Craigo198,

The moringa has a huge taproot and very little fibrous roots.

google for "AmberâÂÂs Edibles informational caresheet for Moringa (Moringa oleifera)"

Here is says that you can pinch the taproot to cause it to branch and stay small. I have never tried it. I have noticed that Moringa is somehow able to figure out the size of the container and will grow proportionally. The bigger the container (deeper is better), the bigger the tree. My 2 year trees growing 32 gallon thrash cans have the taproot the size of 2 basketballs..

xman

2 basketballs?!! that seems pretty big for 2 years

yep..2 basketballs placed one below the other..it took 2 people to carry the tree and place it into the new container.

But if the tree did not have an ideal environment to grow, like the one I had in a 18 gallon container with Miracle gro soil, that had root just the size of a football after 2 years.

xman

I have the largest planter home depot had. Im not sure the size. probably 18gal like you had.

They like deeper pots than wider. I have mine planted in those 32 gallon Rubbermaid trash cans. Very stable, but very heavy moving it in and out of the garage during winter.
Need to get a large dolly this year, almost threw by back a couple of times dragging these. This is the second year the trees are in this container, last year they got to over 18 - 20 feet tall.

{{gwi:384704}}

xman

looks good (although were leaves just harvested in this pic?) Also most people cut down their trees to harvest and just leave a 2 ft trunk in the ground to grow back again. maybe this will force it to grow bushier.

These trees just came out of the garage a couple of weeks ago. We go down to 12 - 15 F where I live, so these trees go into the garage for the winter months. They have just started leafing out, that is why they are sparse. These 4 trees are only for pods, so I do not cut leaves from these. I have other Moringa trees that I keep for the leaves, these are bushier and are kept to 6 feet tall.

These are the pictures of these trees from last year

{{gwi:384357}}

{{gwi:384359}}

{{gwi:384361}}

{{gwi:384363}}

xman

very nice and I understand now. lots of nutrition in those pics...hope to be looking like yours in a year or so.

nice... looks really healthy and happy.

Well its winter time here in south florida and pretty warm for the most part. My plants are not looking to healthy. lots of yellow leaves and not too many green ones. Even the darker green leaves are wrinkly with white crack looking lines in the leaf. Ive been grinding up egg shells and putting them on top of the soil because I read yellow could mean not enough magnesium. Maybe I just need to water more often as I go sometimes 5 days or more not watering.

i see some webs on there so maybe I have the dreaded spidermites as well.

xman - how old are the trees shown outside the red brick house? When did they start producing seed pods? Suer looks like you have some good seed pod production now! Thanks for posting the pictures!

Mark,

My trees were grown from seed end of March 2012, so they were about a year and a half when those picture were taken. You can see the pictures from when they were smaller in this thread.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1726235/plant-moringa-olifeira-from-seed-cutting?n=59

Regards,

xman

xman,

I'm guessing you planted the PKM1 seeds?

Hi Mark,

I tried the PKM1, but never had any luck with it. I still have 2 trees of the PKM1 variety that I grew from seeds, these trees are over 5 years old, and I just got a few pods last year. I have read good things about the PKM1, so I think I may have gotten a bad batch or something.

My trees are some generic variety that somebody initially got from India, I was able to get 4 seeds from that person through an online forum. Those 4 seeds are the 4 trees that are about 4 years old now. I planted quite a few in the ground a couple of years ago, but none made it through the Texas winter.

I am planning to plant my 4 trees in the ground next year, as they have outgrown their 32 gallon containers, and I do not want to drag anything larger into the garage every year. Hopefully I can build a mini greenhouse around them, maybe something like this.

http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/growing-moringa-q-yields-maturity-fros/

We get down to 15F, so not sure if this will be enough.

Regards,

xman

I have a 1 year old tree that is 10 ft tall.