COMPANION TREE.

My partners avocado tree was from a pit and it produced just fine. The tree can tolerate some mild freezing but that's about it. winter time high should be well above freezing.

Good luck

[Zen]

Pot, dirt, watering, sunlight...this is just too much work for me
This house doesn't have very good sun exposure.
We'll see.

[bmccasland]

Water.

Sounds like no good will come of this

naah, you can still plant it in a pot, in some nice garden loam. Then move it back to it's nice sunny window, and promise it that spring really will come one day. Move to the porch in the summer. You'll probably have to repot it a time or two. But unfortunately you'll may not actually get a tree out of it. Unless you have a green house space. I know you do...

It'll be a fun experiment, and the plant was free for the most part.