Mango Sprout

Last night I checked on my mango seed and found a thick, pale green sprout coming out of the seed's side. I planted the mango core on March 13 and did see one sprout a few weeks ago, which prompted me to take the seed out of the plastic bag in which I was hoping it would germinate and half-bury it in a planter filled with potting soil and dusted with a sphagnum peat mulch. Doing that seemed to cause the sprout to disappear rather than grow, so I thought I had killed it. The other day I examined the seed and it looked to be withering, like being buried in moist soil and peat moss for over a month had finally caused it to start rotting (There's no odor, mind you -- just a shrunken sort of look about the seed).

I was quite surprised when I found a sprout, although perhaps this semi-rotten state is precisely what is necessary to encourage germination. Either way, I'm just glad there's growth and I'm excited to see what happens next.

Here's a photo of the little sprout, taken by Steve with his Nikon D50:

Mango Seed

I'm always looking for new things to try growing. So when I noticed a forgotten mango ripening to the point of rotting in my fruit basket, I decided to do a little googling, see if I could find out if one can grow mangos from the seed obtained from grocery store fruits. I certainly don't have the tall ceilings and sunlight to grow a fruiting mango tree (from what I've read, they get pretty tall) but I still thought it would be fun to see what I could come up with.

So I cut open the soft mango, composted the peelings and squishy, overripe fruit and removed the inner core. Then I rinsed the core, using a knife to remove the extra strands of mango that clung to the hard white seed. I nicked the seed with the knife and placed the seed in a plastic bag with moist seed starter and peat moss. Then I put the bag on bottom shelf inside my mini green house, rolling down the sides of the bag for ventilation.

If you'd like a mango tree "recipe," google the keywords "growing mango seed" and you'll find plenty of information on the subject.