Archives for June 2025

Growing Mango Plant from Seed in Singapore

From Tragedy to Triumph: The Great Mango Transplant of July 2025

The mango seed that was planted in the original article, unfortunately suffered a tragedy as it progressed from sprout to seedling. At the seedling level, perhaps after 3-4 weeks it has been destroyed by birds in what can only be perceived as a co-ordinated terrorist attack against my little Singapore Urban Farm. It was dismembered from its roots, and left to die a humiliating death on the balcony floor.

I returned the seedling to the top of the pot once I discovered its whereabouts, hoping to restore some small dignity, but my friends I could not revive him, he was done… cue sad music ♩ ♪ ♩… alas, I returned some time later to find my little green friend on the ground again. Once could be an accident, Twice is intentional … Oh it’s gonna be ON like Donkey Kong if I found out which of those crows did it!

Thankfully there’s a back-up plan my fellow garden peeps; whilst the seedling was a little bit more special because it was shucked and grown from seed, and it’s replacement is one I literally grew by chucking the endocarp in a pot, there’s a lesson we get to learn now about transplanting a mango plant from a smaller pot to a larger one, as I never expected this mango plant to grow. Also, it should be noted, that this is a much older and more established plant — so this is gonna be a tricky one folks hold on for the ride!

Step 1: Dig a Hole!

“Gonna dig me a hole, gonna put a plant in it, gonna take a watering can…”

At least we get to have some fun – and don’t we all know that the best solutions always start with digging a hole! (except if you’re plotting revenge, in that case do as Confucious says and “dig two”). There is some methodology we need to apply here:

1. (In the Destination Pot) Dig Slightly Bigger than the Existing Rootball – I guessed and just totally fluked the rootball width and depth, and manage to get it into the pot. I recommend using a trowel, to dig around the existing plant being generous to ensure you won’t disturb any of the roots; eyeball the rootball, then dig, dig, dig my lovelies!
2. (Optional) – Add used coffee grounds to the hole – I do this because it gives a bit of a nitrogen boost and creates slight acidity in the soil which Mangoes love. I just rinse out my Cafetière à piston aka French Press coffee maker by filling with water and pouring the used ground coffee and water into the soil.

Step 2: Put the Plant in it

Well… aren’t we special? We’ve dug ourselves a hole! Ok now we need to extract the plant from the source pot, being careful to retain the root structure, before transplanting the mango plant in its new home. 

1. (In the Source Pot) Dig Around The Mango Plant to Extract Rootball – This is a critical step because if you damage the roots, this thing is NOT going to survive. I’ve tried transplanting mangoes multiple times now and have failed each time, they never survive. Why?  Because I didn’t preserve the rootball – I’ve failed so you don’t have to; give it a good chunky two hands worth of soil around the base and keep that puppy happy!
2. Transplant the Mango Plant – This is it! Put on your big boy pants, and let’s drop that plant in that beautiful hole you’ve dug. The fit should be easy but snug. If you’ve over dug make sure to fill in soil around the gaps, and be sure not to have dug too deep – we want the plant to be on the same level as the rest of the soil so that it’s almost seamless when complete.

Step 3: Water the Plant in

This seems pretty straightforward – we do want to water the plant in, but we need to avoid over-watering because mangoes hate wet feet. Thankfully that bigger pot we’ve moved it all to should take care of this with it’s fantastic draining…

1. Water the Plant – Surely this instruction needs no explanation – So take up that old trusty watering can and water the plants leaves, water the soil beneath the plant, and water the surrounding soil. This will provide all the moisture it needs to survive the shock of being transplanted. 

Now we wait! I only completed this transplant 10 hours ago, in full sun during the hot and humid Singapore daytime. If you need any further tips on completing this successfully ask away in the comments. I may update again in a few weeks to see if our patient has survived!

Hopefully we’ll all be crowing Long Live the Katong Mango King! 🤴

Introduction: Growing Mangoes

I’ve been living in Singapore for just on 10 years now and growing my own pineapples for 8 of those years; taking too many to count all the way through to harvest (using tops, slips, pups, suckers and ratoons – the best fruit comes from the top when growing your own, they’ll be as big or bigger than store bought). Just this week, I’ve harvested the latest 2 from my balcony, and there is still one more that needs another 2-3 weeks to finalise fruiting.

But today, we are here to talk about growing your own mangoes from the seed of a mango fruit.

There is one clear method to use in order to obtain the plantable seed, essentially the soft inner seed that is housed inside the hard outer seed that we are all familiar with when enjoying a mango. This inner seed is then planted and within 5-8 years you could be enjoying your own home-grown mango fruit!

Method: Growing the Mango Tree from the Seed

Below I will walk you through the methodology I’ve used to successfully grow 3 mango plants from seed. These were grown in pots and they can have a limited lifespan and be quite temperamental, so the most recent planting has been done in a very deep pot, to allow more of a tree-type growth as opposed to a pot plant, and I recommend that you grow in the ground if you ever want to see fruit.

