Mango is one of the finest exotic plants with magnificent fragrant fruits. It is cultivated in Thailand, India, Pakistan, the USA, Mexico, Australia and Spain. An evergreen miracle can be found not only in gardens and plantations, but also in the homes of amateur gardeners.
A small mango tree can be grown in a house from the seed of a ripe fruit. This process is quite simple, however, it is almost impossible to achieve fruiting by artificially growing a plant. The article provides information about growing mangoes at home (see photo in the article).
General information
Growing this exotic plant in the home, you should not expect from it flowering, and, accordingly, fruiting. Even with absolutely all the necessary rules for the growth of this tropical tree, providing a moist, warm and sunny place, the plant will not be able to develop a good root system, which is typical for this culture. However, mango in any case can be a wonderful decoration of the house, as it has a decorative and very attractive appearance for our latitudes.
Growing mangoes from seed at home is not only about successfully germinating it before the seedling appears, which is only half the story. In order for the plant to develop properly, it should be placed on the sunniest side of the room, and in the summer take out on the balcony. Mango loves warmth, direct sunlight and certain humidity.
Tropical mango fruit
Growing at home a representative of the humid tropics, unfortunately, does not produce those true fruits that ripen in nature. Mango is an attractive evergreen tree. India is its homeland, but today such trees are grown in many countries and even continents. They successfully grow in Mexico, America (Central and South), Australia, and the tropical part of Africa.
In nature, a tree can grow up to about 20 meters or more in height. The plant has large leaves of a dark green hue, up to 20 cm long. The color of the leaves of mature trees is more saturated and dark, and in young ones it is yellow-green.
It would be nice to get tasty and juicy exotic fruits in home cultivation. Mango is a rather big fruit. Ripe fruits, depending on the variety, can be very large in size (up to 15 cm) with a weight of up to 2 kg. Their peel is soft but dense. The taste of the fragrant fruit determines the variety of the plant itself. Mango fruits have an elongated ossicle of a large size, inside of which the seed is located.
The pulp is juicy, pleasant and sweet in taste. Depending on the variety, the fruit may have a light green or orange hue. Flowering time - February-March. The fruit ripening period is approximately 90 days after the end of flowering. There are varieties whose fruits ripen even later, after about six months.
In nature, there are about 50 varieties of mangoes. Large home grown mangoes cannot be grown at home. And on industrial plantations, dwarf varieties are preferred. The same species are recommended for growing a house.
Preparation for landing
To prepare for planting a mango seed, you will need the following:
- ripe mango fruit;
- paper towel;
- dull knife;
- plastic bag with zip fastener;
- plastic container with a lid (for creating greenhouse conditions).
Stages of preparing the bone for landing
Growing mangoes from seed at home requires following certain planting rules:
- You should choose a ripe, without damage and wormholes, the fruit of the correct form. Cut off all the flesh, scrape off its remains from the shell and rinse well with water.
- Put a stone for 1-2 days in a sunny place for complete drying. When one side is dry, turn over.
- Carefully open a bone with a blunt knife from the rounded tip without damaging the seed. It is desirable to break the shell with your hands.
- Detach the seed, similar in shape to the beans, from the shell. Do not remove the peel.
- Wrap the seed in a paper towel and lightly moisten it. In case of high humidity, the seed may rot.
- Put the wrapped material in a plastic bag and close tightly, and then place it inside the food container, made of plastic. This is a kind of portable mini-greenhouse.
- Put the container with the seed in a dark place.
- The seed should be checked daily. It should always be moderately moist, not too wet.
Planting mango seed
One of the important stages in growing mangoes at home is to plant a sprouted seed, as seedlings of a tropical plant are quite vulnerable at an early stage of their development. In this regard, it is best to plant the seeds immediately in a pot in a permanent place.
To do this, you will need:
- pot;
- scoop;
- loose light soil;
- drainage;
- water.
Priming
For growing mangoes at home, the substrate must be light.
You can use the mixture for succulents, adding universal soil to it, as well as small pebbles or expanded clay. Special soil should be mixed with sand in a ratio of 2: 1.
Landing stages
Quite painstaking work - growing mangoes at home from seeds. In order to get a positive result, you must follow all landing conditions.
- At the bottom of the prepared container, it is necessary to pour a small layer of drainage from expanded clay or gravel (approximately 5 cm).
- Fill the pot by 2/3 with soil, moisturizing it and letting the water drain.
- Place the seed with the flat side down and gently fill it with soil, then gently press the soil, without damaging the young sprout.
