The kindest cut of all...

For those of you who are growing an avocado pit into a sweet little houseplant, along with me, here's the hard part. It hurts, but you have to do it.

By the way, if you missed it, a few months ago I was making guacamole and for some reason, instead of tossing the avocado pits into the trash, memories of my hippie dippy days came back to me and I remembered that thirty years ago, I'd have never thrown an avocado pit away. Every pit was a potential houseplant and I always had them all over the kitchen, in Mason jars, at different stages of the process. I loved growing them and I couldn't begin to tell you how many sweet little avocado trees I gave as gifts. There's something about them that's fascinating.

Not only is it fun for you, it's a very simple little science project for your kids, too. They can clearly see every step of what happens when a "seed" turns into a "plant." You can go right here to read about how to get started.

It's not a fast process. I started this one about three months ago.


Eleven days ago, my tree looked like this.


Today it looked like this.

It's really impressive when you think that all I did was clean off an avocado pit, stuck some toothpicks into it and suspended it in a jar of water. But....

....you can clearly see that this little plant is headed straight up. I know from experience that it will grow four feet tall and never sprout a single branch. All those shiny leaves are growing right out the top. And it's just getting taller...and taller...and taller. The leaves will get huge but they'll all be on the top and the whole plant will look a little pathetic. Like it's trying too hard or something.

So, as hard as it is, you have to cut it back. I believe if you Google growing avocado pits, you'll see most people call it "pinching" it back.

I call it cutting it off at the knees and throwing it into a serious depression. LOL


You need shears. A quick clean clip is best. These little guys are fragile until they get a lot bigger and you don't want to be sawing back and forth on that little stem with a serrated knife.


This is always a little sad. But trust me. The plant will just sit there for a few weeks and one morning you'll suddenly notice that right under that cut, it's shooting out several little buds that are going to become branches.


Remember that you never put cold water on an avocado plant. They're tropical and they don't like cold anything. I use water at room temperature and I always use this plant food.

Make sure you don't over water it - just water it enough that it's uniformly moist but never soaking wet. And keep it in bright sunlight.

I'll be back to show you the results of this butchering. In a month or so. :-)