Growing Moringa: The Best Tree You've Never Heard Of

[00:00:00]What if I told you that this little plant right here is the most nutritious tree you've never grown? Every part of it is edible. The seeds can purify dirty water and ancient cultures called it the tree of life. And yes, I am talking about a tree because this thing will rip up into the sky in its very first year.

[00:00:19]It's called moringa. And to learn how to grow it, we're going to Gray on the team who's a bit of an expert.

[00:00:26]>> Appreciate you, Kevin. And yes, I'm Gray, your friendly neighborhood gardener here to help you grow. And I can't wait to tell you about one of my favorite trees. It's deciduous. It's extremely fast growing and can honestly get anywhere between 10 to 15 ft in a single growing season. And that's not an exaggeration. Now, moringa out in the wild can easily get anywhere between 30 to 40 ft tall. But when you're growing out in the backyard like myself, it's probably best to be kept at about good 6 to 8 feet tall to keep it manageable.

[00:00:57]And now that can easily be done through a practice called cpposing, which essentially is just giving it a very hard prune every single year. But don't worry, we'll talk more about that soon enough. And now speaking of those pruning cuts, you know, I I love the resilience of this tree because as far as a container plant goes, it's truly the best in show because when we prune it back 3 ft, it bounces back every single time. And now here's the part that blows a lot of people's mind when it comes to the moringa. Every single thing on this tree is edible. From the seeds, the leaves, the pods, the roots.

[00:01:32]Yes, even the roots. You know, it's interesting. The roots kind of have almost like a horseradishy kind of taste to them. It's probably why it has the nickname the horseradish tree or the drumstick tree or the tree of life. You know, you know you're cool when you have multiple nickns. But let's talk about the leaves for a moment because dried moringa leaf is 25 to 30% protein. That puts it in the same category as both your beans and your lentils. Only difference being is that beans actually don't have a complete amino acid profile. Moringa leaf does. Now, when it comes to growing maringa for the first time, let me paint a little bit of a picture, kind of give you a timeline on what to expect. Your first leaf harvest, if you're growing from seed, you're looking at a window of about 60 to 90 days. But if we plant out in the spring, you'll definitely be getting the leaf harvest, no problem. Now, when it comes to the pods, you're looking at a time frame of about 6 to maybe 8 months or so. So, you do have to wait a little bit, but don't worry because with our warm growing season out here, you'll definitely be getting pods. But you know what? Let me take just a moment to tell you about the flowers. You know, I'm a flower fella. And these cream colored beauties smell faintly like honey. You know, it's funny. It makes me think of like honeysuckle on a warm summer breeze. Oh, and the bees. The bees love them. I mean, this tree is truly a pollinator powerhouse. But now, once your tree fully matures, you're going to be collecting leaves. You're going to be collecting pods for years to come. It truly keeps on giving. Moringo actually only fruits on new growth on new wood.

[00:03:06]So with that being said, don't be shy with those pruners. They actually like being pruned back because the more you prune, the more it branches out and then the more production you get. So how does one get started with growing maringa?

[00:03:18]Well, if you're out here in Texas, the easiest course of action is honestly just going to a local nursery. If you go to Austin, Houston, or even out in the valley, a lot of the local nurseries are going to have moringa in supply. even some of our stores out here in Dallas.

[00:03:33]But now with that being said, the best course of action I could possibly recommend is actually growing by seed. I mean, if you're going for the long haul, right? Because seed germination honestly can be anywhere between 5 to 14 days.

[00:03:46]And with our warm Texas soil out here, it's not a problem. It's honestly easy.

[00:03:51]It may be too easy. And now another avenue of approach is by cloning, right?

[00:03:56]By simply taking a hardwood cutting. You can easily propagate your maringa that way as well. All you have to do is take a two to threeft cutting, place it in soil, water it in, and then you're good to go. No special rooting hormone or special mix needed. It's just that simple. But now, I will say this in comparison. Um, growing the seed is always going to be better, hands down.

[00:04:18]And reason being because of the tap routt. It grows fast and it grows deep.

[00:04:22]But that's going to build up the overall resilience of the plant, which we're definitely going to need out here during our Texas summers. You and I both know we need that. And now, here's something interesting that many people may not know when it comes to moringa seed.

[00:04:35]Moringa seed can be used to purify water. See, what I'm doing here is I'm crushing a few seeds into a powder.

[00:04:41]Watch what happens when I add this to the cloudy water. Give it a little stir.

[00:04:45]Let it sit for an hour. The crushed seeds are acting as a natural coagulant.

