Mint, Melissa on window sillhave long found their place in garden beds and gardens. But if during the summer the plants regularly supply fresh greens, then with the arrival of autumn frosts the gardener has to be content with frozen or dried mint in advance. And although these methods allow the plant to preserve most of the nutrients, such raw materials cannot compare with green succulent leaves. In order not to depend on the season and not to give up menthol, vitamins, valuable acids and microelements of mint greens, when it is freezing outside, and a snowstorm rages, you can plant mint on the windowsill.
How to grow mint at home?
Perennial with a branched surface rhizome and a host of shoots extending from it is easy to grow at home. The main thing is to provide plants with comfortable conditions, including adequate nutrition, lighting and watering.
Mint best of all feels on loose soils with an average organic content and low acidity, in the range of 5–7 pH.
Before planting mint for plants, a soil mixture is prepared from two parts of garden soil, one part of humus, the same volume of peat and washed sand. So that the mint roots do not get wet, and there is no danger of rotting, in the tank for growing mint at home there must be a drainage.
Since mint is quite unpretentious, you can propagate the plant:
- sowing seeds;
- root layering;
- grafting;
- division of the adult bush.
How to grow mint on a window sill from seeds?
Reproduction by seeds is the most time-consuming and long-lasting method, but it can not be avoided if you want to get a plant of a certain variety or species.
In order for seedlings to be strong and friendly, it is better to give preference to purchased seeds. Not all hybrid species inherit parental characteristics when collecting seed from them. For example, only a third of the seedlings of spearmint has curly foliage, and the remaining seedlings are a simple garden variety. So, how to plant mint seeds?
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It’s better to sow the mint in March or in April, to a moist soil to a depth of 0.5 cm. Above the seeds, sprinkle with a small amount of humus or nutrient soil and cover with glass or film. At room temperature, seedlings appear 14–18 days after sowing. Up to this point, it is necessary to monitor the soil moisture, not to allow it to dry out or overmoisten. If necessary, the surface of the soil gently sprayed, trying not to disturb the small seeds, and slightly open the glass for a while.
When the mint sprouts on the windowsill give two true leaves, they dive, planting them in separate small containers or according to the scheme 5x5 in a single wide container.
How to plant mint root layering and dividing the bush?
Gardeners and gardeners know how the mint on the plot quickly takes up all the new space. The long rhizomes with sleeping buds on them are to blame for the invasive activity of the plant. The growing root system of one plant gives life to new shoots and bushes. How to plant mint with root layers?
If you take advantage of this feature of mint, and in August or September, stock up with root cuttings, about 10–12 cm long and two or three buds, then there will be no difficulty in how to grow mint at home. Root cuttings are planted in a moist soil to a depth of 5–7 cm. If there are already developed shoots on this cutting, the roots are carefully preserved, and the aerial part after cutting is cut with soil at a height of 4–5 cm. Similarly, they are treated with planting material obtained after dividing the wholebush.
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After two weeks, with proper care, room mint, as in the photo, forms dense green sprouts and first fragrant leaves over the soil.
The same breeding methods are suitable for planting on the windowsill of such herbs as oregano and thyme, which belong to the same family with mint and have common habits and symptoms.
All these crops are grown at home in perennials and require easy, but constant care.
Growing mint at home using cutting
As a planting material for growing mint on the windowsill, cuttings cut from the top parts of the shoots of an adult bush are also suitable. How to grow mint on the windowsill in this case? Twigs 6–8 cm long are dipped into the root solution and, after removing the two lower leaves, put into water. Roots, sufficient for planting in the ground, formed after 7-15 days.
Two weeks after planting the rooted cuttings and the appearance of sprouts on the planted root processes, the plants are fed with urea at the rate of 1 gram per liter of water.
Taking care of mint grown on a window sill
Wondering how to grow mint at home and get strong bushes with juicy bright foliage on a windowsill, it is important to remember that this is possible only with the right temperature, watering and sufficient light.
A comfortable growth temperature is 20–25 ° C.In this mode, a long light day and wet soil plants well form foliage.
Mint sensitively reacts to changes in illumination, in room conditions, without additional 6-hour illumination in autumn and winter, its shoots begin to stretch, the leaves become smaller, lose their rich color and flavor. If you can not organize the necessary artificial lighting of the mint pots on the windowsill, you can reduce the temperature to 15–17 ° C and limit watering. This measure will somewhat slow down the growth processes and will not allow a decrease in the quality of greenery.
With all the love of mint to the light, the plant does not tolerate being in the sun under the direct rays of the sun. Exposed to the balcony, terrace, loggia or on the windowsill mint must be shaded, protecting the plant from burns and drying out.
In rooms with a dry atmosphere, especially when heaters are working, a container with water can be placed next to mint, so that the air humidity does not fall below 80%, which can adversely affect the condition of the shrub. With the same purpose, for mint on summer days and in winter, in a warm room, irrigation with water at room temperature is carried out.
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Like excessive dryness of the air, mint on the windowsill also tolerates the drying of the soil. The soil is watered at the first sign of dryness of the upper layer, but it does not allow stagnant moisture, which is harmful to the roots. With a decrease in air temperature, the need for watering decreases slightly.
To simplify the care, as in the photo, after room mint, a little hydrogel can be added to the soil for its planting. Several granules in the soil layer above the drainage will allow the soil to better retain moisture and fertilizer.
It is necessary to feed mint grown on greens using nitrogen, potash and phosphate fertilizers, but very carefully, because with an excess of nitrogen the plant can accumulate it in greens.
Mint collection time at home
The first crop of fragrant greens obtained from home-grown mint is harvested as early as 15–20 days after the first leaves appear above the ground. By this time, mint bushes reach a height of 20–30 cm, while pruning of the shoots leads to the awakening of the buds in the sinuses and the growth of the plant.
If mint is grown for the purpose of obtaining raw materials with the maximum content of beneficial essential oils, then the time to collect mint comes at the time of formation of peduncles or the beginning of flowering. In this case, during the warm season, when growth is most active, up to three full harvests can be obtained.
Mint, Melissa on the windowsill - video
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