[James Gutierrez]

How to grow your OWN mango tree with store-bought fruit​

Mango may be a summertime favourite, but it is also well-loved all year round, with people carting boxes of the luscious fruit into their homes.

But Brad Canning, a houseplant specialist from Melbourne, said we are throwing away the best part - the pip.

“Next time you eat a mango, don’t throw away the pip because you can turn it into a houseplant,” said the plant expert.

Thankfully, he uploaded a video showing us how to make use of the often-discarded seed.

Photos from TikTok / bradcanning.
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The process for growing your own mango tree involves a lot of cutting and slicing using a knife, so it would be best if you are with someone while doing this!

Brad demonstrated the first step by slicing his store-bought mango across horizontally, creating two halves.

“So once you finish eating it, run it under the tap and get any excess fruit off and then just give it a quick pat dry with some paper towel.”

“And then what you are going to do is cut right at the end just a little bit of the end off just so you can get the knife in.”

Brad proceeded to cut the tip of the hard seed.

“Be careful with this part, but just run your knife down the edge so you can get your thumbs in there and rip it open.”

“So once you get the pip out of the inside, get any excess skin off it.”

“Then, wrap it in a damp paper towel, put it in a zip lock bag and store it in a cool, dry place,” he continued.

Brad popped the seed out from the pip before he placed it in a reusable silicone bag.

“Check on it after a week or two; if there’s a root, it is ready for water, and it will sprout into a tiny little mango tree.”

Then, Brad showed off his sprouted mango seed thriving in a small vase of water.

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The video was uploaded on Brad’s TikTok page with over 476K followers, and it has been viewed more than 361K times, amassing around 23K likes.

Many fans commented that they actually tried the trick, with one saying: “I did this last year, and now I have a little tree.”

“Loved doing this! We have two mango trees,” another added.


We have also written about Brad’s previous tip on growing avocado trees from scratch. You can read more about it here.

 

[Xe]

I did this and once again it died

 

[Gregoire]

How long does it take for a mango seed to grow into a plant and bear fruit. I dont know if there are enough readers who can wait that long. I bought a healthy guava plant 5 years ago and I'm still waiting for fruit.

 

[Jonathan Leane]

Good point @Gregoire... According to a Better Homes & Gardens article:

Trees are mostly sold as grafted saplings but some varieties can be grown from the seed. Mango seeds usually take around eight years to produce fruit while grafted saplings take three to five.

Soooo probably not the most efficient way to get mangoes

On the other hand, seems like a fun and cheap project, especially if you're addicted to growing indoor plants like I am.

 

[Ricci]

I am feeling rather smug at the moment. I am actually growing a mango tree from the seed. To date it has six leaves so it's early days but tomorrow I'm going to take it out of the water and pot it. So far in my life I have spectacularly failed to keep any plant alive and my home has been a place where plants come to die.