Planting out Moringa

12 - 13 April 2020

Around about October last year, I decided to plant some Moringa seeds, to keep in the house and see if it would give us a head start on new growth this springtime. 

We have been working with Moringa trees for several years.  They are a highly nutritious, fast-growing tropical tree.  We have found previously that seeds planted in the earth in May, will be four-to-six foot tall and providing a daily salad leaf crop by July/August.  However, we have had little success in keeping them alive over winter, or in getting viable seed from them.

 We grew seven trees in the solarium over the winter, but they haven't looked very happy, and most look like sticks, not trees.  But we'll see how they like the real world.  

 This is the root system of one of them, before transplanting.  It looks healthy enough.  Grown directly in the soil, these roots can go down 10 metres or more.  Maybe pot-growing will have stunted them irreparably.  We'll wait and see.

 My tree-clearing continues.

 Sunday 12th - Easter in the UK, so we laid the table in front of the computer screen, in order to have an experimental 'Zoom' lunch with the family.  Okay, but actually better without the food - easier to chat.

 Dave's strimming continues too.

Having finished the strimming, Dave came to help with the trees, and took on this peach.  He had dug out more than three-quarters of the circle when a small snake left the remaining clump of grass and made for more secure cover.  I'm glad Dave had that tree!  

While digging out, we are using the waste root clumps to shore up the downhill edge and make an impromptu terrace to stop rainwater flowing away and taking soil with it.