How To Grow And Care For Mint

Welcome to this post about how to grow mint. This is our most comprehensive guide on this topic. Mint is such a lovely herb to grow at home and can provide some wonderful flavors and aromas in your cooking on top of looking very beautiful. There are many different types of mint to choose from but the one we will focus on is Peppermint. That’s the most common one. But there are other exciting ones too, like Pineapplemint, Spearmint and Gingermint.

Growing mint might sound like a hard task but it is really not as difficult as you think. Below we will cover some of the most common topics on growing mint. So follow along and hopefully you will leave feeling inspired about growing some aromatic mint at home. We will cover questions like growing it indoors, outdoors, from cuttings and of course sowing it from seed. The fun thing about gardening is that you can never really fully learn everythings, which is why it’s so fascinating.

How To Grow Mint

Growing mint can be a real treat to have in your garden. It both smells wonderful but also looks really nice. Choosing a place to grow mint is the most important. It likes a spot where it can indulge in the sun but also get some shade during the day. Another very important thing about mint is that it can compete with neighboring plants so it might not be a good idea to grow this on freeland. The best way we have found growing mint is in a pot. This contains it and limits its otherwise quite rapid growth.

Mint is probably best grown from seeds. It can absolutely be grown from cuttings too, something you can read about further down. But this should only be done if you can take cuttings from an older mint plant. As they can be fragile when you cut them off. The soil where you grow the mint should be moist but also not pool water.

This means that it should be well drained. Look so that the soil is not too compact as that could prevent drainage. Another big factor when growing mint in pots, which we have established is the best way, is to make sure there’s holes in the bottom. These will let the excess water leak out. Too much water in the soil will have a very negative effect on the mint as it will cause root rot.

How To Grow Mint Indoors

Growing mint indoors as opposed to outdoors will not differ a great deal. The biggest factor might be that now it’s even more important to make sure the plant gets enough sunlight. Almost any herb that you are growing indoors you will want to aim to get about 10 hours of sun every day. So strategically place it in a window where it can get this.

If you are growing mint indoors then you will most likely grow it in a pot. This is the best way for mint actually. It can be a very competitive herb to otherwise grow next to others. So you need to contain its rapid growth. But it’s also fun to have a herb at home that grows pretty fast so you can see the progress more noticeably. Just as if you would keep your mint outside you need to water it properly and give it the much needed nutrition it wants.

Even though the surface of the soil might feel a little bit wet then you can probably still water it a bit. Mint prefers a bit more than the norm. Consider adding fertilizers to the soil about three to four times a year. With this limited amount it won’t be overwhelmed. As you are growing indoors, fertilizer will be the best route because the classic manure will smell a lot.

How To Grow Mint From Cuttings

Mint is a very versatile herb to grow at home and being able to propagate more mint by taking cuttings from existing ones is one of the many perks. Mint can actually be a very sturdy and hardy plant. but when you take cuttings be mindful that it will be more vulnerable to diseases and other harmful stuff. But cutting off a stem every now and again will be fine.

The best way to get the cutting growing is leaving it in a glass filled with a little bit of water. Don’t fill it too much as that works against you, it could actually drown it before starting to develop any roots. I like to fill a little bit to concentrate the root development in the very bottom of the stem. As always, cut the stem so it has a few new outgrowths on it so you can get off to a quick start once it’s ready to be repotted. Cutting it this way will also help the main plant have an easier time regrowing.

To see when the time is right you need to look at the roots. They should be very visible for it to be ready. Usually about 2 weeks will do the trick. Once it’s been planted you can treat it just like a normal mint plant.

Want to learn even more about growing mint from cuttings? In this article here we talk about exactly that, How To Grow Mint From Cuttings.

How Long Does It Take To Grow Mint

As for how long minst takes to grow, it’s about 90 days in total before you can do your first real harvest. Like most herbs the part where it germinates after you have sown a seed takes about 10 – 15 days. Maybe slightly quicker than some other herbs I grow at home. These 90 days from sowing to first harvest should really just be spent taking care of the plant. It’s still very vulnerable when it’s a seedling. Overwatering or not watering enough is usually the trickiest part.

The best part about mint is that it grows very quickly. If you have had the patience to wait the full 90 days then you will be rewarded with a plant that stands about 1 – 2 feet tall. At this point you could actually cut it down to about an inch above the surface and it will regrow. After another 90 days you should find it at the same stature again. A quick grower to say the least.

But what really interests us about growing mint is the ability to take cuttings from it to replant. As it regrows pretty quickly you can expand your mint garden at home in a pretty short time-span. Just make sure that you never cut away more than 30 % ideally so that it can continue its rapid growth.

