Seed Lovers Garden: Mango Madness

Saturday, February 29, 2020

Mango Madness

Well, I'm not very good at blogging on a regular basis. I think I have things to say and then that negative Nelly in my head takes over and says nope, no one wants to hear your rantings about seeds.

Tough, I'm going to rant about seeds!

I love trying to start seeds that I have no business trying to start. Seeds that even if I get them to germinate, will not grow here. Yet, I still keep trying.
Avocado's are easy, one just has to be patient, they do take well over a month before they crack and send out either a root or a leaf. I now have 3 avocado 'trees' growing in the plant room. They'll stay there until they perish or I get my glass house to grow them in. (Wishful thinking)

My latest attempts have been on mango seeds.

After soaking the seed for a couple of days, with daily scraping off of flesh, using a paring knife or fingernail. These were taken January 30, 2020. As soon as I cut away the flesh holding the seed together it popped open. These seeds really want to grow.

This picture was taken February 5, 2020. I lay the seed on a moist cloth, placed it in a container (a plastic container that had mushrooms in it), and placed all of that in a clear plastic bag. Does it matter whether it is in dark or light, I don't think so. I do think that warmth is a factor. I wouldn't put this in the fridge and expect anything, this was placed on a shelf out of the way, room temperature.

I accidentally broke the root when placing it on the coir, oops. Has not seemed to slow it down.
I planted it in coir (coconut husk) on February 19, 2020. My previous attempts at planting in dirt failed shortly after planting. I had buried the seed and hoped that a leaf shoot would make it to the top. After failing 3 times, I thought, I'll try it this way and see what happens. Ta da! Success. I do think that cleaning off the seed as much as possible is important, you don't want any mango flesh to start rotting and going moldy. They don't smell overly pleasant anyway so adding to that is probably not a great idea.