Growing an Avocado Tree in My Kitchen
I'm growing an avocado plant and it took a lot of patience. About a month and a half ago, I bought one of those green mesh bags with four avocados in it. I brought them home and had to refrain from cutting one open because they weren't yet ripe. I freakin' LOVE avocado. But they have to be ripe before you eat them or they are hard and not as flavorful. So I waited for them to ripen. It took about two days for one of them to turn purple and soft. I got excited. I was skipping around the kitchen and singing about how great that avocado was going to be with some salt and pepper. I sliced it in half, leaving the seed in the other half and putting some lemon juice on the exposed flesh to keep it fresh for later and put it in a container in the fridge. I cut vertically and horizontally across the green and yellow avocado and scooped it into a bowl with a spoon. I sprinkled over some salt and pepper and mushed it all around and ate it straight out of the bowl. It was easily the best part of my day. I ate the other half the next day for breakfast with some eggs and toast.
By the end of the week, I had gotten around to eating the last avocado. I had been thinking about kitchen scrap gardens. Do you know what I mean? There's all sorts of pinterest type things on the internet about growing food from the bits of vegetables that you would usually throw away. You can regrow carrots, onions, celery, and lots of other things just by placing the roots in a cup of water. And once they start growing, you can transfer them to some potting soil and have an herb and vegetable garden right on your kitchen windowsill. Plants are amazing, aren't they?
My only problem with being able to have a kitchen scrap garden was not having a window in my kitchen because its near the middle of the apartment and shares a wall with the apartment next door. I actually only have one window in my entire apartment. It's a real struggle for someone who likes to lay in the sunny spots like a cat. Speaking of, that's another problem. Jynx (my cat) pretty much owns the windowsill of the one window we do have. Any plants I tried to grow there would just end up straight on the floor. Another problem is lack of counter space to keep the cups of water for the first part. So I guess that's three problems. Someday I'll have a kitchen with a window. Or maybe a whole sun room/conservatory thing to grow plants in. Oh boy, that's the dream right there.
When I was a kid and we had to do science projects all the time for school, we had these books full of science project ideas. They had ideas for things like growing crystals in a jar using water and borax and probably some other ingredients I don't recall. It also had typical science projects like how to make a volcano. Sometimes we just did some of the things in the book for fun. Like making a non-Newtonian fluid out of cornstarch and water, or "oobleck". We colored it green with food coloring and we would sit outside on the porch and play with it in blue plastic bowls. We were easily entertained as children...
My mom knew we liked that kind of stuff. I remember her showing us that if you put a stalk of celery in water with food coloring in it (she used red), the celery would turn red as it absorbed the water. I remember her and my sister trying to get an avocado seed to sprout in water. Ah, yes, now you understand this long detour. I remembered my mom growing an avocado in a cup on the back of the kitchen sink and I felt like trying it myself. I googled it. I wanted to know how long it would take. Apparently it takes 4 to 6 weeks for it to sprout. I wondered if it was worth the wait and whether it would even be practical to grow an avocado tree in my apartment. I decided there was no harm in trying.
I sliced the last avocado in half, pulled it apart, whacked the blade of the knife into the seed like I was hitting a tree with an axe, and twisted out the avocado seed. I pulled it off the knife and stuck a toothpick into three sides of the seed and placed it in a small glass of water. Later on after I read a little more about growing avocado seeds in your kitchen, I realized I had done it a little bit wrong. You're supposed to place the toothpicks into the uppermost region so the bottom inch can sit in the water. I sort of just stabbed them all near-ish the middle and the part where the root is supposed to sprout was closer to the side than the bottom. I wasn't so sure it would still work. I reminded myself that plants grow towards the sun (or in this case, the fluorescent light above my kitchen sink), so it wouldn't really matter if it was a bit lopsided, as long as the root could reach the water.
I waited and waited and waited to see some sign of sprouting. Weeks had gone by and I wondered how long it had been because I didn't think to mark the date that I had started this project. Mostly all I could see was slimy, cloudy water. I figured maybe that was some kind of avocado-DNA-soup trying to assemble itself into a being. I had read somewhere that you shouldn't change the water, you should just let it do it's thing. Days passed. I caved and changed the water. I didn't want it to turn into mold. I had nothing to lose if it wasn't growing anyway. And I could always try again with another seed. Though, I was starting to get a bit disappointed.
I topped up the water as needed and waited. And waited. Time came for me to go back to the store and I bought more avocados. I decided that maybe the first one was a dud and started a new one from the fresh batch of avo's. I still had a tiny glimmer of hope for the first one and didn't throw it away. I now had two avocado seeds sitting in cups of water on the back of my sink. I would give the first one an extra week or so and then throw it away if nothing sprouted. It's incredibly low maintenance. All I have to do is top up the water every now and then.
Two days ago as I was washing my hands in the kitchen sink, I looked at the older avocado seed and decided it was time to throw it out. I dried my hands and picked it up by one of the toothpicks and noticed the big crack across the bottom. It finally started sprouting! The wait was worth it! I got really excited that I managed to grow something in a cup with artificial sunlight. But it's not like I did anything other than provide it with water and light and convince myself not to throw it in the trash, so the real credit goes to the seed for persevering.
Hooray, I grew a thing! I'm still waiting to see the actual root, but I have no doubts now. Soon, it will need soil and a real pot to grow in rather than the glass from a long spent candle. I'm getting excited about purchasing potting soil and watching a little baby tree grow inside my house. I'm already thinking about where I'm going to put it and worrying that Jynx will dig it up before it has a chance in life. Someday it will be big! And strong! And I will be proud of it and plant it outside in the ground where it can feel the sunlight and drink the rain and I will tell people that I made a plant happen! And in five years (yes, 5 YEARS HOLY SHIPS THAT'S A LONG TIME TO WAIT) it will actually start producing avocados (at least that's what some light google searching told me). See you in 5 years, delicious avocados!
TL;DR: I'm growing an avocado tree from a seed in a glass of water in my kitchen and I'm really excited about it.
This has been a post.
TTFN,
Paige (AKA your friendly neighborhood avocado gardener) 💜
By the end of the week, I had gotten around to eating the last avocado. I had been thinking about kitchen scrap gardens. Do you know what I mean? There's all sorts of pinterest type things on the internet about growing food from the bits of vegetables that you would usually throw away. You can regrow carrots, onions, celery, and lots of other things just by placing the roots in a cup of water. And once they start growing, you can transfer them to some potting soil and have an herb and vegetable garden right on your kitchen windowsill. Plants are amazing, aren't they?
My only problem with being able to have a kitchen scrap garden was not having a window in my kitchen because its near the middle of the apartment and shares a wall with the apartment next door. I actually only have one window in my entire apartment. It's a real struggle for someone who likes to lay in the sunny spots like a cat. Speaking of, that's another problem. Jynx (my cat) pretty much owns the windowsill of the one window we do have. Any plants I tried to grow there would just end up straight on the floor. Another problem is lack of counter space to keep the cups of water for the first part. So I guess that's three problems. Someday I'll have a kitchen with a window. Or maybe a whole sun room/conservatory thing to grow plants in. Oh boy, that's the dream right there.
When I was a kid and we had to do science projects all the time for school, we had these books full of science project ideas. They had ideas for things like growing crystals in a jar using water and borax and probably some other ingredients I don't recall. It also had typical science projects like how to make a volcano. Sometimes we just did some of the things in the book for fun. Like making a non-Newtonian fluid out of cornstarch and water, or "oobleck". We colored it green with food coloring and we would sit outside on the porch and play with it in blue plastic bowls. We were easily entertained as children...
My mom knew we liked that kind of stuff. I remember her showing us that if you put a stalk of celery in water with food coloring in it (she used red), the celery would turn red as it absorbed the water. I remember her and my sister trying to get an avocado seed to sprout in water. Ah, yes, now you understand this long detour. I remembered my mom growing an avocado in a cup on the back of the kitchen sink and I felt like trying it myself. I googled it. I wanted to know how long it would take. Apparently it takes 4 to 6 weeks for it to sprout. I wondered if it was worth the wait and whether it would even be practical to grow an avocado tree in my apartment. I decided there was no harm in trying.
I sliced the last avocado in half, pulled it apart, whacked the blade of the knife into the seed like I was hitting a tree with an axe, and twisted out the avocado seed. I pulled it off the knife and stuck a toothpick into three sides of the seed and placed it in a small glass of water. Later on after I read a little more about growing avocado seeds in your kitchen, I realized I had done it a little bit wrong. You're supposed to place the toothpicks into the uppermost region so the bottom inch can sit in the water. I sort of just stabbed them all near-ish the middle and the part where the root is supposed to sprout was closer to the side than the bottom. I wasn't so sure it would still work. I reminded myself that plants grow towards the sun (or in this case, the fluorescent light above my kitchen sink), so it wouldn't really matter if it was a bit lopsided, as long as the root could reach the water.
I waited and waited and waited to see some sign of sprouting. Weeks had gone by and I wondered how long it had been because I didn't think to mark the date that I had started this project. Mostly all I could see was slimy, cloudy water. I figured maybe that was some kind of avocado-DNA-soup trying to assemble itself into a being. I had read somewhere that you shouldn't change the water, you should just let it do it's thing. Days passed. I caved and changed the water. I didn't want it to turn into mold. I had nothing to lose if it wasn't growing anyway. And I could always try again with another seed. Though, I was starting to get a bit disappointed.
I topped up the water as needed and waited. And waited. Time came for me to go back to the store and I bought more avocados. I decided that maybe the first one was a dud and started a new one from the fresh batch of avo's. I still had a tiny glimmer of hope for the first one and didn't throw it away. I now had two avocado seeds sitting in cups of water on the back of my sink. I would give the first one an extra week or so and then throw it away if nothing sprouted. It's incredibly low maintenance. All I have to do is top up the water every now and then.
Two days ago as I was washing my hands in the kitchen sink, I looked at the older avocado seed and decided it was time to throw it out. I dried my hands and picked it up by one of the toothpicks and noticed the big crack across the bottom. It finally started sprouting! The wait was worth it! I got really excited that I managed to grow something in a cup with artificial sunlight. But it's not like I did anything other than provide it with water and light and convince myself not to throw it in the trash, so the real credit goes to the seed for persevering.
Hooray, I grew a thing! I'm still waiting to see the actual root, but I have no doubts now. Soon, it will need soil and a real pot to grow in rather than the glass from a long spent candle. I'm getting excited about purchasing potting soil and watching a little baby tree grow inside my house. I'm already thinking about where I'm going to put it and worrying that Jynx will dig it up before it has a chance in life. Someday it will be big! And strong! And I will be proud of it and plant it outside in the ground where it can feel the sunlight and drink the rain and I will tell people that I made a plant happen! And in five years (yes, 5 YEARS HOLY SHIPS THAT'S A LONG TIME TO WAIT) it will actually start producing avocados (at least that's what some light google searching told me). See you in 5 years, delicious avocados!
TL;DR: I'm growing an avocado tree from a seed in a glass of water in my kitchen and I'm really excited about it.
This has been a post.
TTFN,
Paige (AKA your friendly neighborhood avocado gardener) 💜
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