Happiness is…. A Plant (How to Grow your own Houseplant)

I have always enjoyed the beauty of flowers and plants.  I enjoy them, while I am outdoors, taking a walk, as well as indoors as house plants.  They lift me up and make me happy!

Little wonder, then, that having and caring for houseplants actually has health benefits too.  In fact, there have been numerous studies that support this.  Benefits include helping eliminate air pollutants in a room by naturally cleaning the air by absorbing toxins, increasing humidity, and best of all by producing oxygen.  They are what I call a calorie-free mood booster.  So rather than grabbing that piece of chocolate, why not tend to your plant. 

It has been proven, that tending to a plant is therapeutic, and increases the wellbeing of folks with anxiety, depression, and even dementia.  Plants also help us to eliminate stress and boost our concentration.  Plants in classrooms have shown students attaining higher test scores versus those in bare classrooms without live plants.  Students with plants in their rooms and classrooms were able to concentrate better and became more attentive, which resulted in higher exam scores.  Don't bother cheating, though, because replacing live plants with artificial ones or just pictures of plants had the same effect as having no plants at all.

Have you heard of the healing properties of plants?  We know that certain medicines are derived from plants.  However, in this posting, I only want to address that just having a house plant in your room for you to look at will speed your recovery from surgery, illness or an injury.  A patient will recover faster and will need less pain medication after recuperating from surgery, just by being able to look at the greenery and blossoms of a plant during recovery.

Since we have been cooped up in our homes during the pandemic, I too have added to my collection of houseplants.  Tending to them makes me HAPPY.  You do not need to spend a fortune on plants.  One easy and cost-effective way is to simply start growing one from scratch.  But you may ask: how can I do that?  It is really quite simple and incorporates my philosophy of use, repurpose, transform. 

Green Thumb

Without spending a lot of money on houseplants, this is an easy way to discover if you have a green thumb.

It started one day while being confined to our home during the Covid lockdown.  I was in the kitchen preparing one of our favorite meals Mahi-Mahi with Avocado Salsa.  As I cut the avocado in half, I marveled at its seed.  Hmmmm, this magnificent seed could be the start of a beautiful plant. So, rather than tossing the seed into the waste bin, I put it aside and finished preparing the meal.

After our meal, I searched for a container whose opening was larger than the avocado pit.  I filled it with water.  Next, washed the excess avocado flesh off the pit, to make sure that it could not rot.  Then I placed the clean avocado pit in my hand and inserted 4 wooden toothpicks 1/3 way from the round end, one each at North, East, South, and West position.  Then I suspended the avocado pit over the container, with the round end resting in the water and the toothpicks resting on the rim of the container.  Here are two small avocado pits placed in the same container (this one is a recycled apple sauce container):

That’s pretty much it for a while.  I leave them on my kitchen counter, next to the sink.  Then every day, I drain the water and fill it up with fresh water.  

Warning: 

The first time I tried this, I did not change the water.  Rather, I would just top it up with water when the water level got a bit low.  Big mistake!  A mosquito must have gotten into the house.  It laid its eggs in the meanwhile cloudy water and soon the eggs became larvae, and I became a mosquito breeder.  (Are you curious about mosquito dos and don’ts?  Read in my article about them here.)

Tip: 

Dump out the water daily and replace it with fresh water.  Make sure that the bottom of the avocado pit remains submerged in water at all times, and does not dry out.

After a few days, your avocado seed will start to sprout and you will see a root forming.  

One week old 

And the one in the foreground is 2 weeks old: 

After a few more weeks, a root system will form:

Be patient

After a while not only will you see a root system, but a sprout will start to peak out at the top of the avocado seed.  A bit later, you will see that sprout became a stem, and leaves starting to pop out on top.  I was told to snip the top off after the second or third nub (see the red arrows below).  This is to encourage new, more full, and bushy growth of your plant.  In fact, a new branch will form at one of the nibs.  At first, I was hesitant to do this.  I thought I had killed my plant.  However, soon a new branch popped out of the side of the stem, and new leaves appeared.  So, be patient.

I have discovered, that if I use a tall water glass, as shown above, the resulting root system will be long and stringy, and try to seek out the bottom of the vessel. 

 

This seems to result in a taller plant initially.  When I use a smaller, less deep vessel (i.e. the apple sauce container), the root system becomes quite dense. 

I have observed that the resulting plant is shorter and stockier.  Furthermore, on 2 occasions, rather than one sprout peeking out of the top of the avocado seed, it will have 2, 3, and even 4 sprouts, so already a bushier plant created from the same avocado seed at the very start. When this happened, I did not trim off the top of the stems and still had a lovely plant.

