Remember our post from April about growing an Avocado plant from seed, well our Avocado pit has been growing steadily and we are here to give you some next steps if you decided to grow one with us!
This is what our Avocado pit looked like in early April.
After about two months (in mid June), the pit started to root!
I then moved it to a slightly larger jar to allow the roots to grow deeper.
One month after that (in mid July) the roots had lengthened significantly and the pit began to sprout a little avocado seedling.
Another month later (early August) and several leaves had developed (this photo is a little blurry because the fan kept moving the leaves).
Now it is late August and the root has grown stronger and even more leaves have developed and she is about ready to be pruned.
It is important to prune avocado seedlings because it will help your plant to develop into a stronger bushier plant, rather than a weak leggy plant. We could continue to let our Avocado plant grow without pruning but it would likely just look like a long stick with a few leaves on the end. If we prune it early, we will encourage the plant to branch out and it will be healthier in the long run.
To prune your avocado plant, you will wait until the stem is roughly 8 inches long and then you will cut it back by about half. This will allow the root system to develop more fully as well as encourage the plant to branch out. That way when we do eventually plant it in dirt, the roots will be strong and plentiful and able to hold up our beautiful avocado plant!
This process is slightly jarring and a little scary, but I promise, your avocado will sprout leaves once again.
Send us pictures of your own avocado plant germinating and they could be featured on our next avocado plant post update! Email ebrown@grownyc.org with your avocado pit pictures with the subject line avocado plant.
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