Family: Rubiaceae
Scientific name: Morinda citrifolia
Common name: Noni / Cheese fruit
Origin: Southeast Asia
 
The noni is an easy plant to grow indoors, and can handle both sun, shadow and drought. In nature, the noni is a small tree up to 3 or 4 meters. The noni fruit has gained name for the healthy juice that can be made of the fruits. Nowadays the plants are grown in different regions all over the world. The fruits are about 18 cm in size and get yellowish white as they ripen. As the fruits ripen, they get a more distinct smell (that resembles the smell of old cheese) in order to attract megabats for seed dispersal. The smell makes the fruit unattractive to eat, but the taste is not so bad and resembles the taste of pineapple. Aboriginals eat the fruits raw with salt, and in Asia the fruits are added to certain dishes. Consumption of the fruit supposedly has all kinds of health benefits. The leaves are can be used to make tea.

Sowing description: Carefully sand the seeds with sanding paper and soak them for 24 hours in water. Sow thee seeds in sowing mix and let them germinate at 25 degC. Keep the soil constantly moist, and cover with plastic foil or glass.

Sowing time: Whole year
Difficulty: Intermediate
Minimum temperature: 10 degrees Celsius