5 Simple Steps to Grow an Avocado Tree From a Pit

If you are planting it outdoors, choose well-draining garden soil and water the newly planted avocado tree every 5 to 10 days with several gallons of water. It’s better to water deeply less often to force the roots to grow to reach the water. Keeping about 6 inches away from the tree trunk, mulch with about 3 to 6 inches of coarse bark or cocoa bean hulls to retain moisture.

How to Plant and Grow an Avocado Tree

Learn how to grow your own avocado tree, starting with that slippery brown seed from the center of the fruit.

Deb Wiley’s goal as a writer and editor is to bring the joy of gardening to readers by cultivating their relationship to growing and planting. After 20 years as a newspaper reporter, Deb melded her lifelong passion for gardening with her writing and photography experience when she became the garden editor for Midwest Living magazine. Since starting her freelance career in 2008, she has been a highly sought-after writer, editor, and creative project manager for a wide range of magazines, books, and online garden articles. where she brings personal experience as well as deep connections to specialists in the world of horticulture.

Lynn McAlpine is a lifelong gardener and long-time editor of gardening and home articles. Her work encompasses both print publications and online sites. She has hands-on experience with annuals and perennial beds, vegetable gardens, herbs, houseplants, and woodland management. Lynn has a B.A. in Journalism, Magazine Production from the University of Memphis and is a member of ACES, the American Copy Editors Society.

Sylvia Duax has over 15 years of experience as a professional Horticulturist with expertise in: sustainable garden maintenance techniques; Southeastern U.S., especially in the mid-Atlantic regional gardening; native plants; wildlife gardening; small space, urban and container gardening and community engagement.

If you’re a frequent avocado buyer at the grocery store, you might’ve thought about planting your own tree to harvest the fruit fresh. While it takes a lot of patience to grow an avocado tree from a seed (it can be as many as 13 years before it starts producing fruit), you’ll have everything you need to get one started the next time you cut open an avocado.

Where to Plant an Avocado Tree

Grow your avocado seedling indoors from the big brown seed from the center of the fruit. You can grow the tree outside if you live in one of the warmest parts of the U.S. Although they grow in plant hardiness zones 8-11, in the U.S., avocados only thrive in southern parts of Florida or California, and in Hawaii.

Avocado trees are subtropical plants native to southern Mexico. If you live in a region where winter temperatures regularly drop below freezing, plant the avocado tree in a container so you can move it indoors for winter. Indoor avocado trees should be grown in potting soil, not garden soil, to allow air and water to circulate freely.

How and When to Plant an Avocado Tree

It’s easy to sprout an avocado seed, as you may have learned in childhood. Buy an avocado, enjoy the luscious green flesh, then wash the seed. Remember which end of the seed was on top and which was on the bottom. Then, poke several toothpicks into the equator of the seed and rest the toothpicks on a glass of water so that the bottom inch of the seed is in the water. Plant at any time of year, as the seedling will remain indoors at this point.

Place the glass somewhere warm but out of direct sunlight, adding water as needed to keep the bottom inch of the seed in the water. Roots develop first, followed by the emergence of a seedling.

When the seedling reaches 6 or 7 inches tall, cut the stem in half, or about 3 inches tall, to encourage the plant to put its energies into new growth. When the seedling has several leaves and thick roots, plant the seed in potting soil in a 10-inch-wide pot that has drainage holes.

Avocado Care Tips

Light

Place the pot in a sunny window indoors or move it outside whenever the temperature is 45°F or warmer. Keep young potted avocado trees in partial shade; the leaves can sunburn if they get too much direct sun while they’re still getting established.

Soil and Water

If the tree grows indoors in a container, plant it in potting soil and water weekly. If the container is moved outside in warm, dry weather, water more frequently .

If you are planting it outdoors, choose well-draining garden soil and water the newly planted avocado tree every 5 to 10 days with several gallons of water. It’s better to water deeply less often to force the roots to grow to reach the water. Keeping about 6 inches away from the tree trunk, mulch with about 3 to 6 inches of coarse bark or cocoa bean hulls to retain moisture.

Temperature and Humidity

If you live in a warm enough hardiness zone, you can plant outdoors. Avocados perform best in temperatures between 60°F to 85°F in areas with medium or high humidity.

Fertilizer

In summer, fertilize weekly with a fertilizer with nitrogen, indicated by a higher first number, such as 7-4-2. Avocados also need a small amount of zinc, so look for a fertilizer with that component. Avoid fertilizing during the winter when growth is minimal.