- Cover the landing with a plastic cup and place the container in a sunny place.
- Periodically ventilate the seedling and moisten the ground.
- Leaves will begin to appear in 14-28 days. Some of them will have a bright green color, and others purple, which is quite normal for this culture.
- After a couple of months, the seedling (when growing mangoes at home) should begin to accustom to the environment, periodically opening the improvised greenhouse.
- After three months after planting, you need to remove the glass and set the plant in a place illuminated by direct sunlight.
After about 90 days from planting a seed from a mango seed, you can get a real small tree.
Care, watering, top dressing
When growing mangoes at home, it is imperative to create conditions that are close to natural.
The plant loves moisture. To create it, first of all, regular watering is sufficient. It should be carried out with the top layer of soil completely dried in the pot, and to keep the moisture longer, the soil should be mulched with sawdust, rotted or humus. It is important to take into account the fact that, although the mango is moisture-loving, it does not tolerate stagnation of water.
Microfertilizer should be applied to the soil about a month and a half after emergence. Every two weeks, it is recommended to introduce organic fertilizers into the soil. In summer, it is necessary to enrich it with nitrogen-containing top dressing, about once every seven days, in winter their amount can be reduced to one per month.
Regularly water and spray the plant, and if necessary, you can create heating and additional lighting. It should be remembered that mango does not tolerate darkness, cold and cramped.
Mango crown formation
This process when growing mangoes at home is also quite important for this plant. It calmly responds to pruning and quickly restores the crown.
The procedure is usually performed when the mango tree reaches 1.5 meters in height. Trimming is done up to twice a year. It is necessary to maintain good shape and attractive appearance, as well as to regulate the volume of the plant.
There are no special rules for this event. Usually all branches are cut out, which greatly thicken the crown, and the central one is shortened to the required size. The plant can be given any desired shape: a ball, a pyramid, to make a picturesque spreading bush out of it.
Breeding
Although this plant can not be called unpretentious, special financial costs for growing mangoes at home are not required. Only complex and frequent care delivers minor chores.
And propagation of the mango tree is quite affordable for any gardener. The vegetative method is not so popular due to the fact that it is very laborious and ineffective. Even when treated with stimulants, cuttings take root no more than 405 of them. But they also poorly develop the root system, which is not enough for the normal growth and development of the plant.
The most popular and common method of reproduction is vaccination. Moreover, it is seedlings sprouted from seed that are used as rootstock. This process allows you to get a guaranteed result. It turns out a tree with magnificent compact crowns.
It turns out that when growing mangoes at home, you can sometimes get real fruits. Experienced flower growers achieve the desired results by grafting a fruiting branch to a two-year-old tree.
The beneficial properties of mangoes
It would be appropriate to touch upon the valuable qualities of fruits, since the benefits of this fruit to humans are undeniable. With its unique natural composition, it is able to affect many diseases.
Doctors today actively recommend consuming mangoes to treat various eating disorders, diseases of the urinary and reproductive system, certain types of cancer, and also to reduce weight. If you daily use small doses of the fruits of an exotic plant, you can get rid of nervous and stressful stresses, calm down and cheer yourself up.
Mango fruit is an excellent hematopoietic agent that can not only increase hemoglobin levels, but also improve the composition and condition of the blood. For diseases of the eye, such as retinal detachment, "night blindness," itching of the mucous membranes of the eye, flavonoids and vitamins contained in the pulp of the fetus help. This Asian exotic fruit is also used in cosmetology. His tasks in this area are: the fight against withering of the skin, varicose veins and spider veins, rosacea and others.
Mango also benefits children. It helps to strengthen their immune system, proper development, normalizes the general mental state and sleep, stabilizes the stool, contributes to the normal functioning of the intestines, stomach and liver. However, one should not forget that it is necessary to carefully and carefully introduce this product into baby food. It is necessary to do this in small portions and be sure to monitor allergic manifestations. If any are found, the mango should be removed immediately from the diet.
Finally
In nature, mango blooms only in the sixth year of its growth, but when grown in Russian latitudes, such a holiday may not even come if a miracle happens.
Mango is an evergreen tropical tree that can grow to gigantic size under favorable conditions, so many amateur gardeners are passionate about the idea of growing this exotic miracle at home. This idea can be realized only if certain details of planting and the rules for caring for mango are observed.
There is one important piece of advice. It is best to plant a seed of overripe mango for planting. When using an unripe fruit, the probability of seed germination will be minimal.