Hi,

I've grown many avocados from pit. and this is how proceed:

I wash the pit and remove the brown skin and then wash it again.
Like you do, I submerge more than half of it in water. And cover the top with a paper towel. the paper is in cotact with the water in order to keep the top wet.
I change the towel and water from time to time.

The pit sprouts within one month in average.

Sometimes, I cut the top of the pit off then proceed like describe above. It seems that the pit sprouts faster.

It should be kept in a bright place but without direct sunlight.

Hoping this might help. :)

I have also heard that it's best to keep them in shade rather than direct light, however I have found that if you place them in sunlight from the very beginning they do great in full sun. Plus, it saves you from the headache of having to harden off your plants when you want to move them to more light later.
I have two three-year old Avos that I started from pits that are both very bushy, pretty 4-foot tall trees that have been in the full blazing oklahoma sun since sprouting (going indoors for winter of course)
Hope that helps

I started 2 pits, one with the toothpicks & the other wrapped in a damp paper towel layed on a open plastic bag, the one wrapped in the paper towel has just started to split open and I can see the start of a root,so from now on I will be doing the paper towel method since its so quick, I started these pits 2 weeks ago.

I wipe them off from time to time, the ones sitting over water do get a little yuck on them.
There is alot of info on avocados over in the houseplant forum..
Christine

This post was edited by christine1950 on Wed, Jul 16, 14 at 11:24

I have started lots of avocados from pits. Here's my method:
1) eat the avocado flesh. If it isn't very good, compost the pit.
2) if it IS good, toss the pit off the lanai into that open space over there.
3) admire the avocado grove coming up in that formerly open space over there.
YMMV.

Sadly, the new tree will not produce avocados identical to the one you just ate, so even a pit from a delicious avo might produce a tree with crummy avocados.

steiconi, I love your method LOL !!!!! I'd love to see photos of your avocado grove "over there"....... Do you make a drink like a avo-pina-cado???
Christine

Thank you for the responses everyone, every little bit of info is helpful. Also, several of my pits have opened, some of the cracks being quite large and wide; yet I still don't see any root coming out the bottoms. Does this take some more time?