Indian horticulturalists Kaleem Ullah Khan has created 300 new types of mangoes using his 120+-year-old mango tree. By grafting hundreds of shoots and scions together to make hundreds of new mango trees, Khan has created something that, in his words, is a “… a tree, an orchard, and most importantly [a] college for the world’s mangos.”
Born in Malihabad in 1940, and raised by his father, who also ran the tree nursery, Khan’s love for mangoes began when he ran away to his grandmother’s village with a basket of mangoes to avoid being beaten for failing 7th grade for the second time. As the New York Times puts it, “That was the beginning of the son’s life of experimenting with the fruit: crossbreeding, grafting branches, growing new saplings.”
The most simple way to crossbreed plants is via grafting. This method joins together the tissues of two different plants, usually to combine the two good qualities of the two grafted plants. For example, if you have a tomato plant with bad roots but good fruit, and another tomato plant with great roots but bad fruit, grafting the two together would allow you to create a tomato plant with good roots and good fruit. The two main parts are the shoot/stock and the scion. The shoot/stock forms the part of the plant that attaches to the roots, while the scion is similar to a branch.
Now aged 82 and having won the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award in 2008, Mr. Khan is now dedicating the remainder of his life to proving that extracts from the mango flower and mango tree sap can be used as a panacea for all sorts of diseases. The world of the mango is forever changed by Mr. Khan’s touch.
Original Article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656875766198x991431403880547600/%E2%80%98Mango%20Man%E2%80%99%20Is%20the%20Fruit%E2%80%99s%20Foremost%20Poet%2C%20Philosopher%2C%20Fan%20and%20Scientist%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
Born in Malihabad in 1940, and raised by his father, who also ran the tree nursery, Khan’s love for mangoes began when he ran away to his grandmother’s village with a basket of mangoes to avoid being beaten for failing 7th grade for the second time. As the New York Times puts it, “That was the beginning of the son’s life of experimenting with the fruit: crossbreeding, grafting branches, growing new saplings.”
The most simple way to crossbreed plants is via grafting. This method joins together the tissues of two different plants, usually to combine the two good qualities of the two grafted plants. For example, if you have a tomato plant with bad roots but good fruit, and another tomato plant with great roots but bad fruit, grafting the two together would allow you to create a tomato plant with good roots and good fruit. The two main parts are the shoot/stock and the scion. The shoot/stock forms the part of the plant that attaches to the roots, while the scion is similar to a branch.
Now aged 82 and having won the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award in 2008, Mr. Khan is now dedicating the remainder of his life to proving that extracts from the mango flower and mango tree sap can be used as a panacea for all sorts of diseases. The world of the mango is forever changed by Mr. Khan’s touch.
Original Article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656875766198x991431403880547600/%E2%80%98Mango%20Man%E2%80%99%20Is%20the%20Fruit%E2%80%99s%20Foremost%20Poet%2C%20Philosopher%2C%20Fan%20and%20Scientist%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
