Harvesting dill is probably one of the highlights when you are actually growing it. It’s such a fantastic herb to grow as it shows results so quickly. After just 3 months you will be able to make the first meaningful harvest. Much like other herbs however we need to be aware of how much we are cutting away and how we are doing it.
We often recommend that you follow the rule of never cutting away more than 30 % of the plant. More than that and you will have a very slow growth back to where it was. Always remember to take cuttings only where new growth is coming out. This will ensure the future prospects of your plant.
If you want to read a complete and comprehensive guide to growing and harvesting dill, an article that also covers some of the most common questions then we have just the right one for you. Find it here, How To Plant And Grow Dill.
How Do You Harvest Dill From Plants
The best way that we have found when harvesting dill is to pick small amounts at a time. Dill is a bit slower than other herbs like basil for example in terms of growth speed. The technique that we often apply is to pick a stem clean and then cut it off. This will then give room for new stems to come forth and the dill plant will eventually just grow larger and larger as time goes on.
After you have picked the doll that you need you should use it as quickly as possible, or ideally the same day at least. This is because all that wonderful flavor of fresh dill is now counting down. The longer time goes on the less it will taste. That is something that is the same for all herbs and vegetables alike.
So storing your harvested dill is very important. We always recommend people using a fitting container that has a lid on it. This will reduce the amount of moisture that gets to the plant. But to further improve this we can place some paper in the container. This will catch any moisture that manages to sneak in.
There are many times during the year you can be growing dill but when is the best time to start? In this article we will find out, When To Plant Dill In?
Does Dill Grow Back After You Pick It
You don’t have to worry about your dill plant not growing back after you have harvested or picked from it. It might not be the faste herb out there to grow back, it certainly will return to its stage in a short time. We usually see it back in about 2 weeks. This depends of course on how much you are actually harvesting at one given time.
Something we don’t want to leave out in this article is the importance of not harvesting too much. This can cause a lot of stress to the plant that might make it not return the next year. We always follow and recommend the rule of never picking more than 30 % of the plant.
However this changes of course when the season is beginning to end. Then it can be a very good idea to pick off the whole plant to get the most of it. But the general technique of harvesting dill includes picking of stems or cuttings where new growth is starting to come out. If you don’t do this then it might take a lot longer than necessary to grow back.
Dill is a herb that likes to be watered during the growing season, but just how much is perfect? Here we learn the answers, Does Dill Like Lots Of Water?
Should You Let Dill Flower
Letting the dill flower is really a choice of what you want to get out of it. If you are happy with just picking a few stems every now and again and want this to continue then you should pick off the flowers. Not doing that will make it grow the new stems a lot slower than it needs to.
But there are some big upsides of letting the plant flower. We believe that one of the most delicious things on the dill plant is the flowers. These have a lot of fragrance and aromatics to them that they become almost irresistible to not use in cooking. One of our favorite ways is having it sprinkled over a salad.
If you want to continue your line of dill plants then you need to let it flower, otherwise it won’t develop the seeds for you to collect and grow for the next year’s season. These can then be collected once the plant has finished blooming and the seeds have started to dry up. The best way is to cut off large stems and then let them hang indoors with some paper underneath. As the seeds dry up more they will drop on the paper and make it very easy for you to collect them.
Do you have plenty of dill stalks left over from harvesting? Here we give you some examples of uses for them, What Do You Do With Dill Stalks?
