Mango Sprouting How-To, Part 1

OK... here's how to sprout your very own authentic mango tree!

No, I have never done this before. And yes, the last one I tried failed miserably.
But here we go again.

First, ignore my huge zit. Ew. I am finding it difficult. Let's move on, shall we!

Here's the pit of a mango, scraped sort-of clean and left for a couple of days in a well-ventilated place to dry out a bit. This is the PIT of the fruit, but not the SEED of the plant. The seed is inside the HUSK of the pit. All these technical terms - aren't I brilliant?

Look all around the edge of the pit to find the ideal spot to work in a butter knife - NOT a sharp pointy knife, or you could hurt yourself or the seed, which is actually kind of soft. I'm told this bit is like shucking oysters. Basically, you find a small gappish bit where the knife almost sort of kind of wants to go in. Then, you wiggle the knife a bit to enlarge the opening, until you feel the husk ready to crack open.

...And there it is, CRAAAAaack!

The seed will just slip out of the husk once it's open. Notice the seed itself is surrounded by a papery coating. You can safely remove the coating.

Now, here are all three components: husk, seed, papery coating. You can compost everything but the seed at this point.

Fascinating, right?

Read on in Part Two here.