Wed 4 Jul 2007
We went out for a Mexican meal the other day (mmm, mexican food) and while eating a giant pile of guacamole (mmm, guacamole), we had one of those wonderings about what must happen to the many, many leftover avocado stones. From that, our wonderings went onto other fruit stones - plums, peaches etc.
Obviously, they can be planted to grow a new fruit plant or composted (although they’d take a good while to break down) but aside from that, are there any fun ways to use them?
Avocado stones are usually beautifully smooth so could they be made into (GIANT) beads? Any other suggestions?
(Photo by tpacific)





anon
July 4th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I saw an artist selling pendants that were made out of slices of avocado pits once… he’d taken a slice of the pit, carved a design into the flat side and then dried it - they were gorgeous.
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John
July 4th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I worked in the kitchen at a summer camp a few years back. Avocados were a regular feature at our meals and people started to carve little bugs out of the halves of each stone. Someone made me a little box, too small to hold anything, but nice none the less.
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Fshbonz
July 4th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
I have grown many of them as house plants in a container of water and planted many of them outdoors later. Poke tooth picks near the big end (3 or 4)and suspend in the top of a glass of water till a little above half way up the seed Takes a while, but the seed will split and eventually put out a root. Keep topped off with water. Have to have a male and female plant to make more fruit, so plant a bunch outside.
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SoOreBeer
July 6th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Here is one suggestion from a website..
Avocado pits are dried then grated with a fine grater and used in enchilada sauce. This is a traditional ingredient in parts of Northern Mexico. Don’t use too much or you will make the sauce bitter.
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Nigello
July 7th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
You could varnish them with clear nail polish, or something that is greener (as in enviro-friendly, not the shade) and put them in a glass vase when you have enough. You could mix them up with conkers or snail shells or sea shells etc. Nigello
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Katz
August 13th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I found that any fruit stones that are nice and shiny go dry and wrinkly after a while, so they are not that pretty anymore.. So no point varnishing them.. If anyone knows a way to keep them smooth - it would be great!
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renee
February 9th, 2008 at 8:21 am
With enough varnish you can prevent it from drying out. getter yet use an epoxy resin varnish.
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Christovir
July 10th, 2007 at 1:01 am
I’m a big recycler and gardener. I like all of the suggestions for decorative use of fruit stones, but I should let you know that most fruit seeds produce inferior fruit trees - if you want edible fruit, buy fruit plants or make cuttings from existing trees. You can grow from seed, just don’t expect good fruit from it.
Here’s an idea for avocado stones: dye them near-black with tannin (you can boil acorns for this - eat the acorns and then soak the stones in the tannin-water). Then use a saw to cut off the bottom and top thirds of the stone. Hollow out the top, and you have a stylish, natural candle holder.
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Joshua
July 11th, 2007 at 5:38 am
How about drying them and using them as juggling “balls?”
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shawn
July 11th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
how about you just throw them out and they eventually decompose because they are organic and quit losing sleep?
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Ethan
July 11th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I recommend composting the pits. This is the best way to recycle organic matter in that it returns to the earth and cycles through new organisms which feed on the nutrients. A good, hot compost pile or worm bin will be able to break down an avocado pit.
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Janet
July 11th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
I’m with Ethan. My fruit pits all go into the compost heap. It’s true that the outer shells of, say, peach pits may remain intact long after everything else has broken down, but no harm there!
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mike
July 17th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Whenever I put them in the heap, they sprout. Or at least they have a better chance of success than the other methods I’ve tried. The toothpick thing just makes them turn to rot in my house. I think that the warm temperature, combined with the constant moisture, may be the real trick. I read that somewhere. They take quite a while to break down, anyway.
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Andy
October 15th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Sounds to me as if the stones are pretty useless really. Let’s start another string about what to do with all that avocado skin that you get as well!
Compost them and have done with it. Actually they really do sprout well in the compost bin!
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Catherine
October 26th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Keep a few of the smooth stones (eg avocado) for use a massage tools
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artsiecl
March 4th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I use the peach pits to make peach seed angels and sell them at craft shows…..I make a head of sculpy clay…I used the peach seed as the body …I drill a hole in the body to hold the wire that I run thru the head to hold them together. Before baking the heads with wire thru them….make an indentation for the mouth (like an angel singing)….Then I combine them (having already painted the body (seed) with 3-6 coats of pearl fingernail polish…..I glue some type of wing on back (ultra-suede, ribbon, wire, etc) ….and I use some pretty yarn for hair…(can curl the yarn by wrapping around a 7-12 inch piece of clothes hanger, wetting it and baking on 200 for a couple of hours) …. also can add a halo of pearls or gold tiny tinsel…..I make as pins or necklaces…..Can do all of this for ornaments too……
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mary
May 27th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Walnuts- I opened up the green pulp, soaked the black walnuts in a bucket, let it sit in the cold cellar, removed the walnuts with a slotted spoon, set aside to dry and crack. I kept the “walnut bath” and put the black liquid in old honey jars. I have had this walnut black stain for years. It has never spoiled. I use it on old household woodwork, stain for my art projects
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Gulia
July 24th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Pet toy.
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Gulia
July 24th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Turn into beads for your garden’s scare crow.
Turn wild field into an avocado orchard.
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