[00:04:50]They bind to the dirt, bacteria, and other suspended particles, then sink to the bottom. This isn't replacement for a proper filtration, but in a survival situation or if you're gardening off-rid, this knowledge is gold. Nature providing for itself, that's moringa.

[00:05:06]Now, let's talk about planting moringa.

[00:05:08]If you're planning on planting your maringa in containers, which if you're in the North Texas area around Dallas, Fort Worth area, I highly recommend. Uh containers is definitely a good way to go. You want to go large. We're looking at about 15 25 gallons easily. Reason being is because of that tap routt.

[00:05:25]She's aggressive and she likes to go deep. Now, when it comes to your soil blend, and now trust me on this one, you want a nice well- draining soil blend because moringa does not like wet feet at all. Root rot is its number one killer. You want to mix a 50/50 blend of a cactus mix along with a compost and then you'll be good to go. Now, if you're planning on planting in ground, which totally can be done, make sure you have a nice wide enough hole that's about 3 feet wide or so. And now, when it comes to back filling, amend very lightly. Reason being is moringa actually prefers lowquality soil. So, if you're adding too much nitrogen, all you're going to get is a lot of leaf production and no ponds. Now, speaking of the fun facts about moringa, here's one for you. Did you know that in the Sahara Desert, they're actually using moringa right on the edge of the Sahara to stop the desert's expansion? Now, as far as your timing and your planting window, this is definitely a seed that we want to direct sew uh way after our last frost date. We're talking about like April and May because what we're looking for with moringa is temperatures that are consistently around the 70s and not just daytime temperatures, your nighttime temperatures as well. Because a key note is that moringa is a subtropical tree. temperatures under 40 degrees will completely wipe it out. So, it's key to make sure we get that timing just right. Now, as far as mulching and top dressing, uh I would highly recommend that we mulch fairly well, like 2 to 3 in of a good mulch, uh so we can retain some of that moisture, especially once we start getting to that really hot dry time in the season. But once the plant is fully established, you'll be good to go. Now, let's actually talk about what this tree needs to not only survive, but to thrive. And that's going to be sun. Full sun all day, every day, twice on Sunday. Give it all the sun you can possibly give it.

[00:07:16]Don't shade it at all. It truly is a tree that loves being out in the sunlight. Now, when it comes to your watering, you want to water infrequently because what you're trying to do is you're trying to build up that resilience in the plant because once fully established, it's extremely drought tolerant. Remember I was telling you about the Sahara Desert, right? But it has to be established first. So, what we want to do is we want to make sure we're infrequently watering. Don't set up a schedule. Water every once in a while and that's what's going to build up that tolerance because remember its biggest nemesis is definitely going to be root rot. So, we want to make sure we have consistently well draining soil as well as infrequent watering so that that taproot travels down like we wanted to.

[00:07:55]But now, here's the next part that's really important. Temperature. Moringa has to be above 70° 80° 90. Hey, in August when it starts getting 100°, your moringa will be just fine. But now on the other side of the spectrum, when we start going down into our 50s and our 40s and so forth, the plant really starts to struggle. All right, now let's talk about what can go wrong and what usually doesn't. And now, first and foremost, like I stated before, the number one killer for moringa nine times out of 10 is going to be root rot. And it's always going to be from overwatering or poor drainage. So, if you are planting your maringa out in your native soil, just make sure to avoid any heavy clay spots. Now, when it comes to pests, the maringa tree is actually very resilient and quite tough.

[00:08:44]The leaves itself actually has a compound inside of them that deter most of your pest. Now, on occasion, I have seen the random aphid, but it usually doesn't last long. But now, if you're in the Gulf Coast region where you have a lot of humidity, you may see an influx of caterpillars and a few white flies here and there. But, you know what?

[00:09:03]Here's my take. With this much foliage, if I lose a few here and there to the occasional bug, I mean, it's worth it. I mean, honestly, I don't spray anything in my garden. But now, here's a note. I will say this for very young tinder plants on occasion, I have seen a plant completely just topped, and that's usually by rodents. But that can easily be remedied. All you have to do is just take a simple wire trash can like you might have in your office and put it right over the top of the plant and then remove it once the plant's a little bit more established. But now on the other hand, frost protection is really going to be a major concern. So if you're in a zone where you actually get hard freezes, you definitely want to make sure that you heavily mulch around the base of the tree. This is truly going to be your insurance policy. Now, a quick safety note in regards to consuming moringa. First and foremost being the roots. Moringa root bark actually houses a compound that can be toxic in large amounts. So if you are going to consume and eat the moringa roots, I would highly recommend doing so sparingly.

