Miracle tree : Drumstick (Moringa oleifera Lam)

Ak Bijaya Devi, M Chanchan College of Agriculture, CAU, Imphal
Contd from previous issue
About 500-600 g of seeds are required for sowing in one hectare. Seeds can also be sown in small polybags and seedlings are transplanted in the field after one month of sowing. The stem cuttings of the perennial types are also planted in pits of 1m3 size, spaced 3-6 m apart.
The sowing season is done in June-July and November –December in Southern India, sowing can be done in June-July in most of northern region. Manures and fertilizers
Three months after sowing, each pit is to be supplied with 100 g in each of urea and superphosphate and 50 g of muriate of potash and irrigated copiously. The plants are to be provided with 100g of urea alone, three months after first application. For ratoon crops the above schedule with 25 kg of farmyard manure is recommended. After care Seedlings reach 75 cm height, the shoot tips are to be nipped off to encourage side branches, the plants which are exposed to heavy winds, slender branches are liable to be damaged and break easily at the joints especially when fully loaded with fruits.
In such situations, mounds are to be formed around the tree trunk upto a height of 30-45 cm from the ground level. In the young plantation, intercrops like cowpea, or okra or groundnut can be cultivated till the moringa plants become dense and cover the interspaces.
Irrigation Generally drumstick does not require much irrigation and it is a drought tolerant crop. Irrigation is given in the pits before sowing and on the third day after sowing. Care should be taken to avoid moisture stress till the germination. Later on, irrigation is done once at 10-15 days according to the soil types. There should not be any water stagnation. Heavy watering causes flower shedding.
Plant protection : Drenching the soil around the plant with Copper oxychloride (2g/l) will prevent wilting of the plants. Spraying Duspan (3ml/l) is suggested for the control of hairy caterpillars. To control leaf eating caterpillar, spraying with Endosulphan (2ml/l) is advised.
The developing fruits are generally attacked by fruit fly and to control this, 20-30 days after fruit set. The spray can be repeated 15 days after first spray. However, spraying should be avoided two weeks before harvest of the fruits.
Harvest and yield The annual drumstick types come to harvest six months after sowing while the perennial types propagated by cuttings take 8-9 months for bearing. The fruits are ready for harvest 60 days after flowering. The period of harvest extends 2-3 months and each tree bears 200-250 fruits in annual types. In perennial types, the yield will be generally low (80-90 fruits/tree/year) in the first two years of bearing. Then it increases to about 500-600 fruits/tree/year in the fourth and fifth year and the pod are harvested mainly in March-June. The trees of the perennial type are retained for about 12-15 years.
Ratooning For ratooning annual types are cut back to one meter height from ground level after harvesting the main crop. These ratoon plants developed new shoots bearing four to five months after ratooning. Likewise three ratoon crops can be taken.
At each and every ratoon crop plants are supplied with 100g of Urea, 100g of SSP, 50g of MOP along with 20-35kg of FYM and irrigate. Topdress plants with 100g Urea again three months after first application. Annual varieties of Moringa: PKM 1 PKM 2 References: Radovich, T. (2011). Farm and Forestry Production and Marketing Profile for Moringa. C.R. Elevitch (ed.) S.Thamburaj and Narendra Singh (2000). Textbook of Vegetables, Tubercrops and Spices. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi Pp. 400-405 Vishnu Swarup (2012) Vegetable Science and Technology in India. Kalyani Publishers, Ludhiana New Delhi. Pp- 574-575.