Make Your Own - Grow an Avocado Tree

My goal in the new house was to have more plants.

In our former live/work space, we had a gigantic banana tree named Gustave (or was it Auguste?) that the landlord had planted right before we moved in. We took good care of it and it flourished, but I'd say it was rather due to the nutrients already contained in the hole it was planted in (our warehouse used to be a pot-growing factory) than to our green thumbs.

But, as I was saying, when we moved into our new house last summer, I wanted lots of plants. But plants can be expensive. So if, like me, you want to make things yourself, and experiment, why not start from the start, and grow your own tree from a seed?

As always, I browsed through Pinterest and ended up with a solution, the avocado tree. It looked simple enough a project for me. Let's see how I went about it.

Here's How to grow an avocado tree:

What you'll need:

• An avocado pit.

• 3 toothpicks

• A cup

• Water

• Patience (the only ingredient I might be lacking, but I'm working on it)

1. Differentiate the top and bottom of the pit

Cut your avocado in half and study the pit. Differentiate the top and bottom. This is important for the next steps. The top is usually pointier and the bottom flatter.

2. Remove and clean the pit

Remove the pit without cutting it, clean it with water only and try not to remove the brown skin.

3. Install the toothpicks

Looking at the pit from above, with the bottom facing you and the top facing opposite from you, install three toothpicks horizontally with a slight downward angle (they will rest on the top of the cup).

4. Immerge half of the pit in water

You want to keep the top part dry so it will sprout.

5. Put it on a windowsill and water it

Don't forget to add water as needed and eventually change it once a week to avoid mold and bacteria.

6. Be very patient and watch it sprout

It took quite a few weeks for my first avocado pit to sprout. It was winter, it was dark. I think it took way more than 8 weeks for the pit to crack and the roots and sprout to peek through.

7. Once the sprout is as long as your hand, pot it in soil

Chose a big enough pot and leave the top half of the pit exposed.

8. Water it and watch it grow

Keep the soil moist at all times (water weekly). As you can see on the pictures, mine is still a baby so I haven't had to trim it yet, but I read that the top two leaves should be pinched out each time the plant grows another 6 inches.

I've seen some of my neighbors constantly have new pits immersed in water on their window sill, so I think I'm gonna renew the experiment every time I eat an avocado (I might run out of glasses soon). What about you, do you have indoor gardening tips to share? What do you grow) What's your favorite plant? Monstera, anyone?