Do you love eating mangoes like I do? Apple mangoes, Indian mangoes, Carabao mangoes - more so, Philippine Carabao mangoes! However, you live in a place where the weather happens to be unfriendly for growing mangoes like my side of the earth? It's usually wet here, chilly at night , freaking cold in winter and summer weather's unpredictable it sometimes hails? Everyone from here would probably say; " It's not possible to grow mangoes in the Netherlands.
When I moved here, I started growing tropical plants in pots just inside the house. My friends often laughed at me and thought the idea is crazy. Ironically, I got more encouraged by that.
One of my favorite fruits is mango. They can be bought here but they are either San Antonio or Apple mangoes. Four years ago, a Filipina friend in Amsterdam gave me a Philippine mango which she managed to sneak in her luggage when she came back from a trip in the Philippines and I've managed growing it . However, when it was a year older, I let it out in the backyard in summer and the critters gnawed it up. I just woke up one morning and found its leaves all eaten up there was no chance for photosynthesis to happen again. I didn't get rid of it soon till its top started turning brown. This is the only photo I had of it the very day, I transplanted him to bask in the summer sun.
I tried growing organic apple mangoes and among all three which for a year or two, I was successful of except for only one of them is still alive.
I gave the only survivor a name - Rikia. When she was months older I was supposed to give her away to somebody just because she's the tiniest of all three. The other two were growing pretty healthy in the greenhouse back then. Unfortunately, she was rejected and thanks be to God - because she's actually a survivor. The other two didn't survive the cold winter two years ago.
I regret letting them stay in the greenhouse. They fought hard - they were looking fine till February that year. Mildew managed to penetrate the old green house and ate them up. I only have Rikia left in that batch and she's always stayed inside the house. She's still pretty tiny but soon she'll be having her own place in an organic garden.
It was three years ago when I started missing the Philippine mangoes and back then I don't know where to find them. No other mangoes taste like that of the Philippine mangoes. It's succulent, sweet and just un inexplicably delicious, you would lick every drop of its juice.
Last March this year, I ordered 10 Philippine mangoes from another Filipina who owns a website that sells them here. They were pretty pricey but cheaper than the ticket cost of flying to the Philippines for the love of them mangoes. They were green when they were delivered.
I let them ripen by wrapping them one by one with newspapers. I learned that trick from my father's mom. This way, any fruit can ripen and taste like they ripen up a tree. On the 5th day, I opened one. Hub and I thrifted eating them because 3 euro a mango is not really cheap. It took us ten days to finish them all.
On the tenth day, I've let the last Philippine mango seed rest in the ground and do its thing to grow. I grew them in containers, on the window sills where there heating are. All ten of them managed to grow. April was a bit sunny this year so I let 8 of them in the greenhouse but the unpredictable snowing and hailing didn't help. I've watched all 8 slowly died. I still have two of them doing well - the ones I let to grow on the window sill. This is what they look when they were a month and a half old.
So you must be wondering, when does the steps in planting come - cause if you happen to have read my articles, then you know this is how I write. Well, here it goes.
Below is a pic of a ripe (use ripe ones only) apple mango - they were on sale in a store called Jumbo so I bought two - two days ago not knowing, I'll be blogging about them.
Peel the mango and eat both cheeks. Peel the rest of the what's stuck on the seed coat -or in my case, I let my teeth sink in to it. It would look like a yellow hairy seed once you do that.
What you'll see is actually a seed coat. Cut it open from it's bottom with a fruit knife. In my case, this apple mango's seed coat is already popped. You could see the seed inside - peeking. Split that hairy seed coat open and let the seed out.
You would see that there's another sheet covering it - brown on this apple mango and its the same case with that of the Philippine mango but normally white on Indian mangoes. Peel that off, too.
This one came off very easily and it would probably be the same case with Indian mangoes. That of the Philippine mangoes would require soaking in warm water overnight to soften that silky seed coat and finally get to peel them off.
Take a small pot, an ample amount of soil (loam preferably) and dig till you know half of that naked mango seed could fit in. They're actually the cotyledons so even of the embryos already sprouted never take them off the baby plant. They'll fall off in a year or two and sometimes earlier. However, if you see them turn brown, pluck them off the plant very carefully.
A mango seed is a bit the shape of a bean so bury half of the seed - the part that's very arched facing down and let the smooth part stick out of the soil. The very arched part is where the embryo grows out so you would want to let it face the soil.
Water and if it's sunny, let them stay in the greenhouse like what I'm going to do with this one for weeks.
As soon as it the mercury on your thermometer hits 16 degrees you'd better let them in your house. Transplant and use a different soil plus cover them with sand to avoid fly infestation. I suggest that you let them stay in your house till they are 5 years old. That time they're adult.
I saw a 12 year old mango growing and fruiting in Greece a year ago on a newspaper I picked up of a train station here. That's what made me keep Rikia which I was supposed to give her up to a zoo that grows tropical plants here in Arnhem (the bitcoin capital city of The Netherlands) a year ago.
I'm not sure this one would make it though since it's already late August. Spring is the perfect time to grow any tropical fruit. The summer after would make them grow strong and let them understand how the four seasons feel.
These are the three mangoes that are still growing in my house. These two are the Philippine mangoes I planted last February. I talk to all three of them like they are my kids every time I water them. One of them is outgrowing the other.
I treat them like I do with my cacti in autumn and winter. On summer days, I water them when their leaves start drooping down but as soon as the "BER months" come, I water them once . They always sit on the window sills or near the heating.
I've changed Rikia's soil every year. As soon as it's officially Spring, I change her soil. Then, I cut 1/3 of her roots. It's so she won't grow crazy tall. I should actually be capping them to encourage branching but I've decided to do that when they're adults. Cutting 1/3 of her roots must be already torture to her.
If you happen to be a tropical fruit lover like I am and you'd like to give it a try to grow your own tropical tree FOLLOW me because I'll be posting more TIPS ON GROWING other tropical fruits I've managed to successfully grow at home.
Happy Steeming!