I put an avocado pit in a zip lock bag with a wet paper towel about 4-5 weeks ago and put it in the window sill in the kitchen. I checked on it today and its starting to germinate and has 1 long root coming out the bottom. I stuck some toothpicks in it and put it in a cup of water. Hopefully sometime this year I'll be able to put it in a pot and have my own little indoor avocado tree.

Anybody else ever grow one of these? Any tips?
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Not hard to grow a tree, but it takes 10 years and a second tree to actually get fruit. Good luck. :-)
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I've done this quite a few times & had small trees growing at my parent's house. They make nice little house plants when small, but will get big eventually & won't produce fruit with the same quality as a commercial avocado. I'm not trying to be a downer as growing them is fun regardless!

If you haven't already read the Wikipedia article, it seems to contain a lot of good info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado...and_rootstocks
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I have one planted in my backyard that I started from a seed when I lived in my old house. Kept it in a pot until I moved into my current home. When I planted it about 6 years ago it was in a 24 nch pot and when planted it was about 4 feet tall.

Now it's about 15 feet tall and has produced fruit for only the second time since I planted it. First was last year btw. It is about 12 years old

My tree is from a Florida avocado, not a California Avocado and there are no other trees near mine, but it still produced fruit. :-)

It is fun to take care of them and watch them grow. Kinda like kids, but easier!!!!! :-)
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We got tons of avos out here in hawaii. Avocados are a gamble, the quality of the seed does not traslate to the friut it will eventualy produce. All of the Haas avos you buy at the store are from a tree grafted from the original haas tree.

That being said, every tree is different and you may end up with some awesome avos. The only way to find out is to go for it.

If your just looking for a plant, even better.
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Awesome. Thanks for all the info. I'm probably gonna try to grow a couple or 3 and try to keep them pretty small by keeping them pruned pretty well. Should be a fun long term project.
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Here's a pic. There's a root growing out of it and in the middle there is a small green leaf.
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Reminds me of this!

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I am with some of the cats here, do some reading about avocados before you get too excited, BUT ALWAYS
REMEMBER, every tree you plant, no matter how insignificant, is a real treasure in a world today where everyone
is planting Bradford Pears so they can have large trees in a short time. They don't realize how weak they are
against any stiff wind, I guess. I am growing some LA Live Oaks in pots right now waiting until I buy a nice house
somewhere. I also have a lot of potted trees from my various mountain travels. One day.....

But if you find tiny trees growing out of place, dig em up and put em where you want them and nurture them.
Hopefully we will all live long enough to see our efforts pay off for the next generation.
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Mine's about two years old now, and I finally potted it after the roots got too crazy in the glass jar I had been growing it in. Ive grown a bunch of avocados because it's fun to watch! I find that these guys can tend to grow long and skinny, and eventually lean to a side. So, I usually cut back the plant to encourage it to grow wider with more stems as opposed to one long stalk.
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I've got two of them in water in my office. One was already split when I opened the fruit, so I got a jump start on it. If nothing else, it'll be fun. Don't know if they can survive to fruit in Charleston, but I can keep it in a large pot and bring it in on the colder nights.

On a side note - loquats. I planted a dozen or so seeds about 3 years ago. I've got 5 of them to a little less than waist high. They'll go in the ground this weekend. Looking at another 6-8 years for fruit.

Now my wife wants fig trees. Might throw a couple of them in the ground this weekend, too. Squirrels/birds will end up eating most of any fruit I can make. My peach trees have had some great years, but mother nature gets most of it.
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Good luck on the avocado tree. We just put a grapefruit tree in the ground and have a large tangerine tree that was here when we moved in. The tangerine tree doesn't look as full this year as last. We had to give fruit away since we could not eat all of it, however much we tried.
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One of the things I miss about my grandfather. He had grapefruit, orange, and tangerines all over his back yard (he lived in Fl) and would send us boxes of stuff every year.
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the house i bought has a huge avocado tree in the back yard. no idea how old but the people we bought the house from said its been giving them fruit for years. this tree pumps out MASSIVE avocados. these things were the size of pineapples if not bigger. the tree is probably a easy 20-25 feet. ill try and post a few pics this weekend.
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Are they good to eat Drez???

Love me some Guacamole
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you could make a **** ton of Guac with avocados that size.
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believe it or not i hate avocados but my wife loves them. apparently the old owners used to sell these all the time cause people knew the tree put out huge tasty fruit.

but the short answer is YES!!!!!!!! from my wife, in laws and parents who have all eaten them they said that they are great.
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That's what I thought.

I used to have a potato plant when I was a kid. Might just start one this weekend.
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My mom used to grow them for me when I was a kid, too. We had a huge one one year and it grew runners all over the counter. Pretty cool. Here's an Internet pic for all those who never tried it. You can get a huge plant!

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Here's the only avocado I found on the ground to compare. It's smaller than the average ones but you get the idea.
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And here is the tree. The dog house has a ride on lawn mower to give a size comparison.

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