Ever since we moved in together, Justin has been working on a little gardening project: he has been determined to sprout an avocado seed and grow an avocado tree. I'm wasn't exactly sure where he planned on putting this tree if it ever came to fruition, but considering the fact that his initial five or six attempts were duds, I wasn't too concerned about it. Apparently, according to the internet at least, sprouting an avocado pit is often used as an experiment to teach children that plants give off so many seeds (or fruits that contain seeds) because only a small fraction of those seeds will grow up to become plants. Our experience with the Hass varietals from the grocery store seemed to teaching us the same lesson.
However, some of you may recall that in early December, we were gifted with a pair of truly gargantuan avocados from our family friends' avocado tree at their vacation home in Florida. Though the pits alone were the size of a standard Hass, Justin was determined to see if he could get them to sprout. Due to their huge size, we could not suspend them over a glass of water, as is recommended for sprouting avocado seeds. We could only stick them in a pot with some dirt and hope for the best.
To be honest, I had encouraged Justin to give up on this latest test batch quite some time ago. The dirt appeared to be growing mold, and nothing seemed to be happening with the seeds after over a month. Since they were in the man cave, however, they were largely out of sight and out of mind, so I never seriously followed up on my request for disposal. Imagine my surprise then, when I was deadheading the amaryllis plant we had similarly located next to the man cave window, and looked over to see this:
He did it! We are finally with baby avocado child! Like any expectant parents, we are going to have to do some research on what to do with our fledgling sprout, but we are excited nonetheless. I don't ever expect the tree to bear fruit; after all, we'd never be able to move it outside in this climate, even if we did have a yard. Still, I hope it will become a nice addition to our menagerie of houseplants, especially now that we've lost two of my oldest plants, who never really seemed to thrive after I repotted them last year. I also hope that the size of the seed isn't a predictor of the size of the actual plant, or this avocado tree will take over our entire house!
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