Pruning

Prune the tree regularly. Every time it grows another 6 inches tall, cut back the top two sets of leaves. When the plant reaches 12 inches, cut it back to 6 inches. When it reaches 18 inches, cut it back to 12 inches, and so forth. This encourages bushier growth.

Repotting Avocado

If you grow the avocado tree in a container, gently remove it as it grows and place it in successively larger pots, going up in diameter 2 inches at a time.

Pests and Problems

When they are grown outdoors, avocado trees are susceptible to damage from caterpillars, mites, thrips, borers, and other beasties, all of which can be handled by the observant grower. The University of California Integrated Pest Management offers a guide to identifying and treating these pests on avocado trees.

Frequently Asked Questions

Mature avocado trees planted outside reach 15 to 35 feet tall. As they grow, they may become too large to maintain in containers successfully. You may decide it’s too difficult to grow such a large tree indoors or move it inside and out.

If you begin with the avocado pit in a glass of water, expect to wait about 13 years for the fruit. However, if you start with a healthy, nursery-grown plant, you could be eating your own avocados in about four years. Avocados don’t ripen on the tree, so you’ll need to pick them after they reach a good size and wait several days for the flesh to soften.

When the tree is planted in optimum conditions, it could outlive you. Avocado trees have been known to live for hundreds of years.

5 Simple Steps to Grow an Avocado Tree From a Pit

With some water and a few toothpicks, you can enjoy the fruits of this houseplant.

If you’re a fan, you know that most dishes can benefit from the addition of a few creamy avocados. And while you can easily snag avocados at your local grocery store, you may have stopped to wonder how hard it would be to grow your own. The bad news is that it can take five years minimum for an avocado tree to start producing fruit; the good news is that with a single brown avocado seed, a few simple supplies and an understanding of some basic care tips, you can learn how to grow an avocado tree indoors without a ton of effort. Read on if you’re ready to give this fun and inexpensive gardening project a try — it’s a great activity for kids, too!

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Check out these five basic steps to begin growing your very own avocado tree from a pit:

Supplies Needed

• Avocado seed
• Toothpicks
• Drinking glass or jar
• 10-inch pot
• Potting soil
• Trowel

How to grow an avocado tree at home

1. Save an avocado pit (without cutting into or breaking it) and wash off any residue. Let dry, then insert 3-4 toothpicks about halfway up the side of the pit.
2. Suspend the pit broad end of the pit down in a drinking glass or jar. Fill the container with enough water to submerge the bottom third of the seed, the Missouri Botanical Garden advises.
3. Place the glass in a warm spot out of direct sunlight and change the water regularly. Roots and a sprout should appear in about 2-6 weeks. If not, start with another seed.
4. When the sprout gets to be about 6 inches tall, cut it back to about 3 inches to encourage more root growth.
5. Once the stem grows out again, plant the pit in an 10-inch pot filled with rich potting soil. Now it’s time to let your avocado tree grow, grow, grow!
   

Note: You can buy older trees instead of starting from scratch. Amazon sells grafted, 4-feet tall avocado trees that may yield fruit in 3-4 years instead of 10.

How to care for an avocado tree

Place your pot in a sunny spot indoors and water lightly but often. The goal is to keep the soil moist but not sopping wet, California Avocados recommends. You can place your pot outdoors in the summer as long as temps stay above 45°F. Occasionally prune your plant (every 6 inches or so) to encourage fullness.

Gardening tip: Yellow leaves are a sign of overwatering. Dial back to avoid root rot.

Tips on growing an avocado tree outdoors

Avocados are tropical plants (they’re native to southern Mexico), so you can also plant avocado trees in the ground outside in USDA Zones 10-12, a.k.a., regions with no frost. They do best in rich, well-drained soil with full sunlight and medium-high humidity. Ideally, you’ll want to plant them between March and June. Give them plenty of space when planting, especially if you’re growing multiple trees, since they can reach anywhere from 40-80 feet tall and up to 20 feet wide under the right conditions. Additionally, avocado trees have very shallow roots that mainly grow in the top 6 inches of the soil. For this reason, mulching (go for a coarse option) is key after planting. Water 2-3 times per week by soaking the soil thoroughly and then letting it dry out before watering again.

Will my avocado tree produce fruit?

Before you embark on growing your own avocado tree, there’s one important thing to keep in mind: These trees typically take between five to 13 years to produce fruit. It’s also quite challenging for this to occur indoors, which is the reason why they’re fairly pricey in stores at times.

But even though your tree won’t produce fruit anytime soon (or ever), you can still round out your green-thumb project with some avo-themed dishes from the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen. This nourishing fruit is packed with nutrients, like healthy fats and fiber, as well as vitamins C, E and K! Browse through our favorite dishes that make avocado the star of the show: