I wound up buying seeds from an Etsy seller instead because it was a little bit cheaper, and the Etsy seller had a germination rate in the listing and good reviews. Here’s the listing I bought:
If I wind up deciding I’ve had enough success with Moringa stenopetala to want to try more accessions of it next year, I’ll likely go and get some from the Sustainable Resources website.
Moringa stenopetala is a different species from Moringa oleferia, the most commonly eaten species. The leaves are bigger, taste better, and the trees are extremely drought tolerant. So drought tolerant, in fact, that they can’t handle humid air. Sounds like a perfect fit for my needs!
Other than it being a zone 10 tree, of course . . . but that’s what my greenhouse is for, right?
oh WOW! Other Species of Moringa are also edible! Thank you for bringing this up. How does it taste better & not get cultivated/sold for food? Also it’s called Cabbage Tree? is it less spicy than the typical Moringa?
Will you grow it like an annual to enjoy it’s leaves or use greenhouse to get seeds? Maybe both?
How do you plan on Crossing Moringa? (In other words, how long in greenhouse before it flowers?)
I found Moringa Seeds for $1.99 at the Indian Grocery Store. They taste great. I’ve also planted lots!
Now compare that price with the ones sold in the Asian Grocery Store & you can see why I bought them from Indain Grocery Store. That being said, it’s not lot the asian one is a uniquely different variety right?
My suspicion is that Moringa oleferia is grown more often because it can handle humid climates, and Moringa stenopetala can’t. It wants dry air. That implies Moringa oleferia can be grown in more places.
But since Moringa stenopetala is better for flavor and productivity (bigger leaves), it looks to me like it’s probably an obviously better choice for an arid climate.
I’m not currently planning to do a multi-species cross, though that might change if they both happen to flower in the same year.
As for keeping it alive through the winter, there are two things I want to try:
a) Direct sowing the seed right next to my house, so the roots will have extra warmth in winter. Right before the first frost, cut off the whole top and mulch the roots really, really well. Hopefully, it will regrow from the roots in spring.
b) Chopping the top into cuttings, and rooting them in pots in my greenhouse all winter. (Grin.)
There is no way I can keep the top of the tree alive in the winter, unless it’s in a greenhouse. But there’s a possibility I can keep the roots alive under mulch. So I’ll try that.
I’m not sure yet if it’ll be possible to get them to bear seeds for me. I may need to treat moringa as a dieback perennial that is effectively sterile in my climate, because it would need several years of uninterrupted growth before starting to flower and make pods. But if I can get them to make pods and start growing them like an annual, hot dog!
I’ve heard Pruning really influences the Hormonal Balances thus can help Moringa get in the right hormonal balance to flower, Perhaps that’s how you get seeds?
Or taking a Cutting, rooting it & bringint that inside, Than Grafting it onto a new shoots of Moringa?
For most fruit trees, the more sunlight hits the branches, the more they fruit/flower.
I have no idea, not having grown moringa yet, but that sounds like something to test and see!
Has anyone here grown moringa? In particular, has anyone been able to get it to make seeds within, say, about six months of growing back from overwintered roots?
(Or from seed. Going from seed to seed within six months would be awesome.)
Indeed it would! Perhaps we can landrace it to do so? It’s a fast growing tree after all, often reaching 3 meters in a growing season (Surely that should be enough energy to make a few seeds right? It should take roughly 8 months for pod developement meaning quite do-able if started early in greenhouse or from cuttings. Zone pushers also have some good tips!
Moringa seeds can apparently last like forever if fully dry, that’s very nice to know! (Meaning don’t plant all seeds in 1 year)
I’ve planted Moringa seeds all over my neighborhood so we will have to see when they germinate.
Yeah, landracing it to be able to grow as an annual sounds ideal! If a tree can produce lots of leaves and even just a few seeds (let’s say 2-10) within a year of being direct sown, we’ve got it.
I’d also be fine with it being a biennial, like some brassicas, as long as the roots can stay alive in my winter. But it would be ideal if it can go from seed to seed in one warm growing season. That would make breeding work move much more quickly, and it would make it easier for people in colder climates to play with adapting it for their space.
Speed Breeders have got onto that, pumping out multiple generations (Sometimes even 8 Generations in a year, depending on species) just by speed breeding them. Basically you make plant mature as fast as possible by Giving it 22-23 Hours of Light (Blue & Red LED to save Money) each day. This is why Veggies Grow SO HUGE in Alaska, cuz they get more sunlight hours during growing season.
If you could do speed breeding with Moringa, you might just make it happen, or at least get Hybrid seeds to start F1 Landrace with.
I’ve also planted Moringa Seeds & Unintentionally pulled most of my seedlings because I thought they were Dogbane or Milkweed. I think I have only 1 left oops. This is why it’s important to know what Moringa seedlings looks like ahead of time
Yes. I’ve accidentally pulled out seedlings because I thought they were weeds before, too. Not with moringa specifically, but with an awful lot of other species. This year, I tried sowing seeds of new-to-me species into pots through the winter, because even if they didn’t survive as transplants, I’d know what the tiny seedlings looked like. Some of them did survive; some didn’t. But it was pretty helpful.
Right now, I’m looking at these two sprouts in my back yard and wondering if they’re the nannyberries I planted, or maple seedlings. They have shorter cotyledons than I would expect from maple seedlings, but that doesn’t mean they’re not a seed from a weed-to-me tree that I got wood chips from. I’m leaving them alone because they might be plants I want, and I’m hoping that they won’t turn out to be weeds.
Huh! You know, if speed breeding works like that for moringa, that implies that people in Alaska may possibly be able to grow them from seed to seed, despite having such a short growing season. As long as there are fast-maturing varieties available that will consistently work as an annual further south. That would be hopeful for those living very far north!
Sounds like I should make a Weed/Garden Seedling ID Guide for this very purpose. Is this something you’d be interested in?
Take a Picture, I’d love to see & ID it for you.
Still it may require greenhouse at first, until I can get it used to growing outside. Well At least Greenhouse can be the seed producing station if it portects a mature tree.
But night season is also just as long, Speed breeding with lights can supplement for this.
I think a weed/garden seedling ID guide would be SUPER helpful! I bet a lot of people would benefit from it.
If you start one, I’ll try to remember to take pictures of my seedlings (both weed and deliberately planted) that I know the ID of, and include those in the thread!
OH YESSSS!!! I’ve been collecting Pictures of plants (I have about ~5000 Plant pictures saved up, waiting for an opportunity like this). Having permission to use your pictures would make this way much easier.
Perhaps we should make a separate thread for that while keeping this one Morgina focused.
@UnicornEmily@VeggieSavage I know this site has already been linked to by Emily and also by me, but this specific page has all the info yall are looking for:
It seems that root have a Pungent Horseradish like flavor? Maybe that’s where it gets the name “Horse Radish Tree”? Seems like it can be harmful in excess (Just like everything else at a certain point).
Ooh, that’s an interesting detail. Do bottle-type trunks tend to suffer more in cold damage?
I can easily see bottle-type trunks being more drought tolerant – succulents tend to have thicker leaves in order to store water, so I could see thicker trunks being used by plants in a similar way.
