I have a couple pkm-1 plants in pots outside my travel trailer. They are just sticks now, but I’m hoping they wake up. Their little trunks are yellow though, so I’m not sure if they survived winter.
I have another one of their friends in my tt, and that one started putting out new leaves last Friday. It’s currently also a stick.
They all died back in November when they were neglected for three weeks. 
If the trunks are yellow any new growth probably wont do well at the trunk but should come back strong from the roots.
I had one like that last year and tried to grow the surviving buds on the yellowed trunk and they did grow for about a month but eventually it defaulted to the stronger growth coming from the roots and the yellowed stem fully died off.
How big are the ‘stick’ sized Pkm-1 s? I would describe my 1 year old dwarf as a ‘stick’ for sure… it’s pencil sized and about 10 inches tall. My mystery Moringa’s grow fairly large in one season, about on par with my okra size wise.
I’ll be curious to follow if the stx-1’s come back for you @JinTX! The seeds are expensive but worth it if they really would overwinter.
The tallest one that’s growing is ~14" tall. It had a small leaf nub, maybe 1/8" big, before I left to go home a week ago. The branch is nearly 6" long now.
The other little stick in that same pot looks like it’s going to sprout some of its own branches soon:
The other pot with a moringa (and other friends) in here also unexpectedly sprouted while I was gone:
I hope they come back from the roots. I’d be really stoked for that. I’m moving again next month, and I’m trying to decide if I want to keep them outside or move them back into my office. 
It’ll be really dry/windy outside where I’m going, so it might be more of a PITA to keep them watered enough with good-but-not-too-much sunlight. 
I usually let mine get pretty dry, they don’t usually mind. I water my potted moringa once in the spring when I first move them outside and just rely on rainfall until we hit upper 90’s-100+°F in summer.
If it’s under 90°F I wouldn’t worry about them drying out as long as the pots are not too small.
The pots are maybe 1-1.5 gallon. They’re fancy trash cans that I drilled holes in the bottom of. 
Wanted some nice looking “pots” for my office.
I’ll be in Eastern Colorado this summer, so it’ll be hot, dry, and breezy.
I think they will definitely need to be potted up to at least 5gal eventually. There seems a lot of variation in growth rate, but most of mine have gotten to at least 5’ tall with my larger trees reaching around 8’-10’. Trunks average about 1" diameter. They grow fast with warmer weather.
You may have to stake them or weigh the pots down if its too windy, but hot and dry sounds like great growing conditions for moringa.
You could also just try to keep them heavily pruned, but I still think they’d likely become quickly root-bound in pots that size.
Yeah, I didn’t expect all of them to survive thus far. Living a semi-nomadic life with work on the road and home across the country means I don’t necessarily want all my moringa trees to get huge. If the ones currently outside don’t come back from the roots, that’s kinda great because then I’d only have 3 moringas to put in larger pots vs 6 or 7. I may try to find medium-sized grow bags that I could put them in so they air prune the roots but keep them fed/watered and give a little space to expand.
Have you found any grow medium to be better/worse for them? Drainage desires? They’re currently in Pro-mix, but when I pot up I was considering mixing in sand/perlite for drainage/lighter weight.
Well if they do grow and you end up with too many I’m sure it would not be difficult to find people to gift them to, or even sell them.
Down here the Mexican and Indian communities are very familiar with moringa for cooking and medicine.
I originally used a cactus mix in my large pots and have added a little compost in top each year.
My soil type is a heavy black clay and they grew fine in that so they are very adaptable.
This is a super interesting conversation! I got Moringa seeds from David the Good’s (youtube) daughter’s etsy store and I’ve got all the seeds started in flats. I plan to put them out one in each garden bed (I’ve got a slew of beds of various sizes). We had a low of 14’F this month, though it seems the cold is done for this winter. My plan is to put woodchips or leaves thickly around the trees when a freeze is coming, though last year, 2024, we didn’t get our first freeze until late Dec, and nothing very cold until Jan 2025.
