Mango Tree

[This post was originally on another blog of mine, but that one is not really in use anymore so I thought I would share it here!]

So most people know how to grow an avocado tree from an avocado pit. Big whup, avocado trees are soooo 4th grade. I don't know if many people do this (I guess I could just check the internets, but whatever!), but at one point I wanted to see if I could grow a mango tree from a mango pit, AND IT WORKED! So I thought it would be a cool and easy tutorial and mangos are like the most friggin delicious fruit ever! So here ya go.

Here are the tools you will need:

mango

knife

cutting board

scissors

small glass

window that gets some sun

pot

potting soil

I have tried and succeeded with both the big greenish mangos and the little yellow mangos. I think the little yellow ones are tastier, but both are pretty delish.

Start by cutting up the mango. The easiest way to do this is by finding the little nob where the mango was attached to the tree and cutting along each side of the big flat pit in the middle of the fruit. This will give you two meaty pieces and one piece that is mostly pit.

Feel free to just dig in and gobble up that juicy goodness, but if you want to share or have nice uniform pieces hold each half steady on the cutting board and cut diagonal in one direction and then the other to make a grid. This will allow you to pop it inside out and cut off little cubes of mango (plus it just looks cool).

For the pit part you can peel off the skin and either try to cut off all the meat or just gnaw on it a bit until it is clean of mango. Now scrape off the remaining bits under running water, this will leave you with a hairy, slimy, little stone.

This part gets a little tricky because the bit you actually want is inside this. The casing around the seed is kinda like that annoying plastic packaging around electronics, a bitch to get into and even a little dangerous. So be VERY CAREFUL when doing this next part, children should have ADULT SUPERVISION or just adult help for this part. Feel free to let the pit sit overnight and dry out so it is not so slimy and hard to hang onto. Pinch the smaller end of the pit and it should feel hollow up to a point, snip this part off.

Being careful not to damage the bean inside make a slice with the knife or snip with scissors and you should be able to tear the casing up the edge and carefully take out the little bean.

Now the hard part is over! Put this little guy in some room temp water (just a little, don't submerge completely) in a little glass and set on a window sill.

Mine took FOREVER to start growing so don't get discouraged. It can take a month or two before you see some roots forming. If the water starts to get a little slimy rinse it out and add some more water (NOT COLD! room temp!). Some pink roots will shoot out and then finally a little pink hand (literally! It totally looks like a little alien hand reaching out the top with leaves for fingers!) will reach up and then you can plant it in potting soil with leaves up, roots down (duh). Keep the soil pretty wet, mangos like lot's of water.

Good luck! Mangos are waaaay cooler than avocados.

And here it is after 7 months of growth, so pretty!

-Anna