Avocado Adventures

Recently we had dinner at Maguro-ya sushi restaurant and were inspired by their decorative avocado sprouts. Their plants are entirely in water, not having been placed in dirt. Living in Hawaii, it is easy to get avocados year round. Sprouting them is a lot easier than in Tennessee as well, especially with the trick of leaving them in the shower where it's nice and humid. 

 

This recently sprouted plant has been growing at an amazing pace! I had to remove it from the bathroom as it had reached the ceiling! It is now in the living room, and it may well reach the ceiling in there pretty soon as well. Since taking the picture, it's leaves have increased in size and the small chute at the bottom has grown and has a couple leaves of its own now. It is fun to watch the plant grow every day -- and because it is in water, we can watch the roots grow as well.

Sprouting for sustenance I

 

This is a bit of a prelude to a longer story, but I figured that if I don't start now, it will never get told. Of course I love sprouting as a sport and a hobby, but recently we've been trying to also sprout for sustenance. As part of "Project Garden" we emptied the garden beds. They had previously been a dumping ground for old soil, and miraculously sometimes basil or other hardy sprouts would come up. This time, we decided to take a more dedicated approach.

While we were at the Home Depot, we made an effort to get more soil and pots. In addition to re-potting and moving many of our plans, we also dug up the beds. We removed some of the old soil and replaced it with fresh. We also purchased some starts and placed the seeds both directly in the beds as well as in small planters.

Among the sprouts that we got are: basil (pre-existing), shiso, cilantro, scallion, tomato and kale. So far the kale and the tomato are surviving. We still have hope for the others in the future, as well as even more (details to come). As I said, this is just Part I!