We went to Chevy's the other night. Maybe you've heard of it. They have great Mexican food and very large portions. Ray and I always share our meal and we still have some to take home. We began to chuckle when we saw on the front of the menu...."ask your server for a free pit". Apparently they go through hundreds of avocados a day for their fresh salsa and you could take a pit home with you.
So, you know how it goes, if it's free it's for the Harper's. We just had to have one. We didn't even know how long it takes to grow an avocado tree so we went home and looked it up. Appears that in 3-4 years we will have our own avocado tree...well, we each got a pit so we will have two trees. If we go back next month, we could get two more and we will be on our way to an orchard! We will let you know when we begin serving FREE guacamole!
Just in case you want an avocado orchard as well, here are the instructions to grow a tree:
Open the avocado and remove the pit from the center. Carefully push three toothpicks into the thickest width of avocado, you want to push the toothpicks into the pit about a 1/2" deep. (It's okay if you push them in deeper or even a little less) The toothpicks will help suspend the avocado pit in water and keep the top part of the pit in fresh air and the fat base of the pit under the surface of the water.
Suspend the pit over a glass filled with water....the toothpicks will rest on the rim of the glass and hold the pit in place so it doesn't sink to the bottom. Always check the water level in the glass and see that the water is covering the fat base of the pit by about an inch depth. If the water is below that level you'll need to add some more.
Place the glass in a bright windowsill. In about three to six weeks the top of the avocado pit will begin to split and a stem sprout will emerge from the top and roots will begin to grow at the base.
When the stem grows to about five or six inches pinch out the top set of leaves. In another two or three weeks new leaves will sprout and their will be more roots.
It's now time to plant the young avocado tree. Place enriched potting soil in a large flowerpot (maybe 8" to 10" across). Fill the soil to about an inch from the top of the pot. Make a small depression in the center of the soil and place the pit, root-side down into the depression. Don't put it too deep...you want to have the upper half of the pit above the soil line. Add some more soil around the pit to fill in any air holes by the roots and then firm it into the soil by gently pushing the soil around the base of the pit. The tree's stem and leaves should be straight and pointing up (like a flagpole).
Give the soil a drink to water the pit. Water it generously so that the soil is thoroughly moist. Water the soil slowly and gently so that when it's poured in it doesn't gouge out holes in the soil. Keep your tree watered but don't let the soil be so moist that it ever looks like mud.
Keep your tree in a sunny window, the more sun it gets the bigger it will grow. When the stem grows six more inches pinch out the top two sets of leaves. This will encourage the plant to grow side shoots and more leaves, making it bushy. Each time the plant grows another six inches pinch out the two newest sets of leaves on top.
An avocado tree is a medium to large tall tree. It can grow between 20 and 40 feet tall. With pruning it can be kept at a much shorter height.
Finding Freebies,
Teri
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