Separating poly seedlings with 12 sprouts. *Update*

[chris1]

During this season I started several seedlings so that by next year I would be able to experiment with grafting on to them. I have had several both poly and mono seeds with my Duncans being the most successful. I also have Glenn, Honey Kiss Cac, and Maha Chanok. One of the CAC seeds germinated and currently has 12 surviving sprouts coming up all about 6-8 inches tall. I was wondering if anyone has had this many come from one seed? Also will they have their own roots and be able to be separated and potted on their own? Lastly some of my other larger ones already seem like they are large enough to graft with but are still completely green. Do I need to wait until next year or is it possible to do it now? Thanks everyone.

[Future]

I’ve planted many polys and Cac routinely throws up the most.  I’ve seen as many as 18 and yes, as long as they aren’t fused stems, they will separate. Good luck.

[JakeFruit]

I gently dig them up and separate the healthy from the scraggly. It can be quite the puzzle, go slow and maybe dunk the bunch in some water a few times so you can clear away any soil and see exactly what you are working with. I discard any that don't have a (fairly) straight trunk to taproot line/formation. Many will have a U, S, or corkscrew shape at the trunk/root union, not an optimal pathway for the flow of nutrients, IMO.

[chris1]

Ok thanks guys. I’ll try it. Surprised me how many there were from one seed.

[chris1]

Update on this in case anyone was curious. I did separate them out. One clump of 4 was stuck together so I repotted those as one cluster. The others were easily separated. I put them all in their own pots and will see if they survive to next year so I can have more rootstock to practice grafting with. They were growing very slowly all together so hopefully with their own space they get big enough to be viable for next year.

[chris1]

Jake fruit and future or anyone else for that matter have you had success with Cac as rootstock or were you just growing them as seedling trees?

[JakeFruit]

Just seeing this. No Cac tree in my collection, my only poly seed experiences are with Turpentines. It looks like a few of those plants should do well, but I'd personally toss the runts (I usually have a lot of seedlings to work with). They'll never catch up to their siblings and are prone to irregular growth & disease (due to poorer health).

[shaneatwell]

Students of the mono versus poly debate will enjoy this paper

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262745393_Identification_of_zygotic_and_nucellar_seedlings_In_polyembryonic_mango_cultivars] [url]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262745393_Identification_of_zygotic_and_nucellar_seedlings_In_polyembryonic_mango_cultivars[/url]