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How To Grow Mango Tree From Cutting

People often ask, how to grow a mango tree from cuttings, can mango cuttings be rooted? The mango tree can be grown from cuttings taken from a healthy mango tree. However, growing a mango tree from stem cuttings has a low success rate. A mango tree can easily be grown from a seed with a very high success rate. The fruit from the seed grown tree will be worse, identical or better fruit than the parent plant. But can mango cuttings be rooted really?

mango stem cutting growing
Mango stem cutting growing
Also the mango trees grown from cuttings produce a week root system, that is why the mango trees are mostly propagated from seeds, air layering, budding and grafting methods [1]. However, you can try rooting a mango tree from stem cuttings, if the tree is not producing fruit.

How To Grow Mango Tree From Cuttings

Can a mango tree be propagated from stem cuttings?

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What happens if you plant the stem of a mango tree in the ground, will it grow into a new plant? Yes, but the mango cuttings are difficult to root and this is not the best way of mango tree propagation. The mango tree can be propagated from cuttings under strict controlled environment conditions [2]. The factors which influence the rooting of mango cuttings are :

1. Age of the tree from which the cuttings are taken : The mango cuttings from both young and mature trees can be taken, the success rate however varies. Under certain conditions, the cuttings from mature trees work better than cuttings of young tree. I tried the propagate a polyembryonic mango tree from young tree.

2. The position of the cuttings on the tree : The rooting of mango cuttings is dependent on the position on the tree from where the cutting is taken. The cuttings taken from the base of the mango plants are rooted better than those collected from other places [3].

2. The position of the cuttings on the tree : The rooting of mango cuttings is dependent on the position on the tree from where the cutting is taken. The cuttings taken from the base of the mango plants are rooted better than those collected from other places [3].

New growth on Mango Cuttings
New Growth on Mango Cuttings

3. The type of cutting : Both semi-hardwood and young seedling cuttings have been propagated. Rooting of the short cuttings is more satisfactory than that of the long cuttings.
4. Rooting media :  The rooting media should be free-draining. You can mix peat moss or  sphagnum moss and sand in equal amount.
4. The time of cutting : The propagation rate is high in summer, however, it can be performed in winter under controlled conditions.
5.The environmental conditions under which the cuttings are rooted.

Taking Mango Cuttings

Purdue University Horticulture experts advise that cuttings from mature trees work better than cuttings of young trees, although they still only have a 40 percent success rate.

Roots on Mango Cutting
Roots on Mango Cutting

Scientific Experiments on Growing Mango from Cuttings

In an experiment, semi-hardwood cuttings with 4 – 6 leaves were taken, rooting hormone IBA (3-indolebutyric acid) or NAA (naphthalene acetic acid) was applied at the cutting ends and put in the rooting media. Maintaining high humidity around the rooting zone and applying bottom heat of 25° to 30°C resulted in 75 to 100% success rate for the cuttings taken from young seedlings and from 0 to 100% for cuttings taken from grafted plants [4].
The success rate without applying heat was much lower. The bottom heat can be provided by using heating mats or by means of soil warming cables. A thermostat can be used to control and maintain the temperature automatically.

Hard wood cuttings from mature mango trees do not root by normal methods. However, hard wood cuttings from ringed shoots of mature trees have been found to root successfully with 80% success rate under intermittent mist [56].

Making a 2 cm long vertical cut at the base of the cuttings using pruning scissors can improve success of rooting of the cuttings.

When the rooting hormone was mixed with Zinc Sulphate,  both the number of roots and the total lengths of roots compared to the treatment of hormone [7]

Procedure For Rooting Mango Cuttings

Preparation

  1. Sterilize garden pots, watering cans and other garden tools with boiling water, chlorinated water, diluted bleach solution, formaldehyde or alcohol. The rooting medium can be sterilized by using certain fungicides or by solarization. The solarization consists of covering the soil with a transparent polyethylene and exposed to sun for 2-3 months.
  2. Take thin cuttings about 8 inch long from a healthy and young mango tree.
  3. Take some bottled water in a cup and add a pinch of rooting hormone in it. Dip the lower cutting ends in this solution for 8 to 10 days, changing water every 2-3 days.
  4. Plant these cuttings in free-draining soil. Mix potting mix with coarse river sand in equal amount and fill in a small pot with several drainage holes at its bottom.
  5. Water well  the soil. Mix to ensure that the soil is wet at all points.
  6. Plant the cuttings in the soil and seal the pot in a polyethylene bag to maintained high humidity.
  7. Place the pot in a warm place away from direct sun. I put the pot in sun but the cuttings were protected from sun by shadowing them. The success rate was about 25 percent.
  8. The cuttings were rooted in 2 months time.
Mango cutting propagated that has produced flowers in just 2 years.
Mango Tree Grown from Cutting, Flowers in 2 Years

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References

1. Alberto Carlos de Queiroz Pinto, Victor Galán Saúco, Sisir Kumar Mitra, Francisco Ricardo Ferreira, Mango Propagation, Rev. Bras. Frutic., Jaboticabal, 40, e-586 (2018)
2. Mukherjee, S.K., Majumder, P.K, Bid, N-N. and Goswami, A.M.,
Clonal propagation of mango (Mangifera indica L.) through cuttings, Curr. Sci. 34 it. 434 (1965)
3. Mukherjee, S.K, Majumder, P.K. and Goswami, A.M., Effect of the position of the shoots on the rooting of mango cuttings, Sci. & Cult. 32 1 377-78 (1966)
4. O. Reuveni, W. Kuepper, J. Wiebel, ROOTING OF MANGO CUTTINGS Under Intermittent Mist, Acta Hortic. 291, 174-181 (1991)
5. Basu, R.N., Ghosh, B., Datta, P. and Sen, P.K., ROOTING IN CUTTINGS OF MANGIFERA INDICA, L. Acta Hortic. 24, 61-63, DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.24.8 (1972).
6. P. K. Sen, R. N. Basu, T. K. Bose and N. Roychoudhury, Rooting of mango cuttings under mist, Current Science, Vol. 37, 144-146 (1968)
7. Kensuke Y., Shuji O., Chitose H. and Takuya T., Zinc Treatment in Combination with Auxin Enhances Rooting of Cuttings in Taiwan Native Strain of Mango (Mangfera iindica L.), Jpn. J. Trop. Agr. 50 (2): 76-81, (2006)