How to grow a mango plant from a seed

Hi everyone,
these are the two mango plants I have grown from seeds, starting at the end of September, simply by following the instructions I had found on different websites.

This is all you need to grow a mango plant:
•  a ripe mango
•  a pot
•  soil
•  water
•  patience

Instructions:
Cut the Mango flesh away to find the seed husk underneath.
Carefully break the husk open with a knife.

Inside you will find a large bean-shaped mango seed.

Plant the seed into a pot of soil, covering it carefully with a layer of soil

Add water

Then cover the pot with cling film and leave to rest in a warm bright place, like a windowledge

After circa two weeks, seedlings will appear

Initially with leaves that are quite pale

and for a few weeks the leaves will hang downwards from the stem. This is normal.

Another two weeks and the seedlings gain strength, looking green and shiny:

I hope you try this for yourself at home.

Happy planting! : )

If on the other hand you’d like to know how to grow an avocado plant from a seed, follow this link to my other blog post:

Gardening Project – Step 1: Propagating seeds

If you follow me on Twitter, by now you know that this year my big garden project is to transform our metal staircase that leads from the terrace into the garden, into a staircase covered by colourful climbers. The idea materialised itself in my mind this winter, and since then I have been determined to make it happen.

To that end, the first step was to decide which flowers would be part of the project and then to start growing seedlings on the window ledge. It was important to me to choose as many new plants as possible compared to last year, to make it interesting both for me and you, who read my blog.

Last March I bought this propagator in our local corner shop. It works really well and has costed me £7.99. Over the last few weeks I have grown different seedlings, following their optimal growing period. In the process, I have overthrown some pots already twice when passing by in a rush, with the soil being spread all over the carpet, but that’s another story!

You can use propagators in different ways.  This year, I planted the first batch of sweet peas in biodegradable pots given that this is convenient for re-potting as it minimises the chance of damaging the roots.

However, I planted the second batch of seeds directly into the soil inside the propagator as biodegradable pots can emanate a strange smell when humid. So if you like no fuss options, a propagator full of soil is fine.

Below are all the plants I’d like to grow from seeds this year:
■  Sweet peas (climbers)
■  Cosmos
■  Purple and blue ipomeas (climbers)
■  Indian cress
■  and rainbow blend tomatoes, which I won by entering a Woolly Green competition

In addition I have ordered honeysuckle Belgica plants and Capsis Indian summer climbers online.

See Step 2 on how the project is evolving. 

How to grow an avocado plant from a seed

Hi everyone,
this is the avocado plant I’ve grown from a seed, starting in May, simply by following the instructions I had found on different websites.
Below is how the plant looked yesterday:

This is all you need to grow an avocado plant:
•  a ripe avocado
•  a glass
•  two kitchen skewers
•  a pot
•  soil
•  water
•  patience

Instructions:
Remove the pit from the avocado, wash the seed in tepid water and dry it carefully.
Push skewers into four sides of the seed, hang it into a glass resting the skewers on the glass rim and add lukewarm water until it covers half of the pit.
Then put it in a warm place for a few weeks (this can take circa a month and a half) and change the water every two or three days.

To avoid seeing this ‘voodoo-like’ construction, place the glass on top of a wardrobe where no one can see it but still enough light reaches the seed. Keep changing the water every two or three days. (Make sure the water always covers half of the seed, otherwise it dries out).

After two months (yes, it takes quiet a long time), the seed starts to grow a root into the water and a sprout out of the top of the pit.
That’s when its time to transfer it into a pot with soil.

It takes another two weeks until the avocado develops the first leaf. Avocados grow best when they are well watered.Once you start to water the plant more, the growth starts to speed up. By now, this avocado plant has eight leaves.

So as you see, anyone can grow an avocado as a house plant, it only takes patience at the beginning, but the result speaks for itself.
Apparently avocados grown from seeds can bear fruit, but only after four to six years and the fruits are said to be of lower quality than the one produced by the parent plant.

I hope the next time you eat an avocado you try to grow your own plant. Good luck and do share some pictures – as always I’d love to see them!

Related articles

• Day Two (llearntsomethingnew.wordpress.com)
• Beauty Basics 101: Avocados (lanina25.com)
• Beautiful step by step pictures of how to germinate an avocado