Once leaves are formed at the top of the plant, it is time to plant your little avocado seed plant.  Just follow my recipe below:

Ingredients:

1 fresh avocado pit

3-4 toothpicks

1 small wide-mouthed jar, glass, or container

Water

Scissors or a sharp knife

1 clean, empty 1.5 l plastic water bottle, discard the cap

1 clean, empty 2 l plastic water/soda bottle, discard the cap

½ eggshell

1 cone-shaped coffee filter, or a paper towel, folded diagonally into a triangular cone

1 T used coffee grinds (optional)

Potting soil

Decorative stones or seashells

 

Recipe (or step by step instructions)

• Rinse off a fresh avocado pit so that it is free of any avocado flesh
• Hold the avocado pit in your hand with the pointy end down, insert a wooden toothpick 1/3 way from the round end, one each at North, East, South, and West position
• Fill the small wide-mouthed jar with water all the way to the top, and suspend the avocado pit over the rim with the round end completely submerged in the water.
• Place the container with the seed in a well-lit area.  I had mine on my kitchen counter, next to the sink.
• Drain and change the water daily.  Be patient.  Watch for the seed to start cracking open a wee bit, and after a few days or a couple of weeks, a sprout will start to form, followed by a root system, followed by the stem starting to poke out of the pointy end on top.
• Once the stalk is about a hand length tall and leaves have started to form, you may want to trim off or snip the top off after the second or third nub to encourage a more bushy plant.  This step is optional.
• When you have at least 3-4 leaves appear, you may choose to plant your little avocado plant in some soil.
• With a pair of scissors, cut off the top 1/3 of the 1.5 l plastic bottle, and the bottom 1/3 to ½ of the 2 l plastic bottle

• Be sure that the smaller bottle will fit with the mouth down into the larger bottle.  This is for proper drainage and easy watering.

• Place the coffee filter, or folded cone-shaped paper towel into the smaller bottle, lining its sides.

• Insert the ½ eggshell with the round end facing down inside of the coffee filter-lined small bottle.  By the way, the coffee filter will hold your soil in place and keep it from washing out of your container and the eggshell will assure that when you water your plant, that not all of the water will drain immediately out.

 

• Add 1 – 3 T used coffee grounds in the eggshell, add a few spoonfuls of potting soil, then carefully set your avocado plant with its root system onto this initial soil bed, carefully spoon in more soil to cover the avocado pit.  I have found, that the coffee grounds act as a natural insect repellant, and also a natural fertilizer.
• Place some of the decorative stones or shells on top of the soil.  This prevents the soil from drying out too quickly. 
• Set the smaller bottle into the larger bottle, which acts like a sleeve and steady base. 

• Now carefully water your plant.  Any excess water will drain into the bottom of the outside bottle.  This ensures good drainage.  If there is more than 1 cm of water in the bottom of the larger bottle, I usually remove the “sleeve” and dump out the extra water as not to drown my plant.
• I do water the plant daily and watch it grow.  Below are various stages of growth.

And here are my “happy” avocado plants on the desk in my home office.  

Welcome to my jungle!

 

Final word

This is an easy project to undertake with a youngster, so they can experience the wonders of nature.  Once the plant has grown, share the joy and turn it into a thoughtful gift for someone.

To make the plastic soda bottle planting pot more pleasing to the eye, try disguising it.  How about placing a colorful old sock over it, or setting it in a gift bag.  You could always glue some glitter on it or some seashells.  

Here is a funny solution: My husband hates those "glove" type washcloths.  One of our avocado plant containers is now covered by the washcloth and it has become a perfect decoration for our guest bath. So, use your imagination.  The possibilities are endless.

Once your houseplant outgrows its "pot", depending on your climate, you can always transplant it in your garden.  Again, this is where the coffee filter comes in helpful.  It is biodegradable and keeps the soil and root system in place for easy planting.  

Just take your scissors, and cut down the sides of the plastic water bottle, which is not biodegradable and will not allow your plant's root system to expand beyond its confines.  Carefully lift out your plant, coffee filter, and all.  Discard the water bottles into the recycling bin.  Dig a hole in your garden, flowerbed or planter set your plant with the root bundle contained in the coffee filter into the hole, and surround it with additional potting soil.  Be sure to water it after transplanting.  In colder climates, though, you may have to bring your plant back inside over the winter.  It will NOT like frost.  

Who knows, maybe you will be able to harvest some fruit in the following years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I invite you to subscribe to my blog by completing the "CONTACT US" form and entering "subscribe" in the message body. Feel free to refer your family, friends, and associates to my blog.  You may leave me your comments in the comment section.  However, any comments that contain links to other websites or are abusive will not be posted.

Thank you.