We love avocado in our house. Do you? Do you ever wonder about the avocado pit, or seed, inside? Most likely it is simply the thing you discard along with the thick bumpy outer peel. Did you know you can grow an avocado from this seed? Yes, yes you can, would I lie to you?
We have tried this experiment many times. Sometimes it is successful, and other times it is not. This is science after all! If you are successful you can grow yourself a lovely houseplant. It is an awesome science project because you can see seed germination, a process that is normally under the soil, happen right before your eyes.
Recently I was cutting an avocado and I couldn't slice into it
very far. I was puzzled until I opened it up and found one of the
largest avocado pits I have seen. The inside was more pit than
avocado! Unfortunately I did not photo document this moment in
history, so you'll just have to take my word for it. However, it did
inspire me to try this experiment.
 |
| The enormous avocado pit (right) and a relatively small one (left). ©SBF 2015 |
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I will receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking a product link. Please see disclosures page for more details.
Grow Your Own Avocado Plant!
In order to try to germinate this seed you have to submerge the
bottom part of it in water. An alternative, as described in the book,
Don't Throw it, Grow it! is to germinate the pit in a bag of sphagnum
moss. As I was fresh out of sphagnum, the water method had to do!
All you need to do is stick 3-4 toothpicks into the bottom half of
the pit to hold it up in a glass of water. Which side is the bottom?
If your pit has a point on one side, that is the top. If it is round,
like my big avocado pit was, you'll have to pay attention to which
end came from the same side as the stem on the actual avocado. This
side is the top.
 |
| ©SBF 2015 |
Place the pit in the water, resting the toothpicks on the glass.
Keep the water level high so that the bottom of the avocado stays
submerged and watch what happens. The beauty of this experiment is
that you can see all of the process through the glass. If you don't
see the pit begin to split and roots forming after several weeks, try
a different avocado pit.
Here is an avocado plant that we grew from a pit we found
germinating in the compost bin. The large seed was split and roots
were growing out of it. Due to my plant obsession, I quickly potted
it and a few months later we have a nice new houseplant. As fun as it
would be to harvest our own avocados, this plant will always just be
for decoration. Without being in a hot natural climate it will never
produce fruit.
 |
| Avocado houseplant ©SBF 2015 |
 |
| Avocado houseplant ©SBF 2015 |
Growing Plants from Food Scraps and Seeds
To grow more types of houseplants from food scraps and seeds
you'll definitely want to check out
"Don't Throw it, Grow it!"
by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam. There are ideas for 68
different houseplants from dates to beans, chickpeas and kiwi!
Other Plant and Seed Learning Resources
If you are fascinated by seeds or are teaching a plant unit, you
might be interested in this lesson:
Seed Size from the Lawrence Hall
of Science. You need an avocado pit to do it!
You'll also find a ton of fascinating blog posts about seeds in
Growing With Science's series
"Seed of the Week".
Oh my gosh, I am so impressed with your avocado plant. We've tried this activity a few times but without success. After reading your post I am motivated to give it another try. We did grow a banana tree from seed and it's growing astonishingly fast.
ReplyDeleteThere were certainly many attempts before this one! I've had more luck with them taking off in our compost bin, but it is fun to see it happen indoors too. I can't seem to get them to live more than a year or two though before they die!
DeleteI'm impressed with the banana tree! Did you get the seed from a banana from the grocery store, or was it something you purchased? We'd love to try it! :)