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How To Grow Mango From Seed Faster

Learn to how to grow a mango tree from seed or pit at home. Many people wonder whether a mango tree can be grown from a seed, pit or scrap. Yes, it is possible, you can grow a mango tree from its seed, even indoors. Continuing reading below for detailed step-by-step guide on growing a mango tree from a seed.

One year old mango tree grown from a seed.
One year old mango tree
grown from a seed.

Mangoes can be grown from seeds and grafting. Mango plants from the garden nursery are usually grafted and will fruit within 3 - 4 years. Mango tree grown from seeds may take longer, 5 years. However mango grown from a polyembryonic variety like Kensington Pride can produce fruits in just 2-3 years!

The seedling mango trees have stronger root system and grows vigorously than the grafted trees. But the mango from seed does not grow true to the parent mango tree, even if you have planted the seed of a good tasting mango; you will know only when the tree produces fruits. I have grown many mango trees from seeds of Kensington Pride mangoes in Australia and all have produced good tasty fruits.

Growing A Mango Tree From A Seed


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Mango seedling, mango seed sprouting, mango seed germination
Mango Seedling

Selection of Mango Seed

Growing mangoes from seed or its pit is extremely easy. However, the selection of seed is very important. I grew my first mango tree from a seed about 20 years ago, but that did not produce any fruit for the next 12 years. At that time, I was not knowing that the seed should come from a polyembryonic variety.

Mangoes are of mono-embryonic or polyembryonic seed varieties. Mono-embryonic mango type produces one seedling from the seed, and the fruit they produce are not true to the parent type, if grown from the seed so they should be grafted.

If you want to grow a mango tree from a seed that produces fruits in a few years, the seed should come from polyembryonic variety.

The detailed steps are given below. Whatever mango type you choose to grow from seed, the steps are the same.
  1. The most important step is the seed selection. Choose only a polyembroyic mango seed. If you grow your mango tree from a monoembryonic seed, then it may not produce fruit even in 10 years unless you graft it.
  2. Buy a good quality ripe mango from your grocery store and eat it, remove as much flesh as you can.
  3. Seed Preparation
    Clean the seed as soon as possible after its removal from the fruit, otherwise it will lose viability very rapidly and will not germinate. You may wash and dry the seed in shade for a day. Remove the outer hard husk tp take out the embryo. However, I have sown several mango seeds without removing the husk successfully, however it took a bit longer to germinate.
  4. The best time to grow mangoes from seed is the beginning of summer. The mango seed is best germinated when the temperature is 25 to 35 °C (75 to 95°F). If the temperature is low, you can place the planted seed indoors.
  5. You can directly sow the seed in ground in a sunny place. I like to sow the seed in a pot and then transplant the seedling to a larger pot or into the ground.
  6. Fill a pot, about 10 inch diameter with good quality potting mix and mix some river sand. 
  7. Plant the seed about 3 inch deep and water well. You need not to worry about which side of the seed goes down in soil. It does not whether you plant the mango seed up or down. You can plant the seed in any way; up, down or vertical or flat. Also if you fail to take out the seed from its pit, even then it will germinate, may be it will take a few days more. Place the pot in a warm sunny place, keep moist.
  8. You can also germinate the mango seed/pit by the paper towel method (mango seed germination).
Multiple seedlings from Polyembryonic mango seed
Multiple seedlings from
Polyembryonic mango seed

Germinated Bowen Kensigton Pride mango seed
Germinated Bowen Kensington
Pride Mango seed
  1. The seed will germinate in a few weeks. You will see that the seed will sprout into several seedlings, all identical to each other (except one) and to the parent tree. They are actually the clones. Usually the centrally-located shoot which is the most vigorous shoot than all the other shoots is different and should be removed.
  2. When the seedlings are about 4-5 inch tall, cut all but one of the seedlings to grow to a mango tree.
  3. You could gently separate each seedling and grow them all to have many mango trees (How to separate polyembryonic seedlings).
  4. Or, you can carefully split open a mango seed and take out small bean shaped seeds. You can then plant them individually to get many trees.

Transplanting Mango Seedling

Transfer the seedling when the thickness at its base of the trunk becomes the size of about 2 inch diameter and about 10 inch high. At this size, the baby mango tree will have established a good healthy root system.

If you want a small tree, transfer it in a large pot. The advantage of growing mango tree in the pot is that it can be managed easily and can be moved in a sunny place or indoors when the temperature drops.

Transplanting Mango Tree in Ground

  1. Dig a hole about three times the size of the root ball. Add potting mix and some garden in the hole. Place the seedling (baby mango tree) in the hole, add the soil to fill the hole and water it thoroughly.
  2. Water your mango plant regularly.
  3. Do not over fertilize, otherwise there will be more leaves and less fruit produce. Take care of your mango tree.

See the YouTube video of how to grow a mango tree from seed that can produce fruits in 2-3 years.

Videos on mango growing and care



how to grow mango tree from seed video
How to germinate mango seed
Mango ripening guide
Video on Mango tree care
5 Simple methods for ripening mangoes faster
Polyembryonic Mango seeds growing fruits quickly
Best fertilize for mango tree video
3 year old mango tree producing fruits
How to ripen mangoes at home (Hindi)
Grow Mango Tree From Seed in Hindi
Grow Mango Tree in a pot
How to trim a mango treeCloning Mango Tree From cutting
How to increase mango yield
Polyembryonic Mango seedlings separation
How to make mango tree small
What happens when you prune mango tree

References

1. Sub-Tropical Fruit Club of Qld Inc.: Mangoes – Polyembryonic
2. Y. Aron, H. Czosnek, and S. Gazit. Polyembryony in Mango (Mangifera indica L.) Is Controlled by a Single Dominant Gene. Horticultural Science. 1998. 33(7):1241-1242
3. Sub-Tropical Fruit Club of Qld. Inc Newsletter February – March 2007
4. Francoise Corbineau, et al., Seed germination and seedling development in the mango