adventures in avocado propagation V

June 19th, 2018

It’s been a little while since my last avocado propagation update and a lot has changed. Back on June 2nd, the pit shown above had fallen from the windowsill where I had it and split in two. I briefly considered throwing it away opted to put both pieces back in the container together to see if it’d continue to grow. I’m glad I gave it a chance because it definitely continued to grow. By the time we got back from our wedding trip, it had grown so much that it barely fit in the container. It was at the point where it would halt the growth because it was so resitricted or just break out of the glass.

Originally I thought that I’d just leave them in the water indefinitely. I really do enjoy watching the roots grow and change but this one seemed like it’d be a good one to experiment with. On June 19th I popped it in a small planter.

June 27th, 2018

Five of the six pits I have growing. (Number six being the one in the tooth planter.) I think it’s really interesting how differently each seems to be growing.

That one in the middle? It was my first to sprout but it didn’t take long before I realized how weird it was compared to the others. As I said, they’re all kind of doing their own thing so I was thinking that maybe it was just a different kind or something. Time went on and it never seemed to get any bigger. I thought it was especially strange that the leaves weren’t opening up. I just kept letting it do it’s thing though.

Fast forward to last week, I gently pulled one of the leaves open and there were mealy bugs!! So disappointing! I tossed that badboy straight in the trash and picked up some neem oil to protect the rest of my plants. So far I haven’t seen any others. Hopefully this was just an isolated incident.

July 4th, 2018

July 3rd, 2018

I decided to trim this guy down to help promote healthier, fuller growth. I kind of just winged it. This whole process has really just been about experimenting so I figured it wouldn’t be too big of a loss if it never grew back. It didn’t take long before I started noticing new growth!

In hindsight, I think it should have cut it lower, most likely below the first little sprout. No big deal though. I’m excited to see what it does from here and if I can see a difference between it and one I didn’t trim back.

July 11th, 2018  —-> July 13th, 2018

July 17th, 2018

July 17th, 2018

Planted two more of the pits in dirt. One now lives with my pencil cactus, and the other in a small pot of it’s own. This decision was mostly based off the fact that the water was getting dirty really quickly. Since I started them, I’ve been changing the water fairly frequently. Most of the time it was even dirty but these last few weeks it’s murky looking in no time at all. I don’t quite understand why but figured maybe it really was time to plant them.

It’s been such a long process. The first photo I have from this whole adventure is from January 12th. Six whole months and I feel like I’m just now seeing real results. I mean, of course roots sprouting, growing, and changing was thrilling but I officially have leaves on something that came from food. Gardening is a blast!

Have you started your own avocado pits yet!? If you couldn’t tell, it’s pretty darn satisfying.
xoxo

Past updates – part 1, part 2,  part 3 + part 4.
Here’s a link to the tooth planter, if you’d like to grab one for yourself.