Yes I have grown mine from a very small plant. In fact it may have been a seedling, it was small.

The part about being nutritious is that for 3rd world countries it can provide nutrition to stay alive and needs no high maintenance with chemicals or water.

I've tried eating the leaves raw, not thrilling. In soups, you need to just use the leaves and not the stems which don't break down, taste is just OK, not bad, not great.

Then there's the "drumsticks" which are the seed pods. This is the first year my tree had them and I haven't cooked them yet. Have to find a recipe and the courage to serve it to the spouse. Will report back.

It's a pretty, airy tree that the bees and wasps love for it's blossoms so I'm happy to have it. I have seeds if anyone want to try growing it but they will need a padded envelope and it might be cheaper to buy them from ECHO than SASBE to me (counting postage both ways I mean).

moringa blossom
{{!gwi}}

Denise

I grew it for years, and literally ignored it, and it still survived. Then one of my tenants adopted it and actually cared for it and it thrived. The leaves and drumsticks are delicious.

I'm going to try it again, if I can get some seeds from imagardener.

I am growing one from seed. Started it about 1 year ago and it is now.. maybe 8 ft tall.

From my own experience, it will survive drought and poor soil conditions but won't grow much. Mine survived this past winter, all leaves died leaving only the trunk (more like a stick) and recovered soon after

I eat the leaves mixed in salads but my tree has not yet produced flowers.. so I will have to wait and see...

The only advice I can give is that you need to cut the trunk once in a while to encourage branching otherwise you will have a very tall but thin tree..

Fabio

I have a grouping of moringa plants. I let a couple of them grow naturally just to see what they do. I started the seeds in April. The uncut trees (6 months old) are about 10 feet. My moringa book says that they can grow 15 feet a year. Yes, they surely can. I let most of them grow a little tall, cut them back to about 3 1/2 feet and then harvest the leaves to put in the dehydrator. The dried leaves are considered a nutritional supplement.

I'm glad that Denise showed what the flowers look like. They are prettier than I expected.

Christine

Thanks for the info!

Oh, Christine! I wish I had seen yours when I was picking up the banana pups! Thank you again for them, they have taken off!

I would like to know what is the best method to sprout the seeds. I have ordered some seeds and waiting for it to arrive.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot

Sprouting moringa seeds: soak in water 24 hours! They have a very hard outer coating which takes time to soften. After planting be patient. They took a couple of weeks to sprout when I planted them in the spring. They like the hot weather so now is really the best time to start them. Ooops, you are in zone 5. Well, be sure to keep them warm. Better yet, you may want to save the seeds until next spring. I found the germination rate to be low.

Denise---After seeing your picture of the flowers I looked at my plants and sure enough, one plant was in bloom 10 feet up in the air so I didn't notice it.

Christine

Christine,

Thanks a lot for the info. I can keep it near heating vent so it will stay warm. Hope I'll be able to see some sprouts.

I sprouted many bitter melon, eggplant and other seeds keeping near heating vent so it should work. btw here is the site which describes about sprouting bitter melon seeds.

My moringa trees froze to the ground this past winter and are only just now starting to send up a shoot.

Mine also looked dead but has sprouted a LOT at the lower level up to 8' now. Are these called "water sprouts"? The rest of the tree is still dead and needs to be cut off.

imagardener --- I can't imagine why they would be called "water sprouts". I would just call them a shoot. The dead wood does need to be removed as soon as possible because it will help the new shoot to grow without the dead wood in the way.

thanks happy
I've been looking at the dead branches, too lazy to get the saw out :-)
They're really high up so ladder needed also.

I was so excited to be given a Moringa tree as a gift. It was tiny, and although I read about how fast they grow, mine hasn't grown at all. It's been over 6 months. I thought maybe it was rootbound in a small pot, so I transplanted to a larger pot with good potting soil. It lost all its leaves and it's just a sad little stalk now.

I read that it likes to dry out between waterings, so maybe I'm not giving it enough. Maybe it wants to be in the ground? I had it inside during the cold, but have moved it to outside now that we're warmer. Any suggestions for my little plant?

My son brought one home from ECHO last weekend a d all the leaves have yellowed and fallen. Almost all anyway. I'm hoping it is just due go the foot of rain over the last few days and trying to keep it well-drained.

I have one in a big pot and it just completely broke through the bottom of the pot. It wants to be in the ground and it wants to get huge! I am in zn 9a so I would prob have to either dig it up or sink the pot and sever the roots and put in the greenhouse in the winter like I do the sausage trees. This past winter it stayed in the gh in its pot.

I have had it for years, planted seeds from ECHO--wood is very soft and brittle--wind snapped top off of one tree and went through screen on pool cage. best to keep cut to a manageable height I dont think it is possible to kill it--have only had the seeds grow one year though, Cold kills it to ground but sprouts in spring