The Accidental Avocado Trees

Have you ever done that nifty thing where you save the avocado pit and poke holes and set it in water and wait for it to spring roots?!

Yes, well mine never got past something like this:

I did get a root once!

But after 3-4 failed attempts to ever produce a tree, I gave up.


Until I saw something popping out of my compost bin.

Huh.

Hi, little planty-tree-looking thing...

[gently pull out]

Oh...you're connected to an avocado pit, yes, of course you are.
Can't grow these darn things the "right" way, but I can throw them into my compost bin and voila - trees!! [shakes head]


Well, the first came out about two years ago. Each summer I put it outside in my shade garden (full sun seems way too intense for it, which makes no sense because it's tropical, but whatever) and it just thrives and bursts new leaves as far as possible.

And then every winter I bring them in.

Oh yes...I did say "them", because last summer I discovered two more mini trees growing!
I pulled them out, potted them, gave one to family, then up-potted my original one and put new little guy in its pot.

And boy are they just as happy as can be!

I just put them back out on the deck and will move them down to my shade garden soon.
I'm hoping for the same results as previous years: where leaves shoot out from every possible place and burst open as it rejoices in being a "real tree" - freeeee in the great outdoors! (Shhh, don't tell it that it's still in a pot!)

Hoping the newer of the two gets good and hardy; it's still a bit scraggly since it just came out of the compost pile last summer.
Unfortunately the other one really can't get much bigger because any larger pot will be too heavy for me to haul in and out of doors every year. Alas.

Below next to the bird house (behind the monster Hosta) is the original one last year in the smaller pot; fuller, but probably not much taller than the newest one shown above is now:

So see how much he shot up since I've up-potted 6 months ago?!
Think I need to rig up a cart and pulley system so I can put them in huge pots, but move them across the yard, up the second story deck and into the house with minimal effort :-D


And for the record: they will not produce avocados. I would need to graft and that just seems waaaay beyond my expertise right now.
Perhaps someday. (But would it even product much when it won't get bigger than these pots...? Dear Google: )

If we lived in a warmer place, I would have an entire grove of avocado trees; I eat about 3 avocados each week (plus 2-3 more when I make guacamole!)

But for now, I'll settle for buying them way overpriced from the store and just enjoying my fruitless, but super cool-looking accidental trees!