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How to Grow Mint
Check Out: How to Grow Spring Onions (Scallions)
For those into growing edibles, here’s a guide on how to grow your own mint from a cutting. I grew my mint in a pot for food garnishing reasons – most of the time, I only need a leaf or two to garnish my food, and I find that I won’t be able to finish a whole packet purchased from the supermarket. Home-grown mint is fresh and you can cut them whenever needed. For those who are total gardening noobs like me, the good news is that mint is perfect to plant because they are easy and fast growing – in fact I read that some people prefer to grow them in pots for fear of the mint overtaking their garden. To grow mint, I simply take a cutting (cut a stalk of mint and chunk it into the soil) and it grows easily to a lush plant in a month. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to grow your own mint.
P.S. I don’t know much about gardening. I’m simply growing them (mainly edibles) so that they can come in handy for my cooking and photo shoots (for example, I grow coriander and spring onions for garnishing foods). I am writing about my successful gardening projects to share with those who are interested to grow their own foods. Therefore, I apologize in advance for not being able to give any good advice on plant care, except for what type of conditions worked for me.
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First of all, you need mint cuttings. You can get them from someone you know who had a pot of mint. Simply snip off a stalk of it, and for maximum results, pluck most of the leaves at the bottom away as shown above. I’m not sure if harvested mint bought off the shelves can be used, but I’m fairly sure it might work as I grew sage this way before. |
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Plant by burying a considerable part of the stalk into the soil. |
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You have planted one mint cutting. Do a few more with some spacing between the cuttings. I do about 3-5 of these per pot because sometimes, not all the cuttings survive. Water the pot daily with exposure to sunlight and fertilise the soil fortnightly. If they are successful, you can see them growing within a few days or two. If they are not successful, it is quite telling because they will wither quickly. Should that happen, you can try again. |
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The above is the actual pot of cutting I made – I didn’t even trim off most of the leaves as I was quite sure they will survive as I done this many times. The earlier 3 photos were taken recently just to make this step-by-step tutorial as I realized I had forgotten to take close up photos of the successful cuttings. |
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After 1 month and 1 week, my tiny cutting has blossomed into a lush pot of mint. Fertilize fortnightly with organic fertilizer. |
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Close up of the leaves. If you already have a pot of mint, you can still try out this tutorial to either to increase your pots of mint or to grow a “reserve pot” in case (touch wood) your existing mint ever get hit by plant diseases. Happy gardening and cooking! |
i tried but the mint didn’t grow…
just wondering what type of mint did u use? cause the ones i got are quite ‘thin’.. pffttt :(
Hi Swee San, sorry I’m not sure about the specific breed or scientific name, it’s the “common” mint found in our local nurseries and markets. Not the mojito type of mint, definitely.
Hi Wiffy
Got a stalk of mint to spare? *wink*
Elise
Hi,
I’m very keen.. I do not know anyone who own a pot of mint leaves..wonder if u cld send a stalk of leave by post to me :P will pay for P & H..
hee…
khim
Yes yes this is how i grow mine too… but the mint that i have the leaves are slight bigger compare to yrs :)
Hi Wiffy, my mint died on me even though it was a nursery grown one. Ok, you’ve gotten me convinced to try again.
Dearie, you are definitely not a noob in gardening from what i see here! And u’ve got GREEN FINGERS!
Okie, i’m giving mint another go — 2 pots died already ok! :( –.. based purely on your tutorial! *grin*
I don’t have green fingers, mint is simply too easy to grow ;) Good luck!
I bought a bunch of mint leaves fr market. Then I used up all the leaves for cooking. Balance stalks were used for planting. I’ve harvested few times of home grown mint leaves. Now I have home grown spring onion, mints and mugwort ( just started).
Beautiful!!! I love how easy u made it sound. It’s true though basil and mint are easy to grow!
I bought a small pot of fresh mint from the supermarket and then transfer to a bigger pot and I have 3 pots of mint in my backyard now. Even my rosemary is still growing :)
Wiffy, I love mint, and just got a pot of it and it is growing like weed :-) I must confess to you that not all my cutting turns to a live plant…your look beautiful. Have a great week ahead!