Monday, April 15, 2013

Wanted to grow a Mango plant from a Seed? I'll show you step-by-step.

So, I have always wanted to grow something from seeds and most likely failed a lot. But this time, I used the internet to guide me, but I couldn't get anyone to clearly show me how to plant a seed all the way thru.

 So I decided to try my own method using some bits n pieces of how others stated to do so, with photos.

Hope this is a lot clearer for some of you that struggle.

1. Obtain a Mango.
2. Eat mango. Yes.. you actually have to eat it in order to get to the core,the seed, otherwise why waste a fruit.

3. The Seed.  This is inside the seed coat (photo below) that contains the actual seed that you will germinate (grow)when removed.
This is the middle of your eaten mango. Not the Seed.
3a. Opening the Mango Seed Coat...

This is what you have to do to open it without STABBING yourself. Use a scifssor and cut along the edge. it gets just the edges off and you will see an opening to peek 'inside'

The ACTUAL Seed:
Now I'll guide you to the process to grow what I grew. Hope this is quite a charm for you.

4. Seed :

- Wash you seed once its removed from the middle coat. Some seeds have a dark brown seed coast skin left on, some ripened seeds may not. But don't worry if you don't have i or do have it. 

 You will need: 2 bowls - styrofoam , water, sunlight

Once washed, you may submerge it in water. A lot of the sites I read and search all said to hold it half way above water. I didn't listen. I stuck my seed as you can see, in water. I used a styrofoam bowl.  Once the seed was set, I used another bowl to cover it.  

Put the bowl n cover ontop a ledge or windowsill near a sunny window.

5. Check your bowl

- the water within the bowl might turn yellowish and or have an odor. Change it and handle your seed very carefully. rinse it off briefly and replace water & seed back into the bowl and set back on the window like before. cover it again and within a few days, you should see the root nub growing.




This is my seed after 3 days, with the water changed everyday. Notice you can see a "white" nub on the lower left side of the seed. that means we have GROWTH!






6. Seed Splitting

- You might notice that the seed decided to "split" like a cut fruit, but don't worry, nothing bad happened.

2 angles of how it may look
Here is my seed "Split".

As you can see it opened up like a clam shell, but not fully. Notice it slightly has turned GREEN.

Green just means that the seed has been accumulating the necessary amount of heat and light and air required to further germinate it forward.

Continue to change the water as needed, ONLY if its still turning dirty colored or yellow. if it hasn't, then don't bother.

7. Growth of Root:

Root Closeup

Root
The root will continue to grow and start White, then Light PINK, then as it increases the length, the brown skin coat protecting the root will be visible.

This is what it will begin to grow like.







8. Stem Growth:

Here's the stem emerging. Notice the seed is still under water as it has been thru out the entire process I have decribed so far.

You may get this in a week or possible the time it may come is within 2 weeks. Don't worry. Some seeds are stubborn and grow according to what they get from the sun.

Make sure you have been covering your bowl even to this step.




9. Overall Growth til now:

This is how my seed actually ended up. The seed originally was "sideways" correct?

Well, when the stem begin to grow, I managed to make the seed stand a bit after it has split within the bowl.
This allowed the seed to split, and maintain the root growing underneath it, while the stem took shape and emerged a lil taller to poke outside the water.




10. Sunlight

- Keep that bowl in a sunny spot with the cover on it. In a few more days, you'll start seeing that stem grow.

- Once it's tall enough, you can remove the bowl cover, and let it sit near a sunlight window area, and still with some water within the bowl. It'll eventually grow like mine!!






Planting:

If you decide to plant it after the seed has sprouted a significant amount of root veins, here's how:

1. get a pot of soil, equally mixed with fertilized soil. 

2. take the seed and remove it from the water.

3. Place it on a dry surface. You can put it on a paper towel if you like.  

4. take your pot, fill it about 1/2 way of the soil and pat down a bit. do not push it hard inside. add 1/ more soil but keep loose.

5. using your fingers, create a shallow crater within the center, the seed will be placed within that area.

6. place seed within the area you just created within the soil. 

7. with the loose soil surrounding the seed, gather it around n cover the roots. Add additional soil if necessary. the soil should ONLY cover just enough of the root and as high as the stem is location.

DO NOT cover the entire seed as that is not required,

Here's an example of a planted seed:



Notice that the soil doesn't cover the entire seed. It rests at surface level of the soil.

Hope this helped many who have successfully gotten this far! I have so far grown and planted 3 seeds, and have many more sprouted ones ready to be planted.

Any questions?? Email me: Moon2wish4@gmail.com 

Put subject: Mango Help