Right now I’m mostly impressed with the Texas Laurel Trees I started from seed from a friend. Due to my negligence, they, with a few other plants, were outside in pots over that cold night, but it didn’t seem to phase them at all. Kinda crazy in my mind, esp as I don’t like being cold at all. Yep, good Texas girl here.
DTG is the reason I decided to grow Moringa in the first place. I hope to also be updating on my Moringa plants soon.
I think we are done with any freezing temps here also. Still a little chilly at night so I am waiting to move my potted Moringa out.
I’m excited to see how the in-ground plants do.
Texas Mountain Laurels are much more cold hardy than most resources say.
About 5 years ago I grew over 100 seedlings from seed I had collected around North and Central Texas. I had them in one gallon pots and left them outside through the following winters letting them endure whatever temperatures we received.
Each year a few more would die off (I think I actually lost more to being weakened by heat/drought in summer than the winter cold alone) until eventually I only had a few plants left surviving and hopefully selected for the most cold hardiness.
Now I have them potted up into 5 gal and I do bring them in if we get below 20°F, but my point is they all were growing in 1 gal pot through each winter totally exposed and they survived. I know they have some mature trees survive in southern Oklahoma also.
I think they can be a solid zone 7 tree if grown from the right genetics and may be able to be selected and adapted even hardier.
Just a quick update on my potted moringa. I decided to move them outside last weekend.
During the week we have had a low temp of 39°F and many nights in the low 40’s.
Each tree had a few inches of new growth which was all yellow due to being in the garage all winter. (I had topped them at around 7.5 feet to be able to fit them inside)
The new growth has handled the low temps really well. It is much greener and they all appear healthy.
I am very hopeful to see new growth from my Moringa concanensis seedling from last year, which was planted in the larger pot.
And also to see how the in ground plants are doing.
We are just starting to see other plants breaking dormancy. Daffodils are blooming, a few grape hyacinths have popped up, and buds on many plants are swelling.
Here is a photo of the potted Moringas. I didn’t have time to get a ladder out so I had to stand on my truck bumper to get high enough, but it shows some of the new growth.
I already have some flower buds on at least one of the potted moringas, so I think there is a very good chance of getting seeds this year!
After being in the 50°-80° range we had a cold front come through which knocked our low temps back down to 36°F and the plants (and flower buds) seem fine. Should be back to all warmer temps going forward.
Still waiting for any of the in ground plants to pop up.
No such luck for me.
My moringa froze back all the way to the ground.
I have hopes that it will come back, but nothing yet.
Same for me. No signs of my Moringa stenopetala seedlings coming back yet. But . . . if they do manage to . . . that would be amazing!
Of course, it’s not even our average last frost date yet (that’s next week), so I wouldn’t expect them to be active this soon, even if they are still alive. Here’s hoping! 
The potted moringas I had outside didn’t make it over the winter. The three I had indoors are still growing. The biggest one is still doing well, though it’s growing a bit sideways. Its pot companion is alive and well. The other potted cousin is still toying with the idea of whether life is worth living. I try to convince it that yes, it’s probably worth it, but we haven’t really settled on a good “why” for it. 
I’m sure all the heat and sunshine here in AZ has it reconsidering life throughout the day.
Some of mine with thinner stems grow sideways like that. They get top heavy with new growth.
It’s really strange how some of them will grow tall and sturdy with 1" diameter trunks in their first year while others end up pencil thin and flimsy.
Almost all of my potted plants are flowering now so I’m really excited for potential pods this year.
Still waiting and hoping for my in ground plants. And my little M. concanensis from last year has not come back but I dug down a little and the root is still there and doesn’t seem to have any rot so maybe it will pop up.
Yep, it’s a little thicker than a pencil, but growing from the top of last year’s trunk top heavy and leaning. I’ll take new pictures when I get home later.
Exciting to see flowers! 
