Growing Mint

[Jon]

Hello everyone,

Your gonna think i'm crazy but I just bought some mint like a week ago! And Since I want to use this mint for tea I dont have nearly enough yet :(. I imagine that mint grows exponentially from what I have read about mint being so invasive and growing quickly.

I have genius: Mentha scicata (Spearmint) i hope its the right kind :). And Is there any tips on making it grow faster in the beginning like maybe taking a shovel and moving half the plant/roots to anothe location and letting it grow a bit or grab a few stems leaving the roots and placing the stems in wet dirt It is really that simple to grow mint from cuttings. Right now I have a few stems sitting in water. If I cut off a stem Do i directly shove it into dirt or should I peel the skin of a side to promote root growth or would that just make it more susceptable to diesease?????

On another note since i'm gonna try an make tea I have heard that drying the leaves increases the flavor Since i have never done this before would i just grab like window screen and staple it to a wooden square frame and trow the min in the sun (after I rinse the mine of course)

I am also experimenting with the stevia plant (I may not even like it) but I would like to experiment mixing it in with mint leaves who know i may never have ti use sugar for tea again ;). Would you propigate it in much the same way as mint from a cutting or do you have to use root hormone. Is root hormone necessary for certain plants or does it just increase the chances of success.

[Glenna Rose]

Surely, folks here won't think you're crazy! Many of us drink tea from our own mint.

I've not propagated Stevia, just bought the plants and used the leaves in various ways. BTW, a little Stevia goes a long way! :-)

If you want mint tea and don't want sugar (or Stevia), try chocolate peppermint. It's great! I had been growing it for the leaves just for munching. It's extremely refreshing to eat a couple (or more) of chocolate peppermint leaves with a glass of ice water . . . not much could be better on a hot day! (And *no* calories or sugar!)

The leaves taste surprisingly like a Peppermint Patty.

Though I (and my granddaughters) would eat two or three leaves as a snack, I had not made tea with it. That is, not until someone here said he/she didn't care for coffee or the tea and work and picked a sprig each morning on the way to the car to make tea at work. Amazed that I hadn't thought of it, I tried it . . . it's absolutely fabulous tea! Following the suggestion of the poster (I think), I use the entire sprig and use it to stir. A single sprig is worth at least two cups of tea if the water is steeping hot. I normally add sugar to tea but not to the chocolate peppermint tea; it doesn't need it.

My chocolate peppermint is in a huge planter pot and is very prolific, from the first year! It also survived our colder-than-usual winter with no extra protection though it is in a pot.

Enjoy your tea!

Glenna BTW, whoever posted that, thank you very much. :-)

>

[belly]

On 15 Apr 2004 16:41:10 -0700 in , [e-mail] (Jon) graced the world with this thought:

just keep them in water to root the slips. And for God's sake, keep it in a container when you plant it, unless you're planning on selling your house, or planting it in someone else's yard.

[belly]

On 15 Apr 2004 16:41:10 -0700 in , [e-mail] (Jon) graced the world with this thought:

sorry about the multiple post. All drying them does is concentrate the flavor. If you use fresh, use more to get the same result. Of course, it's also easier to store dried.... you can spread the leaves on sheet pans, anything clean, and dry them in the sun on a warm day... you don't need to go to all the trouble of the screen/frame thing, unless you already have some laying around, or are going into large-scale production.

[EvelynMcH]

You can also use a microwave to dry herbs like mint. It takes a little trial and error - you place the mint or other herbs on absorbent paper towels and zap it for 10 seconds at a time. I've only done this a few times when the weather was wet for a long time, and once in the middle of winter. Normally, I take a bunch of washed and cleaned mint, tightly tie the ends of the stems together and hang them together in bunches from a hook in the kitchen or on the screen porch, out of direct sunlight. In about a weekto 10 days, they will dry. -=>epm

[aj]

Hello Wait a couple of months and you'll have plenty. If you really want to encourage it, hold down a few of the side shoots and cover them with soil. You may need to peg them down with a few small twigs. The bits that you buried will take root and the plant will spread. (It's usually not needed).

If you haven't got enough to start with, ask your neighbours if they have any until yours get established.

I've been using Swiss Mint for tea. It's a really refreshing coolmint taste. I grow it in a small bed (10ft x 3ft), where it can't spread too far. It's about 3 ft diameter and 1 ft high. You'll have plenty in a few months time. I think I use approx 10 leaves per cup, then add a teaspoon of malt-extract. I've cut down on refined sugar.

A bit ot, but I like fennel-seed tea as well.

Cheers AJ