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Every time I eat a mango I try to sprout the seed. They make beautiful house plants if you can't grow them outside. They have tough, shiny leaves that stand up to low humidity and variable temperatures. They are quite resistant to most house plant pests.
The first time I sprouted one was in my school dormitory room in San Francisco in 1978. I did it the wrong way but it grew! I cleaned the flesh off the woody seed cover and planted it deeply in a large pot. It grew. I've since found this almost never works!
The correct way is to remove the woody covering first. The seed cover looks like a giant light tan bean. If you scrape the concave edge with a knife you will probably find a separation between the two sides of the seed covering. If you don't find this, use a sharp knife to VERY CAREFULLY cut off just a millimeter of seed cover right at the junction. Consider putting it in a vise so you don't cut yourself, but don't squash the seed inside.
Pry the two sides of the seed cover apart gently, so you don't damage the large seed inside. If you have strong fingernails that might be enough. Sometimes I use a butter knife or spoon to force the opening larger.
Look at the big seed. It should be a very light cream color. If it is uniformly grey the mango was stored too cold in transit, and it will not sprout.
Mangos, like citrus, have polyembryonic seeds, with the potential to grow multiple plants from one seed. Usually one embryo is the result of fertilization with pollen, and the others are identical to the mother plant (parthenogenesis.) In mangos there will be clearly seen seams between parts of the seed. Each section may yield one plant. I have read seedlings produced from fertilization have red new leaves that turn green, and parthenogenic seedlings have all-green leaves.
Soak the big seed in water for an hour to overnight, to loosen the papery seed membrane. Gently peel off the paper covering, doing your best not to damage the seed underneath. There is a good chance at one end of the concave side you will find a conical root primordium.
I use builder's sand for medium, and 20 ounce foam cups. You can use other things. Make a shallow furrow in the medium, then set the seed on edge,
concave side down, and push the medium back against the seed. Do not bury the seed. It will turn green and begin to photosynthesize, feeding the new sprouts. Water very well the first time. Keep moist but not soggy wet.
The higher the ambient humidity, the greater your chance of success. I get very few to sprout outside here in the shade. In my sunroom they almost all sprout.
Once new shoots stop arising you can unpot the plant, gently separate them if you like, and move to bigger containers. They are not picky about soil nor water, but they need to stay moist. They are not succulents. Fertilize as with any house plant. The warmer the better for them, but they accept temperatures down to just above freezing.
In some climates, like mine, rare heavy freezes may kill ones planted outside down to the ground. They usually come back from the roots. With a seed-grown mango this is not a problem; if you buy an expensive grafted known variety and this happens, you lose the grafted part.
They can easily be pruned during the growing season, to stay in scale. It is possible to get a few mangos each year from a plant in a 15-gallon/55 liter pot. This takes 5-7 years from seed. They flower in winter, and mangos ripen the following summer.
This plant is variety Manila. It is also sold in the US as Champagne and Ataulfo. Fruits are small, concolor bright yellow, and have almost no fiber in the delicious flesh. They come true from seed, so this is a good mango to plant outside if you are in a marginal area.
Other yummy varieties I see here include Kent and Keit. Both are very tasty mangos that are larger, mostly green, with red and yellow areas. Tommy Atkins is a very large mango, very beautiful, mostly green with some red and yellow. It doesn't taste good, with a heavy turpentine flavor and not much else. Most mango aficionados won't eat them even when there are no other mangos available.
There are three sprouts from this seed so far. One half of the seed is drying up, but there might be more sprouts from the other half. I am going to put more sand into the cup so the bases of these sprouts are well-covered.
Mangos are Mangifera indica, in family Anacardiaceae, along with the cashew, sumac, poison ivy and poison oak. Some people are allergic to oils in mango skins. Fortunately I am not.
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