How To Grow Mint From Seeds

Growing mint from seeds might be one of the most readring things you can do in your garden. Mint grows really fast and is a perennial herb, meaning it can live on for several years. How long will of course depend on how good you take care of it.

There are a few different approaches you can take when growing mint from seeds. But the most common one and in our opinion the best one is to simply show it in a small container directly. This will let you decide on which mint seedlings are the healthiest and then also the best ones to continue growing and caring for.

Preparing before sowing can be a good idea. You want to fill several small containers with soil. They usually sell these seedling pots in most gardening stores. Just make sure that there are some small holes at the bottom of it to let the water run out. Otherwise you might run the risk of the roots of the plant rotting. Then your seedlings are no good anymore.

Water it lightly and then sit back and wait. The part where the seed is activated and starts germinating will take between 10 – 15 days. A pretty quick process. After just a couple of weeks you should see clear signs of the plant above the surface of the soil. After the 90 day mark then you can actually make the first significant harvest of the plant.

How To Grow Mint In A Pot

Growing mint in a pot will in like 99 % of cases be the best way to propagate mint. It’s a fierce competitive herb that can completely shut out other herbs from getting any nutritions. It does this in the way of spreading the seeds it forms and being pollinated. These will then grow very quickly wherever they might land. Something you will want to be wary of if you grow it outside and let it bloom.

There really are two different approaches you can take with growing mint in a pot. The first one is growing out from a seed. Then you can simply follow the instructions that we laid out in the segment above. Water the soil a bit before and then plant a couple of mint seeds. These will quickly germinate and start forming roots.

The other way is growing cuttings from other mint plants you might have. This is a great way to quickly expand your mint empire at home. As the cuttings will grow and form a roots system a lot faster then the seeds. Just let them sit in water for about two weeks beforehand so that the very important root system can start taking shape.

But growing in a pot has many benefits, the most important one is the mobility it offers. Being able to move around the plant from either the shade or the sun can be very beneficial to the mint plant. Also the fact that it won’t compete with other herbs. Mint will actually survive the winter in most places so cutting it down at the end of the season might be a very good idea. But then if you were to keep your mint that’s growing in a pot, you need a pot that can handle freezing temperatures. In the long run, it might be damaged otherwise. Just a way to prevent another hassle that could occur.

How To Grow Mint Outdoors

Growing mint outdoors is actually very easy. You would do it almost exactly as you would growing indoors. It just comes down to placement of the pot where the mint grows. Outdoors you don’t need the same amount of sunlight for the mint as you would indoors. This is because there is no window in between the herb and the sun. That would otherwise dull the concentration of energy the plant would get.

Sowing mint outdoors from either seed or cutting is done the same way as before. The seed will want a healthy soil that has been watered before. It should be slightly damp. Then just wait for the signs of growth to be visible. Really shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks actually. This is the period where the seed is germinating and beginning to form its first roots.

Growing from a cutting you only really have to make sure it has actually developed some roots after being in water for the last couple of weeks. Which is the best way to propagate cuttings. Then you sow it and place the pot in the sun. The reason for us always mentioning that you are growing mint in a pot is because it can be a very competitive herb. It can take over and suffocate its neighbor in the garden. We don’t want it to happen so limiting the space in where it grows helps prevent this.

We mentioned placement is important outdoors for it to get the necessary amount of sunlight it will need. But having it get some shade during the day is also good. Then it can sort of relax a bit and not stress the growth of it. When growing outside the sun is more concentrated so the mint will only need about 6 – 8 hours of it for it to be enough. Any more won’t harm it exactly but too much of the good stuff can also have negative effects on it.

Collecting the seeds from the mint at the end of the season can be a great way of completing the circle of gardening. Find out here how you can do it, How Do You Collect Mint Seeds.

FAQ

Does Mint Grow Easily

The best way to grow mint is by sowing the seeds in a well drained soil that gets alot of sun during the day. This will ensure that your seeds have a great environment to grow in.

After about 3 months you will be able to make the first most meaningful harvest. So growing mint is a very fast project that is found to be done at home.

How Do You Grow Mint Successfully

Growing mint successfully really comes down to making sure the environment its growing in is the best. It likes getting a lot of sun during the day and grows in a soil that is kept damp at all times. Following these steps will make you mint plant very happy and provide plenty of harvests.

How Do You Grow Mint For Beginners

Mint is one of the best herbs to grow for beginners. It’s a very easy one to propagate at home. We find that the best way is by sowing in a small pot that has a hole in the bottom. This will take away a lot of the risk of overwatering the plant.

Keep the soil damp and moist while it’s in the sun. You will be able to harvest mint at home in no time.