An easy, fun way to germinate an avocado pit

If you’ve always wanted to have your own avocado plant, then just leave a avocado seed sprouting. In this article two ways to germinate an avocado pit in an easy and fun way and put it in a pot, into hopefully a nice avocado tree.

Nice, your own avocado plant

Only after I started germinating an avocado seed enthusiastically did I find out that an avocado will probably never grow on my avocado plant, yet this did not stop me and I put two seeds in water to germinate. How long it took me to see something happen and whether it worked uber-hard, you can read about it here.

To germinate an avocado seed

How to make your own avocado seed germinate into an avocado plant? I was very curious about this and since my windowsill was already full of growing trays anyway, I thought, this could be added too. Now I used two methods. With one an avocado plant came out and with the other it did not succeed. This was just bad luck because I think in principle both methods should do well.

I put an avocado seed in a ziplock bag and suspended one in water in the familiar way, with sticks. How exactly this works, you can read it here:

2 ways to germinate the avocado seed

Method 1

1. Wash the seed and put it in a glass of water for 48 hours.
2. Remove the brown outer layer of the seed with a knife.
3. Dampen kitchen paper and place the seed in it. Put this in a zip lock bag and put it on the windowsill
4. Check your seed regularly. When the paper is dry, moisten it again.
5. How long it takes for your seed to germinate can vary greatly. At some point you will see a little root peeking out.
6. When the carrot is a few inches, put it in water. In time the stem with leaves will come up.

Method 2

1. Clean the pit and poke a stick into it on four sides.
2. Fill a glass with water and make sure half the wick is in the water
3. Give fresh water every 3 days.
4. After a while you will see a root emerge at the bottom.
5. And a little later a branch appears on top as well.

After exactly one month, the root was about 5 inches and I put it in the water. This was the avocado from method 1. I had started with this seed two days earlier and what I noticed was that when it came out of the kitchen paper it was already almost in half, this allowed the branch to grow upwards quite quickly.

The avocado seed from method 2 had more trouble with it, when the root was about 5 centimeters, I took out the sticks and put the seed in a bottle, the avocado seed wasn’t broken yet and it took a long time for it to open up and a sprig to emerge. I would not be surprised if it was because the brown skin of the avocado seed was still around it.

How long does it take for an avocado seed to germinate?

At best, after a few weeks you will see a crack appearing on your seed. This is the first sign of life from your seed. But it can also take much longer. As long as your pit still looks fresh and feels hard, it’s a matter of patience.

If your kernel feels soft to the touch then it has started to rot and you should throw it away.

after 1 month after 2 months avocado pit in pot

How to plant an avocado seed

After another month, the roots of method 1 of the avocado seed were about 10 inches and I started putting it in the pot. When planting the avocado seed, keep the seed half above the ground. I chose vegetable garden soil.

What is the best time for germination?

You can sprout avocados all year round, but if you make sure your plant is really growing in the spring and summer, your avocado will show the most beautiful growth. Since you don’t know in advance whether your seed will germinate in 2 weeks or 2 months, it’s hard to plan for this. But late winter and early spring is the ideal time to start.

Avocado pit planting

Put your avocado tree in a place with lots of indirect light, possibly a little direct sunlight. If your tree is growing really well, you can also put it in full sun.Here my avocado pit with method 1 came up well, the pit from method 2 went mouldy and I finally got rid of that one. What I think, but that is based on an avocado seed germinating once, the seed did not tear in two because the brown skin was still around it.

Whether this was the case or just bad luck I don’t know. Don’t worry I eat an avocado twice a week so I’m just going to try again.

For more tips and advice on the vegetable garden, read Lodi’s vegetable garden.

Starting your own vegetable garden? A large selection of vegetable garden containers can be found here.