Since Moringa is native to northwestern India and is tropical tree I will grow mine in container so that I can keep it indoors during the winter.
While gathering information about Moringa I read somewhere that 65-70 liter (17-18,50 gallon) container is best for growing Moringa indoors. The tree itself has deep root because in dry climate it has to go very deep to get to the water, that is why deeper container should be used.
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Moringa oleifera seed
First step is to soak seed 4-5 hours in warm water. During that time seed will soak in water and that little shriveled seed will increase it`s size 3 times. Some seed may sink some may stay floating - if they float that does not mean that they are no good. Reason for floating could be that they haven`t soaked enough water so they are light or they have some free space filled with air inside outer coat...Do not throw them away!
24.03.2013.
Presentation about Moringa posted with written permission of author Beth Adams Doerr, originally available at ECHO Community:
LINK - very interesting pdf presentation made by Beth Adams Doerr that sums up what Moringa is and how it can be used. Thanks to the author! :)
| Basic information about Moringa taken from ECHO plant information sheet. |
| [...]
USES –
Moringa has a variety of uses. Its leaves, flowers, and pods are a food
source for humans and animals. The flowers are a good nectar source for
honey, and the seeds are a rich oil source for cooking and lubricant
uses. The roots are a source of a spice resembling horseradish, and many
parts of the plant have been used in medicinal preparations. Whole
plants have been used as living hedges, fences, and windbreaks. The wood
is very soft; useful for paper but makes low-grade firewood and poor
charcoal. Attracting attention in recent decades is the use of the
dried, crushed seeds as a coagulant similar to the chemical alum. Even
very muddy water can be cleared when crushed seeds are added. Solid
matter and some bacteria will coagulate and then sink to the bottom of a
container. The cleaned water can then be poured off and boiled. Use 100
milligrams (about 1 to 1 ½ seeds) of crushed seed to clean 1 liter (1
quart) of muddy water. A Filipino handbook claims Moringa leaves worked
into a seedbed 1 week prior to seeding inhibits damping-off fungi. Fresh
leaves are a nutritious animal fodder.
from cuttings. Plant seeds 2 cm (1 in) deep; keep the
CULTIVATION – Moringa is grown from seeds or from cuttings. Plant seeds 2 cm (1 in) deep; keep the soil moist after planting. Sprouting occurs normally in 1-2 weeks or in as quickly as 3-4 days in organically rich seedbeds. Seedlings grow rapidly, reaching 3-5 m (9-15 ft) in one growing season. Cutting off the tops of the trees to a height of 1-1.5 m (3-4.5 ft) encourages branching at lower stem positions, producing a living hedge if seedlings are thickly planted. Root 4-5 cm (1.2-2 in) diameter cuttings of branches, 1 m (3 ft) or more in length, in moist soil. In India, cuttings rooted in June may produce a tree with fruits by the following April. Moringa prefers well-drained soils and has high drought resistance. Moringa is not cold-tolerant; freezes will cause it to die back to ground level where new sprouts are produced.. PKM-1 is a bushy variety that is grown for both leaf and pod production. [...] |
Moringa oleifera seed
Seed is very lightweight. When I got it at first I thought it is empty because it was so light but when I cut one`s outer coat there was small shriveled seed inside.
Germinating seed
First step is to soak seed 4-5 hours in warm water. During that time seed will soak in water and that little shriveled seed will increase it`s size 3 times. Some seed may sink some may stay floating - if they float that does not mean that they are no good. Reason for floating could be that they haven`t soaked enough water so they are light or they have some free space filled with air inside outer coat...Do not throw them away!
After soaking, place the seed on a wet paper towel and into a plastic bag or in some container. Place them somewhere warm and open every day for few minutes to let the fresh air in. Make sure that paper towel is always wet. In few days seed will start to germinate and as that happens you need to put them into the soil.
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3 days later 6 out of 9 seed has germinated so it was time to plant it into the soil. I used mixture of store bought soil, garden soil and garden compost (1:1 ratio). Store bought soil will prevent water retention and other two soils will provide quality nutrients and keep just enough water. As for the seed itself, I never put it deep into the soil because that way seedling can more easily get out of the soil and start to develop.
