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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Sam, Here are a couple .edu references on light requirements for mint. The information is fairly consistent.
鈥淢ost herbs need six hours minimum of direct sunlight. Either place herbs in a sunny location, for example, near a window with a southern exposure, or place herbs 6 to 12 inches from two 40 watt, cool white fluorescent bulbs for 14 to 16 hours.鈥 Reference:
鈥淢ost herbs require at least 6 hours of direct sunlight in order to grow well. All-day sun is even better. Seeds may be started indoors under fluorescent lights during the late winter months. Lights should be set for 14-16 hours daily, placed approximately four to six inches above the seedlings and raised as they grow, to maintain that distance.鈥 Reference:
Good information. Cheers!
I am growing Sweet Mint this year, and I live in the hot conditions of Nevada. The plant recommended 6 hours sun. But I noticed if I didn't move it to shade after 10 am, and water a lot, it would look droopy. One day I was away from home six hours and came home it was fried. Sad. I kept watering for days, but nothing. I left the planter for days not having the heart to toss it. Then the day I mustered the courage, I noticed tiny green leaves under the brown dried leaves. I immediately trimmed and took in the house. Nice thing, spiders don't like it I do.
Earlier this year I bought two peppermint plants which I put in a container. At first it seemed sick, but gained strength and grew tremendously. Now however, I found small black spots under the leaves coming from aphids, and I cut off all the branches (something I haven't done other than when I got it), pulled up some of the roots as it was circling around itself and sprayed a water and detergent solution on it to kill the aphids. Now it seems the aphids are gone, but there's a white, gooey substance on the top part of the cut off stems. It's not "spit", and I cannot see any other creature on the plant. Is it just from the plant to "rebuild" itself or is it something bad?
Your plant could be infested with spittle bug; it produces milky white substance. It is believed not to harm the plant, but you can eliminate it by hosing/watering it off of the plant (a rain will often be enough). The bugs hide under the foam, so washing it off will reveal them to predators鈥攍adybugs and lacywings (if there are any) who will have the spittlebugs for lunch.
We hope this helps.
No bug likes coffee . I can brew coffee, cheap coffee or any kind of coffee, pour it directly on top of the plant making sure the leaves get very wet and then into the soil. I have watched caterpillars crawling out of the plant to get away from the coffee. If you will do this you can bring your plants inside with no insects.
I just looked and mine is a peppermint plant.
I have a large planter full of mint and would like suggestions on how to use it. Is there any use for dried or frozen mint; as we go from Minnesota to Arizona in the winter?
Certainly! You can use dried mint in your own blend of teas (both iced and hot), or add it to sauces, soups, veggies, casseroles, salad dressings, spice rubs on meat, baked goods—all sorts of options for foods. For health, some people like to place dried mint (sometimes mixed with other dried herbs) in cheesecloth or muslin bags and then let it soak in their bath water, to add soothing fragrance. Tinctures to relieve digestive troubles can also be made with dried mint. Dried mint is also used in potpourris, sachets, soaps, etc. Hope this helps!
I have and love the spearmint, but it has become very adventurous in spreading through places I never thought it would. It takes the scenic route and appears thick and lush in a new location, easy to pull out but the roots are quite firm and it comes back. So take it very seriously when they say careful where you put it! I rub the fresh leaves on my temples when I get a headache and I think it does help, we don't use any aspirin etc around here. In the spring a little beetle was leaving tiny hole marks on the leaves but it did not bother the plant, only a little unsightly and they are gone by now.
