Grow Your Own Avocado Tree

You'll need:

• An avocado pit ­ saved from one of the recipes
• A glass that is about an inch bigger across than the avocado pit
• 3 toothpicks ­ the round kind work best because they are thicker

Clean off the avocado pit's shiny brown skin.

Now you're going to make a tripod to hold your avocado pit in the glass. Hold the pit with the narrow end up and the wide end down. Insert a toothpick about halfway down on one side of the pit, sticking straight out. Avocado pits are tough and this might take some muscle from an older person.

Look down on the top of the pit and try to imagine where the other two toothpicks would have to be inserted so they would be the same distance apart from each other - you're dividing the avocado pit into thirds. Push the other two toothpicks into the avocado. Sticking straight out they make the avocado pit look like a satellite.

Put the bottom half of the avocado pit into the glass, balancing the toothpicks on the rim of the glass.

Fill the glass with water almost up to the rim. The bottom of the avocado pit will be in the water.

Put the glass with the avocado pit in a sunny window.

The next step takes a lot of patience. You will have to keep the water level up and wait. The avocado pit is a seed and if you're lucky when you put it in water it will start to sprout. The brown skin will crack and a pale shoot will come out into the water. This shoot will become the tree's roots.

When we say be patient we mean it. Many an avocado pit has nearly been thrown away when the shoot is finally discovered.

Next a second shoot will come out the top. This will become the stem and will grow leaves.

If you live in a place that has warm winters you can plant the tree in the garden. Our grandmother lives in Hawaii and she started an avocado tree from a pit. That avocado tree gave her avocados for years and years.

If you don't live in a warm place you can keep your avocado tree as a houseplant. You won't get any avocados but it will have lovely green leaves.