words from a haughty penguin
check out the initial steps to growing a mango from seed or wonderful methods of eating the mango prior to getting the seed
Here is a follow up on my mango growing activities. I figure they are easy enough to sprout, might as well do as many as I can. They do make great gifts, but unfortunately they do require some care.
After about 3-4 weeks
After 6 weeks
About 7-8 Weeks
They need to be transplanted into a pot now. I have been putting this off, really not sure why.
more to come…
Eating a mango always seems to be messy business. They are very tasty, but they have a huge seed in the middle, and they are very juicy. I have tried mango pitters before, but if your mango is too ripe, it will just get squashed. Even if you do pit the seed out, you still have mango juice all over the place now.
Growing up I would watch my mom cut mangoes. She would do what I refer to as the “flower technique,” or inversion technique.
She slices the Mango vertically, (lateral to each side of the seed). Then she will slice cross hatches in the mango. Then invert the mango, pushing on the skin of the mango. It makes eating the meat of the mango easier. [image to the left obtained via a google search which led me to http://soupbelly.com/]
*disclaimer, I have not tried this on the big mangoes, just the mini Mexican Atulfo Mangoes*
Somehow I never seen these mini mangoes before until I went to Beijing, China. Odd thing is once I came back from China, I noticed that we should the mini mangoes here in Ohio. Eitherway, I saw someone there eating what seemed to be an oddly shaped banana, but on closer examination, this lady was eating a mango. She had peeled the skin off like a banana. Interestingly it works well with these Mini Mangoes, and is better if the mango is ripe. So here is my take on peeling mangoes. The benefits are great: 1. you dont waste any of the mango, 2. it is less laborious to peel and eat a mango. Unfortunately it does not solve the problem of the mess after.
Step: 1. Cut the mango skin superficially at 90 deg angles all the way down. Makes it easier to peel (without the skin breaking off mid peel)
Step 2. Peel the mango gently.
Step 3. Eat the mango.
Obviously if you are out and about, and do not happen to carry knives with you, you can easily enough just peel the mango without cutting. This is just a tad messier, but better than not eating a mango at all.
on to sprouting and growing a mango tree from a seed
When I was younger (the day before the net was readily available) I wanted to grow a mango tree. I figured it would be easy to. Plop the seed in the ground and voila. Well it seemed they would usually just rot. Never grew a darn thing. Forget the fact that I live in Ohio. It should still sprout.
Many years later, I decided to try again, and had the great idea to check online. Someone must have tried to do this once before. I found out that the hard shell inside a mango is just a husk. The seed actually is inside . So here are the steps I used to germinate mangoes from a seed.
Step 1. Get mango seed [see the steps I use to eat a mango to get the seed] – link is pending completion of article/pictures –
Step 2. Pry open the husk. You may have to scrap away one end to find an opening or to find a place to create an opening.
Step 3. Take seed out and put wash with soap. Hopefully this step will reduce the amount of mold that grow in the water.
Step 4. Place seed in a container and fill with water until seed is submerged.
Step 5. Place container with mango in a dark warm area. I usually place it on top of my fridge, where it is somewhat hot and dark. Back in my apartment dwelling days I would place it on top of my computer, since the compy usually generates so much heat.
Step 6. You will want to change the water about every other day, to keep the water from molding.
I am currently trying to sprout 6 mango seedlings. I will try to update the status with additional pictures on this post directly.
With my ventures in cultivating tropical plants and building a koi pond indoors, I’ve noticed that I also somehow generate hundreds of gnats. I assume it may be from over-watering, decaying vegetation. Maybe if I keep the area cleaner, this wouldnt be an issue. Now they are running amuck on the 1st floor as well as the second floor. In the past I thought it would be a genius idea to start keeping carnivorous plants as well (mainly sundews). Logic dicates that the gnats would be controlled with these predatory photosynthesizers. It actually worked fairly well, but I was too cheap to keep them in a proper container. They actually grew too well and caught a lot of gnats. Then the gnat level died down and I am not sure what happened, but I could not keep my precious bug eaters alive. I think part of the problem was my basement was 1. too cold, 2. too dry.
With the winter upon us, I deal with the insect annoyance I have today. I have my Prized Mango and Coffee plant on the 1st floor, and noticed that gnats have been haunting the soil. This is putting MommyMD on edge, so I finally set up this portable bug zapper she had purchased. It actually seems to be working, because every so often you will hear a zap. This (for whatever reason) scares the crap out of Combo (the Pomeranian). The gnats dont seem to be terribly attracted to the light, so I’d say it somewhat works. What has worked in the past (aside from the Sundews) was using insect sticky tape, so we went to HomeDepot and got some. In the basement I am getting ready to plug in another bug zapper as well. I’d rather use a Sundew, but if I order one online, I am afraid the cold weather will kill it in-transit.
So this brings me to another idea, the motivation of this post. What about putting a frog in the pond? Obviously a thought is that the frog will jump out and disappear. I say this is a non issue. 1. The frog will want to stay by the water. If it leave, it will come back sooner or later (I mean he’s stuck in my basement). 2. Kermit will want to go to where the food is, and the gnats are around the pond. I mean how could this be a bad idea?
I suppose those are valid concerns, but maybe the frog will just stay in the pond? Are the above really rational/reasonable concerns?
What do you guys think? I guess I am talking to myself here. I don’t think I really have that many people that venture to this blog. Amazingly when I consulted MommyMD she did not object to the idea. Maybe that is the sign for a go.
Here is the potential future habitat for my green friend
For more about my Pond project you can see it here
-to be continued-