Yes, an avocado from seed produce fruit can happen but it takes 7 to 13 years and the fruit quality varies. Most seeds from the grocery store will grow into healthy plants. Getting actual fruit is the hard part.
I have grown my avocado plant for five years now and treat it as a foliage houseplant. The glossy green leaves make my living room look great. I do not expect fruit and that takes the pressure off. If it ever does produce something that will be a nice bonus.
Grocery store avocado growing works fine for getting a plant started. The seeds sprout well and turn into attractive trees. But these seeds come from grafted commercial trees that produce consistent fruit. Your seed carries random genetics from two parent trees that may or may not combine well.
Commercial avocado farms use grafted trees for a reason. Grafting joins a proven fruit producing branch to a strong root stock. This creates trees that produce the same quality fruit every time. Seed-grown avocado fruit comes out as a surprise. It could taste amazing or turn out small and stringy.
UC Cooperative Extension confirms that seed grown plants do not produce fruit true to the parent variety. The avocado you loved from the store has no guarantee of passing those traits to your tree. Your plant gets half its genes from an unknown pollen donor tree somewhere in the orchard.
Indoor avocado plants face extra challenges for fruit. They need full sun for many hours each day. Another avocado tree must grow nearby for cross pollination to work. Most homes cannot give these conditions. Your indoor tree will likely stay a beautiful green pet.
The avocado tree fruit timeline stretches much longer than most people expect. You could wait ten years or more before seeing a single flower. Even then fruit is not guaranteed. My cousin planted an avocado seed when her daughter was born and that tree just started flowering when the kid turned twelve.
If you want homegrown avocados buy a grafted tree from a nursery instead. These trees cost more but produce fruit in 3 to 4 years with known quality. You also need to live in a warm climate or have a greenhouse. Avocados need year round warmth to set fruit.
Grow your grocery store seed for the fun of it and the nice foliage. Watch it grow from a pit into a real tree over the years. The journey gives you more joy than waiting around for fruit that may never come.
Read the full article: Growing Avocado Seed Successfully Every Time
