Growing your own avocado tree
Avocado prices all follow the supply and demand curve, with Mexico as the biggest importer of avocados to the U.S. According to the California Avocado Commission, the week of March 8, 2020, Mexico imported nearly 39 million pounds of avocados to the U.S., while California avocado growers only had 6.8 million pounds enter the market.
To put this in perspective, the Season-to-Date numbers (which started November 1, 2019 through March 8, 2020) have Mexico importing 900 million pounds of avocados while California growers adding nearly 38 million pounds to the avocados on shelf. Other avocado producers include Florida, Chile, Peru and “Other imports” (unnamed).
That’s a lot of avocados, and the prices remain consistently high because the demand remains high. Demand remains high because avocados are one of the healthiest superfoods on the planet. So good…and so good for you.
Here are some of the most abundant nutrients, in a single 3.5 oz serving of avocado (source: Healthline)
Vitamin K: 26% of the daily value (DV)
Folate: 20% of the DV
Vitamin C: 17% of the DV
Potassium: 14% of the DV
Vitamin B5: 14% of the DV
Vitamin B6: 13% of the DV
Vitamin E: 10% of the DV
It also contains small amounts of magnesium, manganese, copper, iron, zinc, phosphorous and vitamins A, B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin) and B3 (niacin).
This is coming with 160 calories, 2 grams of protein and 15 grams of healthy fats. Although it contains 9 grams of carbs, 7 of those are fiber, so there are only 2 "net" carbs, making this a low-carb friendly plant food.
With all this goodness from the humble avocado, it only stands to reason that we want to try our hand at growing an avocado tree. I mean, who says you can’t grow avocados in Kansas? 😊 Well, we may never get fruit, but it will be a fun experiment.
Here’s what we did:
We researched the process. (Thanks, google!)
We left one of our store-purchased avocados on the counter until it became lighter in weight, darker in color, and not very pretty. (We did not refrigerate it.)
We split open the avocado and the pit fell out.
We rinsed and dried the pit.
Using toothpicks, we suspended the avocado pit in a jar of water, with the broad end of the pit down.
Finally, we placed the avocado pit in a bright, sunny location.
That’s all there is to it. Now it’s just a waiting game.
Per our instructions, the pit will begin sprouting roots in two to six weeks. If there are no roots after eight weeks, we got a dud and will need to start over.
Once the stem of our avocado tree reaches six to seven inches tall, we will need to cut it back by half. And once the roots have grown thick, we’ll transplant the avocado tree into a 10” pot with soil, leaving the top half of the seed exposed.
We’ll follow up in future blogs and let you know how the avocado tree is doing. So stay tuned!
In the meantime, here’s a great video on starting an avocado tree and it shows different ways this can be accomplished. Enjoy!
How To Grow An Avocado Tree From Seed - EASY AND FAST! I show you how to grow an avocado tree from seed, using the soil method.
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“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” — Greek Proverb
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