Magically Growing Foods from Waste

Avocados are great fun for first time indoor gardeners. Extremely easy to root they are impossible to grow beyond the initial rooting, stem and leaf growth. The leaves will blacken, die and fall off and you'll have a bunch of trunks, that also blacken and die. I've tried several hundred pits the past 40 years & experience 100% failure rate. They can't be transplanted outdoors because of the intensely specific compost and soil conditions necessary. You will have a nice starter plant that will die in a few months.

The room moisture and humidity levels have nothing to do with the blackening and die off of the leaves. Fun as starter plants but enormously discouraging. From an avid lifetime green thumb gardener who can get a pencil to root - don't waste your time with avocados. They are the most finicky plant you'll ever try to root and you simply can't replicate the necessary soil conditions - particularly sterility - in your home. 100% leaf loss.

Both of my sisters live in Florida, and have had great luck growing Avocado trees from pits. They start them off with toothpicks holding the pit in a glass of water, change the water at least twice a week, and when the pit grows roots, they add a tiny bit of organic fertilizer to the water each change. When the top sprouts green, the water gets a bit more fertilizer each change.

When the top is about 6 inches tall, they plant the pit in a 10 inch pot of sterilized starter soil with some sand and the same fertilizer mixed in. The trick to NOT killing the plant, is to only plant as deep as about 2/3's the depth of the pit, leaving the top 1/3 above soil level. Both sisters have several Avocado trees growing in their yards...started from pits.