My Avocado Plants

        Have you ever seen the movie RED? Well if you have been reading my blog you should know I love Bruce Willis and his movies, ever since I saw Die hard when I was ten. So when RED came out I was obviously excited and went to see it. Here is what I the movie taught me. You can grow an avocado plant from the pit. It took a few tries, I learned through trail and error and the internet that avocado roots do not like direct light. At first I tried using a clear drinking glass but it didn't work, nothing grew. I am now using a small, blue plastic one and the results are much better. I also discovered that the root growth works best if the pit is fresh from the fruit with the bottom skin scraped off. Simply use 3 to 4 toothpicks to suspend the top (pointiest part) of the pit out of the water and stick it in a window that has shade. 

My first Sucess!

It make take a month, but after the seed cracks a root should grow out of the bottom. A shoot will grow out the top. You should get sets of three leaves. Here are a few pictures of my two avocado plants. They are kind of a side project of mine but I don't really count them on my list. 

My roommate thinks it is kind of creepy how quickly the big plant is growing. I hope to have a real tree by spring. 

          I started the big one in August. This is the biggest the first set of three leave got.

         The second set that grew have gotten alot bigger as you can see.

        I am expecting the third set of leaves to grown to be even bigger. We will have to wait and see.

        I re-potted my big avocado plant today. The root base had come out the hole in the bottom of the pot. See the long fat toots at the bottom? The re-potting was way overdue. I ran out of potting soil so the little one is still in it's cup. But hopefully it can hold out a little longer til I can pick some up.

Creepy eh?

I started the smaller one in October. It took forever for the little one to grow leaves but the roots had no issue. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

 This is what the big one looked like before it got big and strong.