Hello all,
My name is Holly, and I live in Santa Monica, CA. I am a total newbie to gardening - in fact I really have no where to garden except for my 2nd story apartment balcony. I won't let that stop me though! Back in July, I found out about an amazing vegetable tree called Moringa Oleifera ([url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa_oleifera[/url]) with incredible nutritional and medicinal properties, and decided to start growing some. I got the seeds from a local Moringa farm, and planted the seedlings in the beginning of August. I couldn't believe how quickly they were growing! Each of the eight seedlings were planted in 6-inch pots using commercial potting soil, mixed with a proportional amount of SEA-90 mineral salt ([url]https://www.seaagri.com/[/url]). I was also using some sort of liquid plant food on a weekly basis. The plants were gorgeous, hardy, healthy, with big thick green leaves. Notice the progression from week 1 - week 8:
SEEDLINGS:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week0-all.jpg[/img]
After WEEK 1:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week1-all.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week1-tall.jpg[/img]
After WEEK 2:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week2-all.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week2-tall.jpg[/img]
After WEEK 3:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week3-all.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week3-tall.jpg[/img]
After WEEK 4:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week4-all.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week4-tall.jpg[/img]
After WEEK 5:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week5-all.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week5-tall.jpg[/img]
After WEEK 6:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week6-tall.jpg[/img]
After WEEK 8:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week8-all.jpg[/img]
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week8-tall.jpg[/img]
Over those 8 weeks, they were sporadically visited by white moths depositing egg sacs (eww... poor babies) - but I kept this under control by inspecting the leaves and removing any egg sacs on a nearly daily basis. A few hatched which resulted in a couple holes here and there, but nothing major. So I sprayed them with a vegetable insecticide that the nursery told me was organic, however afterward I realized it contained PBO and threw it in the trash. During Week 9, I noticed that the leaves of my overachiever (2nd from the right) were starting to yellow at the bottom, so I decided to transplant them into 7 gallon pots - and yes, they were slightly rootbound. I assume they went into shock from the combo of transplanting and spraying - had some drying/yellowing/dropping leaves, but they seemed to recover well and about 2 weeks later were sprouting new growths at about twice the rate they were before, plus some were budding. YES! The super-growing trees were at it again!
After WEEK 13:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week13-tall.jpg[/img]
THEN - everything seemed to turn upside down. They were attacked by red spider mites after a bout of warm windy weather - I sprayed them with cool water in the morning daily for a few days, and that took care of that. Since then, I have been noticing different kinds of symptoms on different trees - and I have no idea what they are, or what to do. They get morning sun until around 1 pm. I've been watering them about once a week - they don't seem overwatered... but they are supposedly prone to root rot. Any ideas?
As of today, After WEEK 15:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week15-all.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week15-tall.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/moringa-week15-tall-02.jpg[/img]
Thrips???:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/sucker02.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/sucker03.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/sucker01.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/sucker04.jpg[/img]
Root Rot??? Fungus???:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/fungus.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/rootrot01.jpg[/img] [img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/rootrot02.jpg[/img]
Strange Powdery substance, woven in a circular pattern from the center outward... Mildew???:
[img]https://www.scrapbook-couture.com/moringa/powder.jpg[/img]
What am I doing wrong?
The grower I got the seeds from recommended that I spray them with a mixture of water and habanero peppers to protect them from the insects, so I did that this morning - but I really want to be proactive and that probably won't help if it's more than one ailment affecting them.
Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to read this! I'm just praying that after 4 months of starting from nothing, they don't die now...