Mango seedlings :D

Mangoes are awesome. But some mangoes are better than others. The most commonly sold mangoes in the US are the red and green Tommy Atkins mangoes. They're not valued for their taste, but for their ability to be stored and shipped for long distances and arriving at the supermarket somewhat mango-like. They're fibrous and often not very sweet. It's like playing the lottery on mangoes some are ok and others are downright atrocious. You can do better than these. go to and tropical country and the first mango you pick up will likely taste better. Another type is the Ataulfo mango, or Champagne mango. It is smaller and less fibrous and reputable sweeter, but once again, cannot compare to mangoes in tropical countries.

Ataulfo on the left and Tommy Atkins on the right

The mango that closes resembles those from tropical countries in terms of flavor and sweetness so far (My tropical fruit experience stems from Taiwan) is the Francique mango from Haiti. We found a few this year at whole foods and decided to try them. Even the lime green ones were sweet. Out of curiosity, I did some research on planting mango seeds. I decided on the method that called for split open the husks and placing the seed into a bag with moist paper towels.

 

Poly embryonic mango seedling

Francique Mango

 Tangle of roots and paper towels that the mangoes called home for a month.

 All the mango seedlings in a group photo after extraction from the paper towel the largest seedling (left photo) would be among the 2 survivors after squirrels decided to eat the rest