Skip to content

Ecce Signum

Immanentize the Empathy

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Published Works and Literary Matters
  • Indexes
  • Laboratory

O Avocado

2008-04-14 John Winkelman

I eat a lot of avocados.

Truth be told, I probably eat more avocados than any other single fruit or vegetable, except maybe bananas or pizza.

This means I end up with a lot of avocado pits.

This past summer, I did a little research, to see if there was anything I could do with an avocado pit after the rest of the avocado had been eaten. Someone – possibly my girlfriend – told me I should try to grow an avocado tree.

So I did. They are easy to grow, if you happen to have a pit which has within it the spark of life. Perhaps 9 times out of 10 the pit will sit there and shrivel and get slimy. But O, that tenth time!

I have managed, in the last eight months, to sprout three avocado trees. The first one was this past summer. After the roots looked good and long I transplanted it into a pot out on my front porch. When I got home from work, the plant was gone and there were SQUIRREL FOOTPRINTS in the soil in the pot.

Argh.

Round about the end of summer another seed germinated. This one I kept inside, and at the moment the plant is about eighteen inches tall, green, leafy and – as far as I can tell – happy and healthy. This one is staying inside until it is too big to be eaten by any of the local wildlife.

This past weekend, I noticed that one of the seeds sitting in the kitchen window had begun to grow.

This is how I start the seeds. All it takes is a small jar, three toothpicks, a sunny window, and some patience.

The Avocado Nursery

The Avocado Tree, Week 1

That little nubbin coming out of the bottom of the pit is a root. In another couple of weeks a small stem will sprout from the top of the avocado, and then, once it begins to grow a couple of leaves, it will be time to put it in a pot.

If you want to try this yourself, I recommend using the seeds from organically-grown avocados, rather than the big supermarket chains, although this might not make any difference. Don’t expect to have fruit bearing trees any time in the next decade, and then only if you have several trees in the same space. This is definitely a labor of love.

Posted in LifeTagged gardening

Post navigation

The Meijer Gardens
Like Vampires? Like Science Fiction?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Personal website of
John Winkelman

John Winkelman in a diner in San Francisco

Archives

Categories

Posts By Month

April 2008
S M T W T F S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« Mar   May »

Twitter Feed

Retweet on TwitterJohn Winkelman Retweeted
JordanrosenfeldJordan Rosenfeld@Jordanrosenfeld·
21 May

Don't like "Show, don't tell?" Try: "Demonstrate, don't lecture." Characters use words & deeds. #writetip #characters #scenes

Reply on Twitter 1528089044319617024Retweet on Twitter 15280890443196170241Like on Twitter 15280890443196170241Twitter 1528089044319617024
Retweet on TwitterJohn Winkelman Retweeted
The_Lady_RedThe Lady Red- the night is dark and full of terror@The_Lady_Red·
20 May

@notcapnamerica

Reply on Twitter 1527768341934272512Retweet on Twitter 1527768341934272512138Like on Twitter 1527768341934272512827Twitter 1527768341934272512
Retweet on TwitterJohn Winkelman Retweeted
JohnFugelsangJohn Fugelsang@JohnFugelsang·
20 May

But the archbishop gladly still serve Holy Communion to pro-death penalty politicians.

And the death penalty, unlike abortion, was actually something Christ spoke out against.

In case you thought this had anything to do with Christ. https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1527733939275702274

San Francisco Chronicle@sfchronicle

JUST IN: The San Francisco archbishop issued a notice Friday that he would no longer allow House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to receive Communion, an escalation of his feud with the Catholic Democrat over abortion politics. https://trib.al/Q3mKsI0

Reply on Twitter 1527744200753790977Retweet on Twitter 15277442007537909773565Like on Twitter 152774420075379097714169Twitter 1527744200753790977
Load More...

Links of Note

Reading, Writing
Tor.com
Locus Online
The Believer
File 770
IWSG

Watching, Listening
WYCE Electric Poetry
Writing Excuses Podcast
Our Opinions Are Correct

News, Politics, Economics
Naked Capitalism
Crooked Timber

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

© 2022 Ecce Signum

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: x-blog by wpthemespace.com