Avocado from the Pit

There's nothing like the feeling of being able to grow something out of the seed or pit. It truly is like observing the miracle of creation and growth.

Growing and planting trees is my passion as I believe this is a way to keep our air clean and to have more produce for our own consumption. I've planted a lot of trees and am proud to say that most of them survived.

I am however still sad about my magnolia tree I wrote about here and the pomegranate tree that did not make it through its second cold winter in Atlanta. Last spring I did replace it with an older pomegranate tree - a gift from a dear friend. Hopefully it will take and grow strong in my back yard.

Anyway, about a year ago, I saw someone's Facebook reel showing how to grow avocado and mango trees from the pits.

I immediately got to replicating the experiment. In May, I bought an avocado, made a nice salad with it, and peeled the pit of its outer brown layer. Then I wrapped it in a wet paper towel, sealed it in a zip lock bag and put in on the windowsill with a lot of light.

Every other day, I'd check on it to make sure it had enough moisture inside the bag, changing the paper towel as it got worn out. It took a couple of weeks for the pit to be split in the middle and to sprout. I kept it in the zip lock bag until the tiny green leaves started to emerge.

And then I put it into a starter pot, making sure that it's planted shallow enough for the sapling to pop out and become stronger. When I moved to Atlanta for the summer, it grew big enough to be replanted into a bigger pot. That's how it looked on June 30, 2025, when I was leaving for Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.

It is now inside my house in Atlanta for the winter, next to a large window with a lot of light, and doing well. Hopefully, I will be able to plant it into the ground in the summer when I am back or give it another winter inside. It should be viable to grow in the Atlanta area, I checked the zone and everything.

To see if I can do it here in the country of Georgia, I decided to start an avocado tree from the pit again. A couple of weeks ago, I put the peeled pit into the small zip lock bag. The cover image shows how much progress it has made breaking through. I've just changed the paper towel and sealed it in the bag again. Hopefully, it will be ready for potting in a week or so.

I will update this story with pictures as it grows, so stay tuned.

Avocados can be self-pollinating but it's always better to keep them in pairs. So I'm going to get another sapling started and then just leave them both behind with a friend when I leave Georgia.

Last year, I also managed to get a couple of mango pits sprout using the same method. Except that the seeds need to be carefully taken out of the outer hard shell by opening the shell at the base, pretty much like shacking an oyster shell. Unfortunately, my mango saplings didn't survive transplanting into a pot as they were too feeble. I'm going to try it again once I'm back in the US because I love mango fruit so much!

And a dear friend of mine is now growing a couple of oak trees using the same method, from peeled acorns. Not that oak trees need help propagating, but again it's just such a joy - to start something out of almost nothing and watch it grow in a pot on your windowsill.

UPDATE as of May 17, 2026: this is the avocado sapling I grew here in Tbilisi, before it goes to a friend in Telavi next week. It’s about 15 cm (6 inches) now: