Composting Mangoes

Over 2,500 varieties of Mango are grown throughout the tropics and these give us  a delicious tropical fruit. Mangos once eaten provide the composter with the peel and seed to add to the compost bin.  Any  Mango flesh not eaten will breakdown  quickly when added to the  bin, or wormery. Peel will be decomposed more slowly but will rot more quickly if  cut it into thin strips before adding to the bin or the complete skin can be added along with other kitchen waste.

However, if significant quantities of mango peel are to be composted  a hot composting system is recommended using fresh cow dung (3:1 ratio) and 2.5% Urea dissolved in water. The compost bin is every three or four days and should be ready in about a month. The compost may need soaking when turned to  moisture level of about 50%.  

The mango seed can be composted but this will take a longer to compost and, like eggshells,  will   not be decomposed the first time it passes through  a cold composting system.  These seeds can take years to decompose in the compost bin,  it is just a case of putting them back  into the bin for another year or two when harvesting the compost.  However, you might find that they germinate in a cold compost heap and can be transplanted to provide you own tree (or orchard). Soaking  the seeds in boiling water is recommended as this will  speed up the decomposition process and prevent germination in the bin.

Leaves from Mango trees can be composted in the normal way and are suitable for vermiculture. The dried leaves can also been ground with a pestle and mortar or a shredder  and used as an organic fertiliser/mulch.

I have found one reference (not in a scientific paper) that states that Mango leaves contain terpenes that inhibit the growth of other plants, but this should evaporate/breakdown as the leaves dry or are composted   

 

 

Comments

14.08.2021 04:30

Toni

How do breakdown at leaves 1000 at least in a long back garden bed

12.06.2021 08:34

shaila

Good information

23.01.2020 18:36

Dave

Thank you for the information may be it will be beneficial for me