I’ve been experimenting with avocado plant propagation. Here’s what I’ve learned in the last year from growing avocado pits into actually plants that will eventually fruit.
Avocados are one of the few green things my six year old will happily eat. And I would eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if they didn’t start to go bad before I could get to them all.
So, over a year ago, we tried to propagate our own avocado tree from a pit. It worked so well, we’ve now started four different avocado trees, in hopes that at least two will make it long enough to start actually fruiting.
But even if that never happens, the process is exciting and the waiting game is a great lesson in patience for kids (and adults to be honest). Here’s what you do…
Avocado Plant Propagation
I’m no stranger to propagating plants, but avocado plant propagation is a little different than most. Since you’re starting with a pit and not a piece of an existing plant.
Not to worry though – the process is very easy. And quite satisfying! Here’s how to create an avocado tree from an avocado pit…
1) Remove the pit from an avocado, wash it off. You can remove the thin skin on the pit or leave it as is. It doesn’t seem to matter much either way.
2) Poke three or four toothpicks into the upper center of the pit (evenly spaced). And rest the toothpicks on the rim of a bowl (or cup) filled with water*. Make sure the seed is bottom side down and that the bottom of the pit is completely submerged in water.
*Near a window with natural sunlight is best, if possible.
3) Refresh the water every few days and check water daily to ensure it’s still completely submerging the bottom of the avocado pit. Other than that it’s just a waiting game.
It takes 1-2 months to see progress. It will seem like nothing is going to happen the first few weeks. But eventually, the pit will start to split. Once you see that, you know the roots aren’t too far behind…and then the stem!
4) Once the avocado stem is around 6 inches tall, you can prune it back to promote bushier growth, if desired. Pot the pit / new plant in soil once the roots are established. I waited until mine were 1.5 – 2 inches long. *Bonus points for using DIY planters.
Water like any other plant.
So what’s the best way to propagate avocados?
The success story
Here’s one (above) that I started from a pit about a year ago. It has turned out the best so far imo – healthy and continuously getting new growth. I used what I did with this pit (to plant) as my outline for the instructions in this post.
So, the instructions in this post are what has brought me the best results so far.
First photo is from April of this year and the one below that is from June of this year. So, it’s seen a lot of new growth within the last two months.
The experiment
Above is an avocado plant when it was 5- 6(ish) months old. As an experiment, I left it in its tiny container (with fresh water near a window) for much longer than the others to see how long it would continue to grow without potting it.
You can see where I cut it back months ago, to encourage stronger growth (and hopefully another branch at some point).
After this photo, I planted it in a pot and brought it out to the porch, where the others have done well. Sadly, it hasn’t grown since, and is starting to wilt. So I’m thinking we won’t do it that way again. It’s still alive, but not flourishing like the others.
The in-between
And lastly, above is an avocado tree that my mom gave me. She planted it two years ago, as just an avocado pit (using this same method), and now it’s nearly 5 feet tall! It lost almost all of its leaves over the winter, but a lot of new growth is coming in again, now that it’s spring / almost summer.
The leaves aren’t as big or bushy as ‘the success story’, but it’s still in good shape and continues to get new leaves. *The first photo is from April of this year and the second photo is from June of this year. So, decent progress with the leaf growth, but it’s a lot leggier than the others.
The idea of having an avocado tree in our backyard that we could go and pick from whenever we had a craving sounds amazing. So I’m really hoping we start to see some fruit in the next few years.
That’s it for now! Have you ever tried propagating plants before?
