Mark Reese

Wow, what a great thread about Moringa! We are growing Moringa in Southern California and want to encourage more people from all over the country to grow Moringa! The good news is, even in colder climates, Moringa grows so fast that it can actually be planted as an annual in a garden - just like a vegetable. This is great news for people that live outside of the tropics–since you can still enjoy growing Moringa yourself! Just think of it as a vegetable and not a tree and you won't be disappointed! Start indoors and plant the seeds about 1.5 months before your last frost date. After your last frost date transplant the Moringa outside. One contact I have in Wisconsin gets 3-5 foot plants in his garden each year! I grew Moringa one summer in Charlotte, NC. I planted from seed outside at the start of July. Some trees reached over 6' tall by the time the cold weather came. If you plant 20 or so "trees" in your garden on 1.5 - 2.5 foot spacing you will have a nice little supply of your own leaves! Here is blog post about how fast our Moringa trees grew in 2015: How Fast Does Moringa Grow?. For more info about Moringa check out the website: A Healthy Leaf.

Pia, Wondering how your Moringa trees are doing after their first year? Did you encounter any issues with drainage or root rot where you planted them?

Nic,

Wondering if you decided on spacing for your Moringa trees yet? I have planted a over a thousand Moringa trees this year but did most of mine in an intensive planting. This video shows what the bed looks like after 1 season . Of course sounds like you want to space your trees out more like shown below. Traditional spacing for leaf production is 2.5 ft (0.75 m) within rows and 3 ft (1 m) between row and for seed pod production the recommended spacing is 8.2 ft x 8.2 ft (2.5 m x 2.5 m). I would think your idea of 3m apart sounds perfect! Check out this page on my website for growing moringa if you would like: How to Grow Moringa Trees. I'll be adding a lot more content to it in the near future.

Happy planting and I would love to hear an update from how this goes!
Mark

How did your Moringa trees do? Once established Moringa trees are drought tolerant. In order for normal growth and leaf production the tree should get at least 10in of rain a year. You will likely find that once your Moringa tree is established you don't need to water it. That being said, it will produce a lot more leaves and seed pods if you give it more water. The huarango tree sounds fascinating. I'll have to look that up.

Tim, did you ever plant Moringa? Wondering how it worked out for you.

Yes, I have seen rats and mice eat Moringa. In fact I had one seed send up 5 sprouts, one after the next, as each time a sprout would emerge a mouse would eat it! I couldn't believe how hard the seed was fighting to survive! Moringa is truly an amazing tree! For more info check out my website: www.ahealthyleaf.com

Happy Growing!

It is totally possible for a Moringa seed to send up multiple stems. Generally this happens when the plant thinks the first stem isn't going to survive. I have seen a seed send up 5 stems one after the other when a mouse or rat kept eating the new growth!

You can certainly cut down the 2nd stem but it will grow back as multiple stems if you do. If it is indeed two separate trees you can certainly dig it up and replant it elsewhere.


Cutting Moringa stems down to the ground is a technique used to encourage more growth and leaf production. For more information check out my website www.ahealthyleaf.com. Also you may find it helpful to watch some of my instructional videos on my youtube Chanel .