Growing Trees from Seeds: Advantages
In our Magetan garden, many trees grow from seeds — mangoes, durians, avocados, sapotes. This contradicts traditional nursery advice to plant grafted saplings. But after several years, we’re convinced: for our gardening philosophy, seeds are the better choice.
Lazy Gardening Philosophy
We embrace lazy farming, permaculture, and the food forest concept — an edible forest where trees grow naturally, as in the wild. We’re not into intensive gardening with weekly fertilizing and spraying. Our garden is a place where you walk barefoot, pick ripe mangoes straight from branches, and feel like Adam and Eve in Eden. Minimal maintenance is our goal.
Our planting technology
We sow the seeds in containers near the house, where they are easy to monitor. When the rainy season begins (November), we transplant the grown seedlings into the garden, first mixing the soil with neem leaf powder—a natural termite and pest repellent. During the six months of the wet season, the trees develop a strong root system. By the start of the dry season, their roots have reached deep soil layers where moisture is always available. This eliminates the need for regular watering.
Advantages of Seed-Grown Trees
Trees grown from seeds are remarkably resilient. They withstand Indonesia’s dry season droughts, termite attacks, strong winds, and torrential tropical rains. Their root systems develop powerfully and deeply — crucial on our steep slope, where roots prevent erosion and landslides.
Grafted saplings, by contrast, are often finicky. Their roots are weaker, they require regular watering and fertilizing, and get sick more frequently. Long-term, seed-grown trees need far less attention.
What About Harvest Time?
The only argument against seeds is supposedly long wait times for fruiting. But practically, the difference is minimal. Avocado from seed fruits in year 4-5, grafted in year 3. Just one or two years difference! During this time, the seed-grown tree develops robust roots that ensure abundant harvests for decades.
Mango from seed may flower in year 5-7, but such a tree lives 50-100 years, requiring virtually no care. Grafted produces fruit earlier but often dies from disease or weak roots after just 10-15 years.
Our Choice
We’re not against grafted saplings in principle and we have a lot of such trees also. For those, who wants quick results and willing to maintain them, grafted trees are excellent choice. But for food forests, where the goal is creating self-sustaining ecosystems, seed-grown trees are irreplaceable. They’re stronger, healthier, and closer to nature.
In 10 years, our garden will become a true edible forest where trees fruit independently, without our intervention. And that’s worth waiting for.