[00:10:04]Second note, if you're on diabetes medication or if you're on blood thinners, I would highly recommend that you consult a medical professional first and foremost as the compounds inside of maringa can interact with those drugs.

[00:10:17]But you know what? Let's slow down for just a moment and let's talk about pruning because you know when I was learning and becoming a Texas master gardener, one of the things I was taught in class when it comes to most of your plants, you never want to prune more than onethird of the plant, right?

[00:10:34]There's going to be too much stress or trauma on the plant itself, but not when it comes to moringa. If anything, it actually craves that kind of pruning.

[00:10:42]So, here's my tip. at the very beginning of spring before we really get into the full swing of things. Give your tree a nice hard prune because if you don't, what's going to end up happening is the tree is going to easily get about 10 11 ft tall and then all of those beautiful branches and leaves flowers will be all the way up the top way out of reach. And now guess what? When you're going through and you're harvesting all of your maringa leaves, that's actually pruning as well. So, by every time that you're harvesting, you are redirecting more and more energy inside of the plant to create more branches, creating more leaves, and the cycle continues. All right, now it's time for the fun part.

[00:11:18]Look, we've spent all this time talking about how to grow the tree. Well, now it's time for us to reap the benefits.

[00:11:23]So, what I'm going to do is walk you through how to completely harvest from your tree. Now, first, we're going to take a look at the branches because we want to harvest some leaves. Now, when it comes to the leaves, typically you're looking for your branches to be about two to maybe even 3 ft long. Now, granted, my branches aren't quite that long yet, but for demonstration purposes, I'm going still walk you through how you can harvest your leaves.

[00:11:46]Now, granted, one thing to take in consider, even though my leaves and my branches aren't as long as I would like them to be, remember, this is still going to stimulate the rest of the tree to start putting out more branches. So, I mean, it's a win-win. Now, the first thing you want to do is strip off the leaflets right off the central stem, kind of like how you would with rosemary. Just go after the leaves.

[00:12:08]After that, you can let the leaves dry out in the Texas sun. In a couple hours, they should be good enough. Then, crush them into a powder and you can either add them to a smoothie or you can muddle the leaves and to make a moringa tea.

[00:12:19]Now, the pods, these are the drumsticks.

[00:12:21]You want to harvest them young, about 12 to 18 in long, still green and flexible.

[00:12:27]Once they get older, they get fibrous and not as pleasant. The flowers are totally edible as well. They kind of taste like mushroom, so I see them going in a stir fry. No problem. Now, the seeds come from mature dried pods. Think about it like if you were harvesting okra seeds. You can roast them. They taste just like peanuts, or you can press them for bin oil, or you can even use them for water purification, just like I showed you earlier. Young roots taste like horseradish, but use them sparingly. And remember that safety note I mentioned before, don't go overboard on the root. All right. Now, while moringa powder is cool and moringa tea is a great option, but you know what?

[00:13:04]I'm out here in Texas. So, now I want to try something a little bit Texas flavored. So, I'm going to show you a new way of eating moringa. And these are my TMEX moringa tacos. And let me walk you through what I did. I first took some fresh moringa leaves right off the trees and I blitzed them up in the blender with tomatillos, jalapenos, fresh tomatoes of course from the garden, onion, lime juice, uh some cilantro, and then both red and green bell peppers. Now, being the fact that I'm a pescatarian and actually don't eat any uh red or red meat or chicken, I went with a plant-based ground beef. And I'm not going to lie, it could be a little bit better perhaps. Maybe instead if I did like a salmon or tilapio or even like a red snapper as my base meat, right? And now that we're all chopped up and blended, now all I'm going to do is just pour it right over my plant-based ground beef sitting on a warm corn tortilla.

[00:14:02]Now, it's simple, it's effective, and honestly, the sauce is going to do all the talking. All right, so now it's time for the taste test. The overall taste of the moringa was kind of earthy, a little a little peppery, but uh it was good. Uh yeah, this is definitely going to become a new Texas staple in my house.

[00:14:20]>> Hold on a second.

[00:14:25]I had to come in and steal another bite.

[00:14:31]>> Mhm. All right, my friend. It's been amazing speaking with you as always.

[00:14:35]I'll talk to you again real soon.

[00:14:37]>> Well, I'm hyped. I'm putting this in my garden this season. Hopefully, it's 15 to 20 feet tall by next season. It should be. And I'll definitely try some of those tacos out. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Get some maringa in your garden. Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.