Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
bradflorida

Wild mango seedling with 4 stalks

bradflorida
12 years ago

http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb354/bradflorida/1%20month%20later/

I found this seedling near the sidewalk, growing under a wild mango tree downtown. When I pulled it out of the ground, it still had most of the seed attached, and it had 4 separate stalks growing out of that one seed.

Will this ultimately produce 4 separate trees growing in close proximity, or will it produce a tree with a common trunk at the base?

Jeff - I wonder if this tree would make a good multi-graft candidate down the road? :)

Brad

Comments (14)

  • zands
    12 years ago





    The tree is more interesting than the seedling. See if you can get some
    fruits off the tree next year. You can have some fun for a few hours and look up
    poly-embryonic mangoes versus mono-embryonic mangoes. This seed is poly. Pick
    the strongest and the one that gives you the best vibe and kill the other three.

  • jsvand5
    12 years ago

    I'd kill the one with the red leaves. The others look pretty identical so they should be the ones that are the same as the parent tree.

  • bsbullie
    12 years ago

    You will want to pick one, and as zands says it should be the strongest. The shoots themselves will "tell" you which is the strongest.

    jsv - I would not be concerned about the red leaves as from the picture it appears that is new growth. it is not uncommon for many varieties' new growth to be red in color.

  • jeffhagen
    12 years ago

    It's probably a polyembryonic mango. If it's indeed polyembryonic (and not a monoembryonic mango that's resprouting after having been cut down), then each one will have its own root system and can be separated.

    For multi-graft trees, I prefer to have a single trunk up to about 3 feet high.

    Jeff

  • marinfla
    12 years ago

    Jeff
    Is it not possible to have multiple sprouts out of a monoembryonic seed. I have had this happen germinating my seeds for grafting and I am relatively sure the seeds were monoembryonic. I did not cut them or do anything to encourage resprouting. They just germinated this way.
    Marin

  • jeffhagen
    12 years ago

    I'll sometimes get that on monoembryonic seeds if the initial sprout dies back a little. The difference between a monoembryonic and polyembryonic sprout is that the polyembryonic sprouts will each have their own root system and can easily be separated. The monoembryonic sprouts are basically just multiple sprouts sharing the same root system.

    Jeff

  • marinfla
    12 years ago

    Jeff I have not looked to see if there are multiple root systems. I am going to assume I will find only one. I will repot it tomorrow and find out. But in one of the seedlings two of the four sprouts look like Siamese twins :) connected at the hip. ( Off subject but quickly- how long do you wait to unwrap your grafts on a mango tree rootstock? I have 3 grafts that I did 4 1/2 weeks ago and the tops of the scions still look kinda green through the parafilm)

  • jeffhagen
    12 years ago

    I usually just leave the parafilm and let the buds poke through. But this time of year I think the cambium bond forms at around 2 weeks and after 4 weeks there should be no problem in removing the parafilm. You should be super gentle though; sometimes the parafilm is tricky to remove and you run the risk of damaging the graft. A sharp exacto knife helps in cutting it open for inspection purposes.

    Jeff

  • marinfla
    12 years ago

    I repotted my seedlings to slightly bigger containers to have them ready in the Spring for grafting. The two seedlings with multiple sprouts only have one root system and they are connected at the base of the stem. The interesting thing I noticed that the the seedling with the 4 sprouts had the best root system. The seedling with the 2 sprouts had the next best root system and all the single sprouts were about the same...nothing as impressive as the other two. (and P.S. of the 3 grafts I did... the side graft took and the two cleft grafts failed)

  • jsvand5
    12 years ago

    Bsbullie, I think you may have misunderstood what i meant. Unless I am mistaken, on polyembryotic seeds you are going to get one shoot that was produced through sexual reproduction and multiple asexual shoots. I was saying to cut off the red leafed one because it looks so different than the other shoots meaning that it is probably the sexually produced plant.

  • HU-470745234
    3 years ago


    My mango tree is sprouting 4


  • Sophia Lovasz
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    This is from one seed. What do I do with all of the stems?


  • Sophia Lovasz
    3 years ago


    what should I do with all of the stems?

  • mjr79
    3 years ago

    I'm in the same situation. 4 stems from one seed that I germinated.

    Never new this could happen. I think i will keep the strongest and cut the rest.

Sponsored
Cumberland Custom Homes
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars5 Reviews
Northern Virginia's Green Residential Builder & Renovator