Step 1: Finish the Mango Fruit

The first step is arguably the most enjoyable. Finishing the mango fruit! I was always taught growing up to slice down the side of the mango and carve off two cheeks; each cheek you would then criss-cross with vertical and horizontal slices, and then invert using the skin (exocarp) to create the classic hedgehog pattern – those edible bite-sized squares of fruit that make it easy to eat; with no mess as your hands are protected by the mango skin. The remaining fruit around the seed you would then try to remove as much as you could, which often meant toothpicks and teeth brushing post eating of the fruit.

Once you’ve finished a mango fruit, you are left with quite a large and hard seed, which many don’t know is actually a seed pod (or if we want to be technical nerds it’s the endocarp), that contains a soft inner seed that can be used to grow a mango tree.

It’s best to try and remove as much of the pulp (mesocarp) from this seed pod before attempting the next step.

Step 2: Extracting the Seed from the Seed Pod

This is a tricky, but necessary step, to extract the soft inner seed from the seed pod.

1. Firstly Dry The Seed Pod – I recommend drying the seed pod if you can because it definitely makes it easier to work with. If you have a very ripe mango then this seed pod may already be quite manageable. However, a freshly finished pod is more difficult to crack.
2. Select Your Digging Tool – For safety’s sake, I recommend using a spoon as your prying tool here. You’re going to need to leverage open the seed pod, and even dried the seed pod can be challenging to work with, and you are likely to slip once or twice, so this prevents injury. The spoon is also an expert-level digging tool with it’s wide surface area and concave bowl it’s uniquely shaped to shuck that seed out! That’s not a knife, that’s a spoon! Alright, alright, you win. I see you’ve played knifey-spoony before DanDan — I have and it wasn’t pleasant, lost a fight with a bread knife and a stale baguette. Don’t do it!
3. Shuck The Seed Pod – There’s a natural seam line on the side of the seed pod, once you’ve found it, you need to pry that open to get to the seed inside. Run the spoon along that seam and gently leverage it open like a crowbar. At some point you’ll actually be able to put the spoon inside and then twist the spoon to effectively shuck the seed pod like you would an oyster. I work over a sink, so if it slips, the seed pod just goes into the sink.
4. Retrieve The Seed – With the seed pod shucked and pried open you now have access to the seed inside, it can look a little weird, I remember the first time I did it I thought it looked like a listening device (I won’t say where that Mango’s origin was from!). Wash any old or dried skin from the seed, it should be white-ish and has a flat edge and a concave edge.

Step 3: Planting the Mango Seed 

Screeeeeeech 🎵 Wait, what? No germination step? No bathing in holy water blessed by the Greybeards in High Hrothgar for exactly 47.3 minutes while performing interpretive dance? No wrapping in The Shroud of Turin-grade paper towels and storing in a climate-controlled Vintec overnight?

No, No, and Double No!

We are gardener’s and greenthumb’s not pastry chefs! Much like the moth emerging from its cocoon, or the snake using it’s egg-tooth to sever it’s sac; We believe in letting plants do what they do naturally, so just chuck it in the soil, and let it go… right after we crowbar it open with a spoon and completely dismantle its natural protective casing. But other than that violent intervention, totally natural!

Actually, I don’t advise “just chucking it in”. The seed has two sides – a flat, broad side, and a concave side. We want to place the concave side down in around 1-inch of soil, so quite close to the surface, so it can sprout easily. Push it so that it is firmly held. The flat, broad side is where the sprout will come from, the concave side will develop the roots.

I generally like to water-in a seed to ensure it has some moisture for activation. For this particular seed I’ve chosen a deep, tall pot (this is where the 2025 pineapple was grown). The soil is already well fertilised and full of nutrients, and at the time of writing (2 weeks since I planted the mango seed) it has sprouted!

Greenthumb Tip: Used coffee grounds make an amazing natural fertiliser and pesticide. I’m make my own French Press coffee daily, because I’m disciplined enough to not use instant coffee but not a full-blown Java junkie that needs an 8-grand La Marzocco Barista-level espresso machine. So once I’ve had my brekky beverage I pour the used grounds over the topsoil of plants, and I’ve found they thrive as a result.

(Option): Water Germination currently experimental

Awwwwww hell nough! Didn’t we just say no goofy germination… Well think of this as the non-goofy method, plus it’s optional. I’m trying this as an experiment to see if, like avocados using the toothpick method, the mango seed will germinate if fully-submerged in tepid tap water.

To ensure this works for best effect I would remove the papery husk from the seed, and ensure it’s clean before putting in the water. I would change the water every 2 days as a minimum, to ensure that no bacteria grows to damage the seed.

Update 28th July: I can say for certain this experiment did NOT work. The soaked seed, did not ever germinate in the water; and after 4 weeks I planted, and it never sprouted – even though it’s still planted. Don’t try it this way just use my foolproof method outlined above!