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Indoor Garden Projects
Garden Tips Newsletter - January 23, 2002

With cold temperatures and rainy days, few folks like to work outdoors this time of year. So, here are a few ideas for indoor garden projects to keep that green thumb active. Two fun projects (for you and your children/grandchildren) start with saving your pineapple tops and avocado seeds.

Planting a pineapple may seem like a daunting task, but it's really quite easy. First, cut the top off of the pineapple fruit, leaving about one-fourth of the fruit, then cut back the leafy top, and finally let the fruit dry for a few days. After drying, press the pineapple into a rooting media (vermiculite, perlite, and/or peat moss) and keep moist at all times. After about a month or two, roots should begin to form. Once roots have formed, repot the pineapple into potting soil and keep in a sunny window.

The other fun indoor project is to root an avocado seed. There are two ways to root an avocado; the first is to bury the bottom (wider) half of the seed in rooting media; the other is to insert four toothpicks into the middle of the seed and suspend the seed in a glass of water (the toothpicks rest on the rim of the glass of water). When using the toothpick method, be sure to insert the toothpicks only as deep as needed to support the seed and make sure the wider half of the seed is pointing toward the water. Roots will eventually form in both cases at which point the seed can be transplanted.

These archived newsletters were written by Dr. Lelia Scott Kelly. Kelly is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.