Good Things Come in Trees

My kids like avocados. A lot. My kids eat avocados. A lot. And I once read that you could sprout an avocado tree from seed, so early on in the pandemic lock down, I tried to do just that. A lot.

It's pretty simple, really. An avocado seed has a pointier side and this is the side that should be oriented toward the sky. You'll see roots emerge from the flatter side, so clean off the seed, orient it correctly, use three toothpicks jammed into the sides to hold the seed partially submerged in a container of water, put it somewhere warm where it will get sunshine, and wait.

While the physical process couldn't be easier, for me the waiting was hard. I filled that time, in part, by adding additional participants in my avocado tree experiment. I figured they wouldn't all take, and they didn't, so more was better. My patient husband indulged me with periodic but impassioned requests to get rid of the seedlings-to-be, as well as attempts to not appear aggrieved when I said, "in a few more weeks", for a few more weeks. His tolerance ran out at 20 avocado seeds on the countertop at once. He informed me that I'd hit the household limit. It was a boundary that seemed beyond fair.

After 12 weeks, four out of the twenty seeds sprouted roots, and eventually stems. I repotted all four, but kept only one, as I had promised, and watched my little avocado tree grow for over a year. What I learned is that avocado trees are both fragile and strong. Like many of us, the plant handled change poorly. Repotting always resulted in a droopy tree that looked close to death. And each time when I had just about given up, the tree would straighten up overnight, fully recovered and stronger for the ordeal. It survived being repotted 3 times. It survived me putting it outside one night when we had an unexpected frost. It survived, on another occasion, being abruptly kicked out of the indoors, without gradual acclimation.  It lost all of its leaves and I thought would remain a dead stick, more times than I can count, always surprising me with new growth right when it was about to be composted. Much to R's hesitation, it looked like it would be accompanying us on our move to Tennessee. However, it wasn't to be. It turned out that it was not strong enough for 5 minutes in the yard with my kids and their cousins unattended.

Alas, the journey begins again in Tennessee. Time will tell if any of my new contenders have what it takes to survive this apartment, and hopefully our next move to a new home.  Until then, I'm taking a slower approach to starting new plants, and unsurprisingly finding that, much like our family, avocado trees do better in Nashville.