About 2 months ago I bought a box of Ataulfo mangoes from my local 99 Ranch market for the specific purpose of planting their seeds and grafting onto them later. I much prefer the Indian style mangoes, but I've been told that Manila rootstocks work better in California.
I put more than a dozen into various pots and/or jars of water, on my counter on a heat mat, outside in the open, and outside in a little greenhouse, and after 2 months I have only two surviving seedlings, both doubles. One of them has a 4" primary that looks pretty good, but its fraternal twin has only one leaf:
The second seedling is a pair currently less than an inch tall, but otherwise looks pretty good (I'll post a photo tomorrow, when it's light).
The other 10+ seeds either failed to come up at all, or else sent up a shoot that stalled or died. Here's what those look like:
I had 4-5 of these come up with two tiny leaflets that never grew, and then the whole thing withered, turned black, and died.
I tossed out all of these dead ones today, and most of them had 4-5" of roots going down, and when I broke the seeds apart I could often see shoots with leaves curled up inside.
Is this a common problem with polyembryonic seeds? Or did I not wait long enough? Or am I just doing this at the wrong time of year? Or am I doing something else wrong?
I put another 8 seeds in the dirt today . . . .