Recently, our second-year Agro-Ecology students at the Agricultural Training Center (ATC) learned how to always have new mango trees for their gardens and the community, as Wilner taught them about our mango project at the Edible Plant Nursery.

Our goal is to have many more mango trees planted around Love A Child to provide more fruit for the children and staff. The students worked with Wilner and his ATC staff to plant 10 new young mango trees.

Planting new mango trees in itself is not such a big thing. We do it from time to time. But in this case, it is very special because these trees were all started from our own seeds from the first mango trees we planted at the ATC.

When we harvested the first fruits last year, we ate the fruit and planted the seeds. Once the seedlings sprouted, we selected the best and most robust seedlings to use as our rootstock, then grafted them with stems, called scions, from our known good trees.

We also made our own special soil at the ATC because the natural soil around the center is too alkaline to produce the best mango trees. We improved the soil by adding a slurry of biochar, crushed eggshells, and water. We put some of the soil amendment slurry behind each plant after adding rich compost.

In 2 to 3 years, we will have 10 more mango trees providing delicious fresh fruit. The students learned a valuable lesson about the cycle of life in our gardens.

Thank you to everyone supporting our Development for Sustainability programs, because your gifts allow us to plant today for a better tomorrow. Together, we are changing lives for generations to come.

Rad Hazelip, Assistant Executive Director