Mint is an easy herb to grow in your garden and can add flavor to every meal.
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Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Mint
Growing
- Minimal care is needed for mint. For outdoor plants, use a light mulch. This will help keep the soil moist and keep the leaves clean.
- Indoor plants should be watered regularly to keep the soil evenly moist.
- At first, mints develop into well-behaved-looking, bushy, upright clumps, but they soon set out to conquer new territory with horizontal runners and underground rhizomes. Unless you block the advance, a peppermint plant can become a sprawling 4-foot giant in just 1 year. It鈥檚 not the stuff of horror movies, however. Mints benefit from picking and pruning. They are shallow-rooted and easy to pull out, so there鈥檚 no reason to worry as long as you provide physical barriers such as walls, walkways, or containers.
Harvesting
- Frequent harvesting is the key to keeping mint plants at their best. Young leaves have more flavor than old ones, and mint can be harvested as soon as it comes up in spring. Although fresh is best, and sprigs should be kept in water for a few days, mint leaves can be frozen or air-dried in bunches.
- Right before flowering, cut the stems 1 inch from the ground. You can harvest one mint plant two or three times in one growing season.
- You can also pick the leaves as you need them.
- You can grow the plants indoors for fresh leaves throughout the winter. If you want to dry them, it鈥檚 best to cut the leaves right before flowering. Store the dried leaves in an airtight container.
Propagating Mint
The best way to propagate mints is by taking cuttings from those that you like best. It鈥檚 easy鈥攖ake 6-inch cuttings of rooted stems and plant them horizontally in the soil. Mint stems will also root in a glass of water. Start with a small cutting from an established plant. Any gardening friend will give you a cutting of a favorite mint.
Cooking Notes
Serious cooks generally prefer spearmint for savory dishes and peppermint for desserts. Try apple or orange mint for a delicate mint taste in fruit salads, yogurt, or tea. Mint lurks in the background in Middle Eastern salads, such as tabouli, and does well with lamb. It also goes with peas, zucchini, fresh beans, marinades for summer vegetables, cold soups, fruit salads, and cheese.
Tip! Make flavored ice cubes by freezing trays of strong mint tea, then use the ice cubes for your drinks!
Catherine Boeckmann
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Mint is known to deter white cabbage moths, ants, rodents, flea beetles, and aphids.
I really need help because my mint seed did germinate but none of them grow leaves. they just grow thin around 1inch and then died because no leaves. I live in tropical island with 32C temperature and high humidity. but I tried to keep the pots in shaded area where the light still reach all day. what should I do to make them grow leaves?
Seedlings need lots of light (14 to 16 hours is ideal). Use tepid water to keep the soil moist (and do not overwater). Ventilation and air circulation is very important. Moving air helps strengthen the stems.
Can mint grow during the rainy reason? Will the rains destroy it?
I grow lemon mint from seeds and it does germinate about 2/3 days but it doesn't stay long. within a week the stem weak and start to fall. Few batches i tried and the symptom same.
Method :
1. Paper towel. After transplant it dead without any chances to live.
2. Green house. Few batches I studied how to make it live but i'm stuck.
I tried reducing, increasing amount of water and it still died around 1/2 weeks.
I put it in a small pot with transparent plastic covered. Putting it to warm place (up the fridge). After it germinate, I put under the shade of daylight and put back up the fridge during night time. I keep on repeating this but it choose to die.
Anyone can advise me. My place temperature is 25 - 35 annually.
Seedlings need lots of light (14 to 16 hours is ideal). If you don’t have enough natural light fluorescent shop lights work well. Use tepid water to keep the soil moist (do not overwater). Ventilation and air circulation is important. Moving air helps strengthen the stems. You can use a small fan. If using plastic to start the seeds remove as soon as seeds germinate.
I know mint is an aggressive plant so my plans are to plant it in an old tractor tire I have that is filled with black dirt, composted cow manure, and peat. I have been growing peppers in this for the last two seasons. My question is will this keep the mint in its place? It is about 40 feet from my 4 raised beds and no where near my two gardens. Will its roots grow out the bottom of this tire and spread out into the grass?
Even if your mint is growing in a raised bed, such as a tire, if there is no barrier at the bottom, the roots (runners) will find their way underground and spread, working their way under the tire to the rest of the lawn. In many cases, mints spread aggressively. It’s best to plant them in a pot (you could even place the pot in the center of the tire); you could also sink the pot down so that the rim is just above the soil.
I have 2 types of mint in my herb garden - normal and lemon . Both I had put a small sprig and two years later they have grown into mini jungles .Though I use them daily in my herb tea . If you don't want this , then be careful and plant them in pots.
I have a funny story. I planted mint in a pot and kind of buried the pot for insulation. My friend pulled the pot up and I heard this terrible ripping sound. My roots had gone under the pot into that ground. That year my pot did nothing and I thought my mint was dead. Nop, it had moved down into the ground under the pot and now I have a yard full of wonderful smelling mint. And very few bugs.
