Moringa Leaves Turning Yellow? (3 Fixes)

The first and probable reason is that you’ve overwatered your Moringa.

The easiest way to identify this is if ALL of your Moringa leaves have turned yellow, not just some.

If this has happened, you will need to re-plant your Moringa or delay your watering schedule and wait until the soil becomes dry.

Moringa is a dryer plant, and many beginners (and professionals) overwater it. 

If you have Moringa on a watering schedule that closely resembles the other plants in your garden, we suggest that you reduce your Moringa to about 30-50% of the watering of those other plants.

Newly Planted Moringa

In the emails that we’re sent about moringa leaves turning yellow, half the time, it’s a new Moringa plant.

When Moringa is in its early growth stages, yellowing of some of the leaves is very normal.

Moringa (like all plants) is only trying to survive and grow in the early stages.

You will often see 40-80% of your Moringa leaves start to yellow.

This always freaks out newcomers to Moringa, but this is a great thing.

As Moringa grows, it prioritizes the leaves growing higher and stronger than the leaves below.

The Moringa tree knows that these new leaves are the ones that are going to be collecting the most sunlight and prioritizes them over the bottom leaves.

Once those bottom leaves aren’t a priority anymore for the Moringa tree, it stops sending them nutrients.

This creates the yellowing of the Moringa leaves, as it’s an indicator that the other leaves are being prioritized.

When we see this, we immediately rip those yellow leaves off. We do not want any nutrients wasted on leaves that our Moringa has decided aren’t a priority.

This will leave your Moringa tree with only the solid green leaves and allow them ALL the nutrients that your Moringa tree collects.

Bad Soil

Sometimes, the soil in which we plant our Moringa isn’t good.

Remember, this situation would only occur if all of your Moringa leaves are turning yellow, not just some.

If you’ve made changes to your watering cycle, and you’ve figured out it is not overwatering, I would re-plant your Moringa and change it into some new soil.

If this soil is the only soil around, maybe pick up some fertilizer that could help your Moringa grow.

We use store-bought soil, that already has added nutrients.

From our emails, we know that this isn’t always possible for everyone, and adding fertilizer into your fields could be an excellent middle ground. 

How to Revive Moringa Plant

Reviving a Moringa plant is usually pretty easy, as this plant is very durable.

If you’ve walked outside and noticed that your Moringa needs a revival, there are a couple of steps you should take.

First, if you haven’t watered your Moringa in some time, you should start there.

Water is critical for Moringa (and all plants) growth. 

Plants will quickly let you know when the watering schedule has fallen off.

If you’ve recently watered your Moringa, and it’s still not looking so good, you may need to add some fertilizer to your soil.

Weak soil could be keeping your plants from developing correctly and not providing them with the nutrients they need to grow strong.

Another simple trick that we do whenever we see our Moringa is looking a little down is to move it into an area where it can collect some more sunlight.

Sometimes, without noticing, the plants around our Moringa grow up and start to block our Moringa trees from collecting sunlight.

A plant’s primary food source is photosynthesis, and if something is blocking your Moringas primary food source, it will react negatively. 

Moringa is one of the most simple plants to care for, and keeping this plant healthy and happy is very easy.

I would make sure you’re sticking to a watering schedule that allows the Moringa to be a little dry.

This usually means watering the plant less than the other plants that surround it in your garden.