Avocado Lovin'

For over ten years Rich and I have loved raising our avocado tree.  We call it Lazarus because it has lost all it's leaves and looked dead and came back to life.  It started out like these 2 in picture below.  We let the pits dry out after we take them out of the avocado and then we put them in water.  It takes quite a while for some of them to sprout roots.  These I think took a couple of months.  I realized when I was younger and trying to grow an avocado tree from a pit, that I gave up too soon.

 

 

Once we got it to sprout leaves and get established in the soil we cute it half way up the stem, removing all the leaves. Just a stob was left but that keeps the avocado tree from getting really tall and skinny. It was hard for me the first time. I chickened out and let Rich do it. But it paid off as it branched out and became this huge tree.  We keep it in a pot and every couple of years we take it out and trim off the roots and give it fresh soil.

 

 

 

I planted this little one and set it in front of the big guy.

 

 

 

Our Lazarus tree is looking a little stressed.  It always does when we trim the roots but in about 6 weeks it takes off and is really pretty.  We have not gotten avocados off of it but maybe some day.

 

 

 

We are thinking of letting the 2 starts in the window get leaves and get rooted well and then taking them and braiding them with this little one and see if  we can't make a braided trunk avocado.  I think it will be really fun to try!