Texas Gardening: Y'all hot yet?, 1 by goofybulb

goofybulb wrote:
Just thought I'd pop in with fruit seedlings I managed to sprout from fruits bought from the store: mango and pomegranates.

madrid2000, it's really easy to give your DH a pommegranate tree from seeds. Just follow these steps (you just have to wait for the cold season so they appear in stores);
1. buy a pommegranate (I did it in December, 2 for $5)
2. eat it, but do not throw away all seeds. If you buy it to squeeze the juice just take a few seeds that are intact. I made sure that the seeds I kept were as clean from the fruit pulp as possible, because of possible ant attack
3. the freshly collected seed are placed to germinate. I did so with mine 2 days after the eating process... My method is in seed starting soil, in a small container (espresso plastic cup), but I bet it works with the coffee filter as well.
4. keep in good light (no direct sun), moist soil/paper, and I think inside temps would do just fine (I did it outside, but December in Miami was still "shorts and T-shirts" time)
5. watch for the first sprout in about 5-10 days. I was really amazed to see that all seeds germinated (20 out of 20, by 3 weeks from putting them in the soil). I didn't keep all of them, just 3 strongest ones.
6. replant seedlings as you would do with any other.

This is how my pommegranate seedlings looked 2 months ago (pic a bit fuzzy). Now they are each about 1 ft tall. I am curious if they will fruit though... but I still have to wait to find out.

For the mango, I just stuck one pit in an empty pot (I think it was a 6"?) mid-March (again still in Miami, warm above 77 at night). Watered the pot every day if it didn't rain. It popped out in about 2 weeks. That one I left behind in Miami.

It was at least fun to try.
Alexandra