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Few days later moringa is out. Soon it will turn green and develop leafs.On the right are moringas that I started to grow 3-4 weeks before the ones I`m writing about now.
24.05.2013.
It has been a long time since I wrote in this post :(. Didn`t have the time because there was a lot of plants that I had to plant. Still not finished but there is a lot less of them than before.
Moringa is growing nicely. Most of the time they grew in 1 liter (0,26 gal) container but the other day I transplanted them into the ground. Idea is to let them grow there until autumn and them 1 or 2 will be dug up and to the rest of them I`ll apply heavy mulching. Maybe, but only maybe they will survive the winter. There are 5 plants that are now growing in containers and they will stay there.
When transplanting Moringa into the ground I realized why people say that Moringa doesn`t like to be transplanted; root is very delicate and you can break it just by touching it. Don`t know about older plants but if you are going to transplant young Moringa be sure that you do it as carefully as you can. Plant does recover in 2-3 weeks but it you can avoid root damage you should.
I planted Moringa near water reservoir that I dug for rainwater collecting. The spot was empty and it soil is soft from digging so root will have no problems in finding cracks to crawl into. Since some plants are not straight I added branches to support them especially when it is windy.
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It has been a long time since I wrote updated this post. Most of them grew well but some gave me material and showed how resilient these wonderful plants are. So, here are some situations that they find themselves in:
One moringa lost its leafs and branches. Not sure what happened but they simply died off. So I thought that plant will wither completely and eventually die...that didn`t happen. After some time red dots appeared in places where branches grew and from that red dots new branches developed and plant recovered.
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| 06.07.2013. |
Moringa that was the biggest of them all and that grew like crazy developing new branches every few days was a victim of a mole. In her pursuit for the earthworms mole dug up the entire moringa. It was a sad thing to see but it enabled me to take some interesting photos of the root and keep track on how it regenerated (photos are a little bigger so that details can be seen much easier)
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That is about it for now. All moringas are alive and growing. Some are bigger and some smaller and all of them will go into containers before winter comes (for overwintering indoors).
03.11.2013.
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| Greenhouse |
From July to mid August we
had no rain so most of Moringas grew a little or did not grew at all. Because
of the cat accident with water reservoir that I build there was no water
for watering plants so all of them got very little water every several
days...jut enough to keep them alive until rain comes.
In August rain came and brought colder weather all plants began to grow again. But with rain much colder weather came that lastet throughout September and in the end brought frost on Ostober 5th and 6th. I was lucky enough to move all plants into a new greenhouse just before the frost came so there was no damage to them.
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In September 25-th I planted some more Moringa seeds. Idea is to grow them indoors until spring and then plant them outside into the field and test them against winter conditions during the winter 2014/2015. I know it is a tropical tree but since it regrows from the root there might be a chance for Moringa to survive winter and then grow again in spring 2015. Well, I can always try and see.
I would have done it with Moringas planted this year but I am afraid that they might be too young to survive the winter.
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Since in the greenhouse Moringas have ideal growth conditions one of them went step forward and started developing buds :). I was very surprised to seed that because they are so young. But then I remembered that this is PMK1 hybrid that is supposed to flower in 8-9 months. I guess that time is here. Seed was planted in March this year so...it is time to flower.
Although it is a nice news I am a bit worried because tree itself is not very big though it is the biggest and strongest of them all. Tree is only 100 cm || 39 in tall and the pods grow from 40-70 cm || 14-27 in long. Pods probably will not grow that big since tree is so small but time will show. Also, as soon as I saw flower buds growing I moved that Moringa into house-attached glasshouse because temperature variations there are more stabile.
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14.11.2013.
This is the photo of the biggest moringa which is going to flower. It is 115 cm || 3.77 ft tall (without container). It is a cloudy and colder weather so growth slowed down. When it is warm and sunny new branches are developing every few days. That is the fun part; it grows very fast.
