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Herb Growth and Care - Part 1

Hey, friends! I’ve gathered from my own experience a pretty detailed list on growing and caring for herbs. Because I’m currently a university student and don’t own a house, most of my tips and tricks will work for you even if all the space you have is a windowsill! I don’t know yet how many parts I’ll have, but this is Part 1:

Growing herbs from seeds

Difficulty: Moderate

What you’ll need: seeds, a container (more on that later), normal garden soil with good drainage, water, lots of sunlight

Easiest seeds to start with: chives, mint, parsley

Where to get seeds: online, local gardening and hardware store

The container: can be anything from a plastic cup to a mug to a clay pot to professional seedling starter trays. I find that if you don’t want to buy a specific tray, using an old egg carton does the trick, especially since it’s already divided up into small containers. If using something that’s porous (meaning water will seep through), put a plastic tray or something underneath. Containers that have a hole at the bottom for extra water to escape are best. Poke a hole of get something that has one already.

The soil: really any standard gardening mix will do as long as it has decent drainage. Ask a store employee if you’re unsure, but most soil bags will advertise if they have good drainage. Fill your container of choice about an inch from the top if using a cup/pot/large container, or half an inch if using some kind of tray.

Planting: Poke holes into the dirt with your finger, one in each tray section, or about an inch apart if using a larger container. The depth will depend on the seed, check your package for instructions. Again depending on the seed, pop one seed (for large ones) or three-ish (for tiny ones) into each hole. Cover with a light layer of soil and pour water over top. Place in location with lots of sunlight, like a window sill.

Care: Rotate your container every couple of days to make sure all the seedlings are getting equal light. Water again every 1-2 days, preferably with a spray bottle to avoid drowning your seeds. You want damp/moist soil, not muddy soil.

Thinning the seedlings: Once they’re about 3-4 inches tall, you’ll want to go through and remove the smaller/weaker seedlings to avoid overcrowding if there’s more than one in each container, applies to trays and pots. This prevents them from fighting over the resources and killing each other.

Re-potting: Once your seedlings are about 6-8 inches tall, you’ll want to re-pot them. A more permanent container is better here: a pot, mug, not an egg carton or plastic cup. If it has a drainage hole on the bottom, even better. Place some rocks (any normal gardening rocks are fine, you can even throw in a crystal) to help with drainage. Loosely fill the bottom with soil. You can use the same soil. Place your seedling inside the pot and fill around it. If your seedling is too low, take it out and put more soil in the bottom.

Care: Continue to mist the soil every 1-2 days, or just pour in some water. Again, moist soil, not mud. Your seedling will keep growing into a full grown herb plant. You may have to re-pot again if it gets too big. Look for pictures of the full grown plant online to know when its ready to harvest. Never harvest more than 1/3 of your plant at a time.

Congrats!

[Part 1 - You Are Here] [Part 2 - Cuttings] [Part 3 - Maintenance] [All]

Growing Herbs in Water

Growing herbs in water makes it easier to control your plants growth conditions, it takes up less space, and produces bigger and healthier plants. Easiest/most common herbs to grow in water from cuttings (propagate) are lemon-balm, mints, basil, sage, thyme, and oregano. Rosemary also works, but will take longer to sprout roots. Herbs like ginger, turmeric, and garlic might not do very well.

To start, you’ll need:

- A jar/ container

- Tap or bottled water (avoid distilled water)

- Liquid plant food

- Rooting hormone

- Herb stems

Cutting Stems:

Choose a stem that is a good 4-6" tall, and looks healthy and strong, and cut it below a leaf joint. You can also buy cut herb stems in the produce section of your grocery store. A good example:

Next, strip the bottom leaves so that about 1/2-3/4 of the stem is bare.

Then use scissors to make a slanted cut right below the lowest leaf joint. The area that the leaves grow out of, leaf joints or nodes, have a lot of meristem cells, which form a callus over the cut and sprouts roots. And cutting at a slanted angle increases the surface area for both water and nutrient uptake.

After this, place the stem in a jar of (not distilled) water, and place the jar somewhere moderately sunny (depending on the needs of the herb). (Source for pictures)

You don’t NEED to do much else after this, but it would likely appreciate some help. Add a rooting hormone to the water, which will stimulate the stem to grow roots and contains a fungicide to prevent the cut from rotting. You can buy a premade rooting hormone, such as this one, or you can make your own using willow twigs. Here’s a DIY.

Also, plants usually get their nutrients from the soil, but since we aren’t using soil here, we will have to provide nutrients for the plant by adding it to the water. Again, this is something that many people do well without, but it will likely give better results. You don’t need much, certainly not as one would with an entire hydroponics system with a nutrient reservoir. Just add a drop or two when the roots start growing (about two weeks in), and maybe once a month after that when you change out the water. You can buy liquid plant food like this one.

Finally, changing the water can depend on what plant you have, such as lemon balm which needs to have its water changed weekly. If you are using an opaque container, algae won’t form as quickly as it would in a clear one, and doesn’t need to be changed quite as often. Generally, more or less every three weeks or when the water is a bit murky should be fine. Done!