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Growing Plants from Mango Seeds

Growing Plants from Mango Seeds

Q. Can anyone tell me how to grow a plant from a mango seed. I love mangoes and buy a lot of them and it would be nice to get the seeds to grow.

After cutting all of the fruit from the seed I take a stiff brush and scrub the rest off and put the clean seed in a small cup of water—yogurt cup will do—and fill with water The water does not have to cover the seed but at least 3/4 of it . I set it in the window over the sink and rinse it a couple times a week. Even though  it is scrubbed good it will need the water changed regularly or it will get smelly and will attract fruit flies. When the seed opens and starts showing signs of growth I move it to another container and start adding potting soil until it is growing in full soil like any other plant . As it grows it increase the size of the container. I have rooted and grown several but I cannot keep them living through the winter. When I bring them in they go into shock and no matter how hard I try they are compost by the next spring. I have two very pretty ones now but I need help to keep them living.  Gloria

I have rooted Mango seeds by washing the seed and putting it in between a dishrag and saturate with water, put on a plate and place in a dark area, I put dish in my cabinet and water every 2 days, Will root in about 2wks then plant. Now the last one I planted I did not keep up with and I killed the plant, left it outside  without watering. I had gotten busy with school, work and home. Hope this helps, Melissa

We live in So. California about 8 miles from the Mexican border and have done a lot of seed-sprouting in hopes of growing a few mango trees. They can be tricky, but we planted the seed from every mango we ate for several months, and we did get quite a few–though not all–to sprout. There are three little mango trees in our garden now.  Carefully remove the tough, fiber cover and expose the smooth, bean-shaped seed. This is hard to do, but not impossible. Plant the seed in good soil with its hump just peeking above the ground. If you are in a cold climate, you’ll have to keep the plant indoors, but even if you are in a warm place, keep careful watch over your seeds. We had several sprout and then get eaten in one night by snails. The snails  even got a few we planted in the yard in pots, and we finally foiled them by sticking the pots up on a picnic table until the plants were so big they could stand to lose a few leaves. We watered the seeds when the dirt got really dry. Once they sprout, keep the soil moist, but not soggy. Mangoes don’t want to dry out completely, but neither do they like being constantly wet. If you are in a warm climate and want to plant the little trees outdoors, be very careful handling the roots. Mangoes hate to have their roots disturbed, and if you disturb the root-ball so that a lot of the dirt falls off it, it will take its revenge by losing all its leaves, and maybe even dying. Don’t try to remove the tree from the pot; remove the pot from the tree. Grow the tree in one of those soft black plastic pots that flowers and things come in, and then just cut the pot away before you plant it. This is the voice of experience. We are sprouting our own because in the beginning we bought a $40 mango tree about 3 feet tall, and it wouldn’t come out of its pot, so we thought it must have a great root ball. Well, when we finally loosened it, all the dirt fell off, leaving a long and puny bunch of thin roots and it died in a couple of months, in spite of all our care. If you look under "mangifera indica," you can probably find various helpful Web sites. Look under "Propagation," it should tell you how to know which seeds have been damaged by the way the supermarket handled them and will not sprout, and it is good on how to fertilize and how to water, also how to protect the trees from cold the first few years. We wish you success.  Janice You have to germinate it in a pot and then transplant it to the outdoors.  You must live in a warm climate such as Florida, where I grew my tree. It will have fruit in 7-8 years and will last for the rest of your life.  Fertilize it in the late summer and again in the spring. It will grow to be 70-100 feet tall, and you will be smothered in mangoes every summer. The  good news is that they freeze very well once they are sliced into Ziploc bag. Buy the bags at Costco where the per bag price is less than the store brand at the supermarket. Teri

10 thoughts on “Growing Plants from Mango Seeds”

    1. I ordered Norfolk Island Pine seeds from a conpmay regularly seen on the web. I received in the packet, not seeds but pieces of vegetation sort of fan-shaped with no instructions as to handle these vs regular seeds so I handled them the way I would seeds and potted them in peat pots with spagnum as the medium. Only one has germinated so far. I did email the conpmay asking about the above and got no answer which will eliminate me from buying anything again from them. Howeve it is fun just to experiment with seeds. I recently found a person in my town (Greenville, SC) who deals in bonsai trees and he showed me a zip bag with moist soil and seeds which he had kept in the refrigerator for several months and it appeared that every single seed had germinated.This person has an array of items which I have purchased a few of as needed and has been very helpful.Also, I had used a Jiffy Pot tray with a heating pad which came with it, not costly and very efficient so I put some of the seeds I had ordered from brand X conpmay and which had not germinated in a bag with damp spagnum and am awaiting the results.The conpmay I purchased the seeds from made no mention of cold stratification, an interesting procedure, but helpful, if not necessary, in getting seeds to germinate.I guess the moral is to take care who we deal wih when buying anything and ask questions before ordering by phone or email.If there is no contact info my advice is not to buy from them.

    2. I live in perth western Australia and my father planted a few mangos from seed they went well we had two strong plants one of them accidentally got hit with an axe and died so we only have one tree left it’s now 10+ years later and every year we get loads of mangos just as good if not better than store bought so dont listen to ppl who say they won’t give fruit you just have to wait a few years untill there ready to give fruit

    3. I think it just happened to be a tween seed I would just keep one strong stem all mine just one it grew fast I would just keep one remove with very sharp box cutter make sure it is clean with alcohol .I am just start to building my home. I will make sure land scape will be fruit trees that give us for the best nourishment if we all think that ,our land will be better place for next generation. keep up with good work

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