Moringa on the photo below grew in the ground most of the year. After the frost all branches fell off so I dug it up and planted into container. 2 weeks later it started developing new branches.
7 comments:
Hi. I live in Lima, Peru.
I got moringa seeds fom South Peru.
In my experience, I found that soaking them in water in a close plastic container inside a black bag on top of the fridge, make them start sprouting in few days.
then, I planted them in nursery bags and water them every day -I live in the coastal desert. They develop very fast and in these stages they like water a lot.
When I placed them in the soil, they really have taken off and after 7-8 months they are putting out flowers and beans! they do very well if water is available.
Now, i am collecting leaves and let them dry in the shadow, then I use a handful and mix it with milk and banana in the blender or other fruit and have like a smoothie at breakfast and certainly I noticed an increment in my energy and wasnt craving anything before lunch.
I checked your work with moso bamboo, it is great! i just got some seeds few days ago.
guisella
@ Khitttisun
Thank you for the interesting information about moringa effect on your health. The reason I planted it is primarily because it is very good for health and it can replace artificial vitamins and minerals that people consume.
@Giusella
I love Peru! A friend of mine recently visited Peru and was overwhelmed! We sat for two hours watching photos from her trip.
Moringa does germinate very quickly and that is amazing. When I bought seed I thought it was empty because they are so light but in few days little plants started to develop and it was completely different story :)
WOW, flowers after only 7-8 months! That is really fast. I though they needed more time. Mine grew slowly and by now they are around 25 cm (10 inches) but recently I did notice that they started to grow much faster. Unfortunately I must keep them in containers because we have cold winters so they would die. Also, I thought they don`t like water so I appreciate the information you shared with me. :)
You will love moso! Germinate it on wet towel paper in a bag - it is the best way. I just got some more seed and when I get time I`ll do the same. If you can, try to get Guadua bamboo, it is wonderful! You are so lucky because you can grow tropical bamboos in your area!
I have been very busy lately because it is spring and ideal time to plant everything so I didn`t have time to update this post (and some other posts) but I`ll do it as soon as possible.
Thanks for your comments. really appreciate when someone loves plants. It was very touching to see your coffee plant among others.
Perhaps we can exchange some seeds in the future. I am looking to get Victoria regia seeds. Just got some Paulownia seeds few days ago and now I am searching to find the best way, there are tricks out there, like using potato flakes.
G.
Well, I think of them as my children and do try to care for them the bast way I can...but sometimes I fail :(.
I got this coffee almost 7 years ago and all this time I didn`t know that it can produce flowers in container. I found that out this winter and soon after it started to produce flower buds :). We are all excited about it and can`t wait for it to flower.
No problem. I can send you seed that I have. Soon I will try to set up additional page on this blog only for photos that are not related to any posts so there you`ll be able to see more of my plants.
Paulownia is very easy to germinate so There should be no problems with that. They usually germinate within 7 days of laying them on wet soil. Just make sure they do not dry out. I have around 150 of them indoors and they are about 2,5 cm (1 inch).
Coffee flowers are white, and beautiful and fragrant!, then it will produce a berry which will become red and you can taste it is sweet, the big seeds of coffee are inside.
My grandpa used to grow Coffea arabiga in Chanchamayo, Junin, Peru, and I grew up watching the whole process of picking the berries and peeling them with a simple machine, drying the coffee, nowadays we have this big problem of the roya, a fungus in here, which is becoming a worldwide problem.
watching your plant among others made me remember good times and home brewed coffee from the farm.
Awesome stuff. I like your website.
Last year, I grew some moringa here in California, and it did nicely. Your picture of the blossom reminded me of how happy I was when our trees bloomed, although no seedpods formed.
Growing moso and Jiaogulan as well as a bunch of other stuff.
Keep those stinkin cats out of the reservoir.
:)
Hello, thank you for putting this info up. It's hard finding this type of info on this tree. I was wondering if you could run through a few of your problems with healthy leaves, such as yellowing and any pest issues you struggled with. I have a small Moringa and am having yellowing of the leaves problem. Thanks so much for your dedication to the Moringa Diary.
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