Nancy ~ I know this doesnt answer your question, but i was hoping you could answer mine~I would like to try to grow one from the seed,
which end do you put in the water?...and when i was younder i was told not to put the whole seed in the water, so i can barely remember sticking toothpicks in it to hold half of it out of the water...did you do that also?
About how long did it take for you to see roots?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Trish

I have a nice little Avocado tree started.

the toothpick and water idea got old, every few days of changing the water got tiring. I decided to experiment with other methods, and found a variety of things to work as long as your using a medium like perlite. this is the best method ive ever used...

fill a small pot with perlite, wetten it under running water til its fairly wet, and then shake to run excess water out. burrow your avocado seed bottom-side down into the perlite until its above halfway submerged.

use a spray bottle to mist the top of the seed so that the beads of water roll down around the avocado and get absorbed by surrounding perlite. every two or three weeks u should check the bottom of the seed and the contacting perlite to make sure its staying constantly moist.

eventually it will crack and grow a huge tap root, and should be instantly planted in a deep container (more deep than wide) to accompany the growth of their mighty tap roots.

the process between establishing a solid root system, and sprouting a shoot with leafs, takes about a month depending on the weather. if its cold outside, and both the soil its in and the air around it is cold, then it wont grow very fast. avocados grow ideally at around 90deg weather.

it took a month of being in the soil before it sprouted a shoot, and another month and a half before the leafs unfolded from the shoot.

i hope this information is of use to someone.

I finally started another seed. I threw the old one away. I put it point end up in water. I might go buy another one and try it in soil. Anyone have any advice on how to do a peach pit. Do you crack open the pit and plant the seed inside? Or is there no seed inside? Thanks, nancy

I would assume there is some cold shocking to do, in order to sprout a peach.

place them in damp paper towels, in a ziplock bag, and in the back of the fridge for 3 months. Be sure to check it every few weeks to make sure its not molding.

Peach, apricot, and most other pit seeds, prefer a well drained soil, preferably slightly sandy or with lots of perlite, warm temperatures, and about half inch to an inch of soil depth.

Hey i've tried peach from seed, and it needs a three month cold period, but i planted like 10 pits, and only 2 sprouted, here in the forums i found that most peaches sold comercially are hybrids so most of the seeds are not viable and won't germinate no matter what, so my advice is to use a lot of peach pits to see if you get lucky and they sprout.

As for the avocados, i've never had any problem with them, they always develop a nice stem in about 2 months and start growing from there, my only problem with them is my dog who seems to love them. So i can't help you here.

Hope this helps.

Hi Nancy, I have tried the avacado pits in water but seem to have had more luck just sticking them in the ground or a pot of soil. I planted my "first" pit outside in 1995 and now the tree is taller than our house with a trunk diameter of 9". My avacado tree is flowering right now so I hope to have fruit by September. I also have several avacado plants as house plants and potted plants outside. The seeds of all of the fruits we eat here seem to get put in the ground or a pot just for the fun of growing. If you do try to put one in potting soil or just in the ground put the smaller end up or lay it on its side.

Good Luck,
Trina

I love avocados and always wanted to propogate one, but I read somewhere that it takes about 10 years to produce fruit when propogated from seed. Does that sound right? Because I'm just not that patient.

Heh, saw this thread and checked my seed in water (toothpick method) and there's a crack in the top of it, with a some kind of bugs living in the crack! I just put the whole thing under water for now, for a few minutes to drown them out hopefully.