Grow an Avocado Plant Today

A few months back, we made homemade guacamole during a wintry period of yearning for spring greens and new growth. It yielded just that! We had extracted the seeds from inside the avocados and suspended them by toothpicks into water-filled glasses, their bottoms submerged into about half-an-inch of water. We watered, and we waited…

Finally, weeks later, small white sprouts appeared and grew downward into the glasses. Roots! It was amazing to watch the roots grow and lengthen. Once the roots had reached the glass bottoms, it was time to take further action and give those seeds proper homes.





We assembled clay pots with saucers, a bag of pebbles, and another bag of potting soil. We laid a base of pebbles for drainage into each pot. Next, we set the seeds with their toothpick props onto each pot and poured the soil around the seed until it reached almost the top of each pot. We then removed all of the toothpicks from the seeds and let them settle naturally into fresh soil beds within the pots. We watered again…
 

Now the fun begins! Each grandchild wanted to personalize their own pot with ribbons and stickers. Our glue gun came in handy here, after we discovered that moist clay pots and stickers don’t mix well! We were happy with our results, though, and eager for the next phase of growth: a stalk will shoot up through the top of each seed and we will have our new avocado plants to nurture.


Contributed by Kathy Bolger, Senior Graphic Designer, Today’s Woman magazine.