Food Scrap Gardening: How to Grow Food From Scraps, Reduce Waste and Feed the World by Will Cook

Author:Will Cook [Cook, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crafts; Hobbies & Home, Gardening & Landscape Design, By Technique, Urban, Vegetables, 90 Minutes (44-64 Pages), Gardening & Horticulture, Techniques
Amazon: B00CSPUQG8
Publisher: Vertical Gardening Group
Published: 2013-06-13T04:00:00+00:00

Avocado

The pit of the avocado is not edible, so you will probably toss it after you make an avocado sandwich or guacamole. Instead, you can save the pit and regrow it so you can have a fun learning project with your kids and a house plant as well.

You will most probably never eat the fruits of your labors with this one, though. Avocado plants grown from the pit and reared at home rarely bear fruit and even if it does, it takes upwards of five years before it does. If you really want to harvest avocados within a realistic time frame, you will have to do it from a graft from a fruit-bearing tree.

But if you just want to have fun with kitchen scraps and get a great-looking tropical indoor plant for free, you can just use the avocado pits.

Here’s how:

1. Take the avocado pit and wash thoroughly. Let it dry overnight.

2. When the pit is dry, peel off the outer skin. Pierce the center of the pit, bisecting the broad and pointy side, with four toothpicks on all sides for support.

3. Take a narrow-mouthed container and place the pit at the mouth. Fill the container with water so that a third of the pit is submerged, pointy side up.

4. Place the container in a warm, shaded place such as the shady area of the kitchen. Roots and stems will begin to grow from the pit in about 2 weeks or so. Replace the water every two days.

5. When the stems reach a height of 7 inches, prune it back to 3 inches to encourage root development. When the stems grow back and grow leaves, and the roots appear strong, lift from the container and remove the toothpicks.

6. Prepare a large pot with nutrient-rich soil. Make a hole and carefully place the seedling inside and refill the sides, leaving half the seed above ground. Water regularly. If the leaves start to turn yellow, you may be giving it too much water.

7. Place the pot in a sunny area. If the leaves turn brown, you need to neutralize the excess salt in the soil by wetting it through thoroughly and letting the water drain.

8. When the stems reach a foot in height, cut it back to half to encourage the growth of new shoots. You want it to spread as much as possible. Pick off some of the leaves to encourage leafing. Avocado plants are like the Hydra: for every leaf you remove, two will grow back.

Next, plant the avocado in soil. Be careful not to damage the roots by making a hole in the soil before sliding the plant in. Gently fill the hole with soil and tamp lightly. To encourage the avocado tree to grow full and bushy, pinch off new leaves.

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