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How to Grow Mint
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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 agree! It’s better to grow your own mint leaves or bay leaves!
The packets sold at supermarkets come with too many of em ^^;
Your mint leaves look oh so cute~ *^^*
They will surely make pretty decors for some yummy sweets you make ^_-
I didn’t know it’s possible to grow bay leaves in pots too, over here the dried ones are more commonly sold. You have to teach me one day ^o^
Some friends of mine in Portugal find bay leaf trees around the house, so they simply pick some leaves, dry em and use em for cooking!
How lucky! >u<
I buy a pot of bay leaf branch (I know I am cheating here! XD).
But in Portugal, it's rather hard to grow em.
They need warmth and wind.
It should be perfect in Singapore ^_-
OK, this looks a bit too easy! Maybe this is a plant that we could grow successfully. =)
Hi Elise & khim,
I’m sorry but I don’t think the cuttings will survive the shipping. You can get a pot of mint cheaply at the local nursery (cost about S$6), or you can also buy them at selected NTUC finest outlets – I think they have mini pots in the fridge sold quite cheaply. Alternatively, you can also try this out if you ever buy mint for cooking by planting the stalks.
Wiffy, I always wanted to grow mint plant, I must go and grab one pot this weekend :P
This is wonderful, Wiffy. I’ve usually grown mint via small, established plants, transplanted from peat pots into garden soil (yes, they colonize but quick!). I didn’t know you could propagate it so simply from cuttings. Great idea. Thanks.
Pretty! I would love to grow.. again, when I grow plants like basil etc… they end up dying :( Maybe becos of the weather here..:(
Yup Leemei, the cold weather in UK can be quite tricky. Perhaps you can grow it indoors with artificial light or try during summer :)
Tried to grow mint before, used similar method you shared here. Your post encourages me to try again.
I thought the sun in brisbane killed them before they grew roots, they died in a few days.
Might try in a cooler place first, then move them out to sunny place when they get stronger. What do you think?
Yes, my neighbour who had green fingers taught me that for best results, new cuttings should preferably be in a partially shaded area. Once they stabilize, you can transfer to a sunny area because mint do thrive with sunlight.
I grow other herbs without any problems, but some reason, I can’t seem to grow mint well. I always end up killing it! (but, I always try again)
Maybe it’s due to the climate. From what I know, they can endure quite a bit of sun so it’s perfect for Singapore’s tropical weather. Maybe you can try again during summer :)
Wiffy, you have green fingers. Any idea how to grow Rue?
no idea, honestly I don’t know what it is :p
Really? So easy? Now I need to look around and find a mint plant to spare ;p