If you've been around the green or self sustainability community long enough you've probably already heard of the Moringa tree.

The Moringa, by some, is touted to have the potential to save millions of lives world-wide by providing nutrition from Moringa derived food products. Trees For Life International is one of the more prominent organizations promoting the Moringa tree as a way of combatting malnutrition in both humans and livestock.

I accepted a gift of a few Moringa tree seeds so I'll be able to judge the performance of this "miracle tree" from first hand experience.

Cultivation of Moringa Trees From Seed

My wife and I have started two batches of Moringas since we first received the seeds. We have a very limited amount of seeds so we decided to try 5 seeds the first time and 7 seeds the second time.

Germination of Moringa seeds seems to be fairly easy and there seems to be very little failure with regard to seed germination. Within 5 to 7 days the first signs of the Moringa start showing and in just a few days will have grown to a height of about 15 cm (6 in).

Currently we have 8 Moringa trees growing - 3 of the first batch were sacrificed in a play-fight between our dog and cat and 1 of the second batch was pulled out of it's planter by a curious bird.

Pest Resistance and General Hardiness of the Moringa Tree

Two of the first batch of Moringa trees are happily living on our property which is in Northern Mexico (semi-arid climate). We transplanted them into the ground when they reached about 45 cm (18 in) tall.

The day after the transplant I went to check on the seedlings and found they were bare of all leaves and one had been literally broken in half. Moringas are not only eaten by humans but also by jack-rabbits, prairie dogs and maybe even lizards.

Surprisingly there was excellent recovery from this obvious failure on our part to protect our plants. Within a few days little green leaves again adorned the once completely bare stalks.

The Moringa seedling that was broken in half has now grown branches, thickened it's stalk and looks more visually appealing and healthier than any of the other Moringa seedlings we have.

The picture attached to this article shows the 6 seedlings from our second batch. The seedlings are just 3 weeks old from the time of planting.

Our trees are a little too young to start harvesting any of the edible products from them yet, but we're very interested in finding out how it tastes and sharing the information with everyone we can.

Is the Moringa a Miracle Tree?

There are a lot of Moringa Beauty Products on the market these days - and they work, but we've yet the actual growing experience to determine if the Moringa is a miracle tree. So far the Moringa tree looks very promising and we'll let you know more when we can.