Organic Granny

Most of us avocado-lovers have at least tried to grow an avocado plant from a pit with 4 toothpicks resting along the rim of a jar of water .  As below: Courtesy of Wikipedia Some of us have had luck in that the pit sprouted within about six weeks and we were able to transfer the sprouted pit to a pot of soil and have a "tree" grow in the container.  Some of us faithfully kept the tepid water going and never saw a sprout, ever, until we finally faced the music and threw the fruitless pit away! The avocado plant was a big hit in the 70s when I was at University.  As I recall, avocados had only fairly recently been introduced as edible fare into our Vancouver mindsets, and we were thrilled and excited by any sort of potted plants that would grow in our cozy apartment windows.  The exotic pit of the avocado suspended over tepid water, broad end down, brought up all kinds of fantasies of producing our own prolific avocado trees, in a container in said cozy apar...

  Growing an apple tree from seeds seems like a no-brainer way to grow an apple orchard- - or at least one great gnarly tree you could sling up a swing on for the future grandkids. Didn't that dude Johnny Appleseed just go about the USA flinging his seeds into the breeze, and aren't like 75% of all apple trees growing today a result of that expedition?  Well... no. No. Growing an actual APPLE-BEARING apple tree from the seeds you just popped from your coffee-break fruit into a hanky is a lot rarer an experience than you might think. BUT you can grow a tiny tree with shiny green leaves , and if you want to do a little more work and study, you can use this small tree as "root stock" for growing an apple tree that will possible produce edible apples (suggested: a dwarf apple tree). BUT in the meantime, why not go ahead and root those apple seeds just for the fun of seeing the little thing grow in a pot on your windowsill or deck? And maybe you will prove m...