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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Mango Mono vs. Poly seed question
« on: July 14, 2019, 09:52:22 PM »
Yesterday I ate my first E-4/Sugarloaf (which was absolutely amazing, one of the 3 best mangos I have eaten this season). I have read that Sugarloaf is polyembryonic so I wanted to plant the seed. I let the seed husk dry out and opened it today.
First thing to note is that seed was extremely small. About the size of a quarter and very thin. It reminded me of a 'chicken tongue' mango seed (i.e. how a Sweetheart lychee makes aborted small shriveled seeds). This is similar to the experience that Simon has had with E-4 on the mono vs. ploy thread (see here: http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=12030.msg327034#msg327034 ). And so I would have thought that this was an aborted / non-viable mango seed based on the size .... except .... it already had a taproot with side roots forming and the main stem was already forming out of the seed. So this seed looks viable.
But here is the deal: there is only one embryo. It is clear as day that there are not multiple embryos that you see in a typical polyembryonic seed, which have very obvious divisions in the seed for the different embryos. Nor does there seem to be an amorphous mass of embryos without division. This is just a single (viable) tiny seed with a single tiny embryo.
So here is my question:
Assuming the E-4 is in fact a polyembryonic mango (which seems the case based on a few peoples observations) what are the chances that this small atrophied but viable seed (which clearly has only one embryo) is a clone? Do you think it is likely that this is a sexually produced embryo or is it more likely to be a cloned embryo?
I have already planted it so I am going to grow it out either way. But wanted to see what the consensus might be on this subject.
First thing to note is that seed was extremely small. About the size of a quarter and very thin. It reminded me of a 'chicken tongue' mango seed (i.e. how a Sweetheart lychee makes aborted small shriveled seeds). This is similar to the experience that Simon has had with E-4 on the mono vs. ploy thread (see here: http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=12030.msg327034#msg327034 ). And so I would have thought that this was an aborted / non-viable mango seed based on the size .... except .... it already had a taproot with side roots forming and the main stem was already forming out of the seed. So this seed looks viable.
But here is the deal: there is only one embryo. It is clear as day that there are not multiple embryos that you see in a typical polyembryonic seed, which have very obvious divisions in the seed for the different embryos. Nor does there seem to be an amorphous mass of embryos without division. This is just a single (viable) tiny seed with a single tiny embryo.
So here is my question:
Assuming the E-4 is in fact a polyembryonic mango (which seems the case based on a few peoples observations) what are the chances that this small atrophied but viable seed (which clearly has only one embryo) is a clone? Do you think it is likely that this is a sexually produced embryo or is it more likely to be a cloned embryo?
I have already planted it so I am going to grow it out either way. But wanted to see what the consensus might be on this subject.