During the internship a new field of Moringa trees will be planted. This way, KITA will not be fully dependent on the supply of Moringa leaves from farmers, but is able to provide their own fresh Moringa leaves for the production of Moringa products.
Site selection
KITA owns many acres of land, but not every piece of land can be used as a field for the cultivation of Moringa. Many pieces of land are already taken for other purposes, like the cultivation of other crops, mushroom cultivation, livestock, etc. Other pieces of land that are not used yet, may not be suitable for the cultivation of Moringa.
The site that is chosen for the location of the new field with Moringa trees has to be checked on several criteria. The optimal characteristics of the soil for cultivation of Moringa:
Climate: Tropical or sub-tropical
Altitude/Height: 0 – 2000 meters
Temperature: 25 – 35 °C
Rainfall: 250mm – 2000mm. Irrigation needed for leaf production if rainfall < 800 mm
Soil Type: Loamy, sandy or sandy-loam
Soil pH: Slightly acidic to slightly alkaline (pH 5-9)
We tested all fields at KITA that seemed qualified for the Moringa trees. Many places scored well on all criteria, but were too far away from any waterresource, which made it difficult to nurture the trees in the dryseason. One piece of land close to the campus met all criteria; a sandy-loam field that receives full sunlight, with the right altitude, near a water source, with a preferable pH (between 7 and 8). The Moringa trees will be planted at this 4 by 8 square meter field.
Soil preparation
The selected site has to be prepared before the Moringa trees can be planted here. The preperation of the site will be executed in the following steps:
Removal of existing trees and other vegetation
Ploughing of land to a depth of 30 to 50 cm
Manure application
Fencing
The fence is necessary to protect the trees from being eaten by animals that walk around at KITA, like sheep and goats.
Nursing of the seeds
The trees are not planted directly into the ground, because this decreases their chance of survival. Instead of this, the seeds will first be planted per two in little bags filled with black soil. These bags are recycles water sachets; by reducing the plastic waste this way, KITA contributes to the environment. 235 Trees were planted in the nursery. The sachets with the seeds are placed at an area where there is natural shade and need to be watered once a day.
Planting of the trees
After the trees grow up to over 30 cm, they can be replanted at the selected site, where they will get their permanent place. This moment was reached at the 20th day.The distance between the trees is from great importance; there has to be found an optimal balance between the number of threes and the effect the density of planting has on the quality of the leaves. When the trees are planted to close to each other, the trees will block each other’s sunlight, which causes the leaves to turn yellow and the growth of the tree to be disturbed. After research on the optimal distance between the trees for planting, we choose them to be 50 cm apart from each other, which is described to be between intensive and medium intensive plating. Next to the trees we will put an educative sign which will give an indication of the length of the trees and if they should be cut.