6/3/12

What happens to an avocado pit?

Never have had a speck of luck with Sputnik avocado pit sprouting. Whichever end is up is always wrong, although it would be incorrect to accuse the pit of spite.

Cannas love me by comparison. Pull them out midseason and toss the bulbs over the fence, give them no respect. Whichever, wherever way they land, they are sprouting again within a couple weeks.

Pineapples, gotta love 'em. Lop the top off. Stick the top in a pot of dirt and screw it down a bit like Donald Trump's toupee. The plant will grow handsome gray-green spikes in sun or shade until freezing weather comes. We've had one growing in our classroom for at least three years. True, it would be difficult to plant it upside down. That would be an uncomfortable toupee.

Once or twice since I encountered guacamole in college the pit I've thrown out in dispair has grown a foot and a half with four leaves before dying. In the jelly jar, nada. So I started throwing the pit into the worm composting bin along with the avocado peels.

Red wigglers get all excited about avocado peels. They use them for worm yurts, kivas, and hookah dens. They use eggshells for igloos, or put on thick spectacles and pretend to be Buckminster Fuller, those frolicking eisenia foetida!


What about the pits?  They break down very slowly, aided by the red worms and by harmless white mites that assist the decomposition process. Today I raked the pits out of the bin and threw them into my accidental garden.  I hold no expectations for their future.Maybe this is the year avocado pits dock with the International Space Station, but I'm not holding my breath. Critters have mowed off the volunteer tomato plants AGAIN. The mystery guest from the squash/melon family is taking over the patio and climbing the wire tomato cages. It tried to ensnarl the gas grill. There's a lime the size of a pencil top eraser growing on the teacher appreciation tree. Anole lizards are pleased with the situation.  Life is good, and decomposition is not bad, either.


© 2012 Nancy L. Ruder

1 comment:

Kathleen said...

Glad to see this avocado meditation and to the learn the pineapple trick!

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