When your livelihood depends on plants, nitrogen is an obsession. A little nitrogen can make all the difference between a sapling that barely hangs on year after year and a vigorous, healthy tree that strikes its roots deep and firmly into the ground and bears abundantly year after year. So it's no wonder that a lot of people ask if Moringa can fix nitrogen. The short answer is no. If you want my random speculation on why so many people seem to think it does fix nitrogen, and why it would be so nice if it could, then read on.
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That brilliant man, Balbir Mathur, of Trees for Life, says "do you avoid planting a tree just because you know that it will be attacked by bugs?" Whether it's a metaphor or a real tree, of course we go ahead! In January 2014, here at the International Moringa Germplasm Collection, we have spider mites. Spider mites are very fond of moringas, especially when they get stressed. Sooner or later, most moringaphiles have to deal with these evil little creatures. Fortunately, as we will see below, treating them is easy.
No posts for a while as I have been working on the new shadehouse. Getting anything done in a remote little Mexican town takes a long time, but things are coming along and the moringas are loving the climate. Many moringa species stay very small for a long time, and need a very protected environment to keep them from getting stepped on, lost, or eaten by something. Even for medium-sized saplings of the larger species, it's very helpful to have a sanctuary. Leafcutter ants can set a small plant back with just one night's activity, not to mention marauding dogs, coatimundi, kids, or the village drunk nesting for the night. The shadehouse is located on a hillside so will get maximal light, even as the trees below grow. It is about three by nine meters and has a bed of native soil for growing plants directly in the ground. Next, the benches and the beds!
I get a lot of emails of the “I live in Peoria/ Chihuahua/ Milan/ Melbourne and I want to plant a hectare of moringa, where can I buy seed?” variety. Moringa oleifera is a great plant, and of course everyone wants to grow one. So here are some posts about where, in general, it will and won’t grow. This first post is about where it will grow outside, and when I mean grow outside, I mean properly, not just hanging on or so-so. So-so is fine if you want a moringa tree to admire in your house or garden, but it won’t do if you are a farmer or if you need to grow enough moringas to meet your village’s oil or water coagulant needs, or need to make sure your children are getting enough protein. We can look at some tricks for growing moringas in marginal areas in a later post, but for now, this post is about Real Moringa Country, places where moringas can grow 8 meters in their first year, sweeten the air with cascades of cream flowers buzzing with bumblebees, have their branches bend to the ground under the weight of hundreds of fruits, and create cool green dappled shade where there was only hot dirt a few months ago.
Moringas grow fast when given the chance and put up with a lot in the meantime. Here is one story about Moringa drouhardii. I collected seed in southeastern Madagascar in 1997. I planted the seeds in 1998 in a greenhouse in California, while studying the way that moringa stem anatomy changes in development (see Olson and Rosell 2006 and Olson 2007). The plants would grow up to the ceiling so we would whack them back nearly to ground level every year (see the two photos below). After years and years of this treatment, the poor plants keep gamely growing back, but got a series of collars on the stem from the pruning scars. I took one such Moringa drouhardii to Mexico in 2006, after about 5 years of brutal pruning, and I kept it in my yard in Mexico City. Mexico City is at over 2000 meters above sea level. Moringa drouhardii survives there, but they are not happy. The plant leafed out every year and would grow about 5 cm. Finally, in 2010 I planted it in the ground here at sea level in Jalisco in September 2011. It was already a big fat tree 6 months later. These plants are now flowering and we hope for seed soon. We'll keep you posted.
![]() The Moringa longituba seeds planted on 12 September 2013 have all sprouted! Germination in all but M. drouhardii, M. hildebrandtii, and M. ovalifolia is cryptocotylar, that is, the cotyledons typically remain in the seed coat. As is usual in moringa germination, with plenty of bottom heat, a nice open potting mix, and pleny of water, these seeds all sprouted within a week. Below you can see that the first pair of leaves in Moringa longituba have three leaflets. Most tree moringas grow like crazy in height after germination. Not M. longituba. This species lives in an area with very little rain, which falls in two very short seasons. So when water is present, the plants sprout quickly, grow two or three leaves, and invest all the rest of their energies into growing a tuber. The leaves are short lived, and the plants die back to the tuber, riding out the dry season until the next rains fall. Let's wish these little guys well. |
AuthorDr. Mark E. Olson is a researcher at Mexico's national university and an expert on the biology of the genus Moringa Archives
November 2018
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