🌳 Moringa Trees are wonderful in many ways, My interest in their drought-resistant nature led me to find some local seeds and give them a try.
I took some searching but finally found a grower willing to sell some seeds, most people only sold small plants at $3 each or more. 1 Person even wanted $12 !
Seeds were $10 for a pack of 50, so I purchased 2 and my Moringa tree experiment was started...A couple bags of potting soil and 100 styrofoam cups rounded out the supplies.
2-3 Days later I had near 100% success rate as sprouts broke the surface and started to grow fast, So would soon need to find a permanent home.
🌳 Moringas have a tap root that goes deep into the soil, But we live on a hill and don't have deep soil, So I found some of the best spots available and created some planting zones.
Within a couple of months it was apparent they were not going to flourish here, But were growing at a slower rate and didn't die even during long droughts.
Good enough for me, I would just let them grow wild ( no trimming ), Do the best they could and eventually offer me some seeds to try in other locations.
🐜 Along came the Ants to even take that away from me! I did a blog on Ants a while ago and will put a link below so I'm not repeating myself here. Leaf Cutters make short work of a Moringa tree and can strip it to the bone in 1 night ! 🐜
🐜Above photos Courtesy of Leafcutter ants Wikipedia 🐜
🌳Moringa trees have it even worse than most trees because the wood is very soft so a group of ants will chew off entire branches that fall to the ground, then stripped leaf by leaf and carried off by the ants waiting below. Saving tons of time and climbing, leaving total devastation.
🌿 Luckily Moringas can bounce back from this, or even being cut right down a few times before they die, The picture below shows the last straw for 1 group. RIP 🌿
🐜🌳 A bit of a shame but this area is a good area for other plants like the Yuka to the right, which I'll be harvesting soon complete with a blog on harvest, replanting, cleaning, and cooking...Yum.
I still have a larger Moringa patch with 1 tree near 30 feet tall and have harvested some seeds from all groups last year. But no more planting on our farm.
🌿 My Mother-in-law took one young plant in a cup home, didn't even plant it, just put the cup on the ground with other plants and a year and a half later was over 20 feet tall, a massive trunk and full of seeds, even though it was broke off when 6 feet tall. Location and soil make a huge difference.
Now as promised my old ant blog Ants ! - Fascinating, Frustrating & Mass-Murder !
Plus a short Youtube on Leaf-cutter Ants - Science Nation -
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