Just bought two Moringa trees from a tree farm. Anyone else have this tree? It is suppose to be very healthy to eat the leaves.
It is a healthful tree in many areas of the world, all parts provide many needed nutrients. The leaves can be added to salads or cooked like spinach. It does get very tall but the recommendation is to keep it trimmed back to about 6 feet tall to make it bushier and easier to harvest the leaves from. The bean pods are edible too but can be bitter after the first year so many people grow it as an annual to continue having edible pods. It can get 40-60 feet tall if left to it's own means and grows very quickly. Where ever you decide to plant them, make sure there is a lot of room in case it gets out of control. But this could be what happens when it is grown in it's ideal conditions, don't know what will happen when it is grown in Florida.
A dear friend brought me a couple of fresh M. oleifera seeds a number of years ago, following a visit with her daughter who resides in Belize. The seeds germinated easily and I have kept my 2 little trees growing in containers for about 5 yrs, or so. My zone here in NC will not permit me to grow them in the ground, and as a result, they are not nearly as large or lush as they would be, otherwise. In fact, mine are quite slender and "whippy" since they have had to regrow from the very harsh prunings which are required to accommodate their winter storage each year (I have had to take 2/3 of their height and all of their foliage). All the same, I think that they are lovely little trees with almost fern-like foliage, and so far *knock wood* they have tolerated the several months of winter dormancy that I force them into each winter, and although they are rather slow to push out in the spring, they persist. By slow, I mean they stubbornly wait for the temperatures to rise well up before they show signs of new growth - I've really believed that I'd lost them more than once. And as you can see in the photo below (taken today), the foliage is already reacting to our night time temperatures dropping - days are still warm, but nights are mostly in the 50s, and occasionally in the 40s - shortly I will have to give them the chop. Oh, I do sometimes collect some of the foliage to throw in with my summer salad greens.
