For context, I have no idea on how to take care of plants, but I’d like these three baby plants I bought to thrive.
I’d also love to snip them every now and then when I’m cooking, making a salad or a tea etc.
Right now each plant is quite young and in small plastic pots. The chocolate mint is already about 8-12 inches tall. The lemon balm and orange thyme are both less than 5 inches tall.
My questions where I’d love your advice are:
- How often should I water these plants?
- They’re all newly bought and in disposable plastic containers. When I repot them, will it be dangerous to mix their current soil and the generic store bought soil I’m planning to get?
- How fast do these plants grow? Should I be optimistic and already buy semi-large pots, even though they’re quite tiny right now?
- Any other general tips to care for these plants?
Appreciate your advice, whether it’s plant-specific or applies to all the three plants. Thanks in advance!
- Make sure these guys get a fair bit of sun.
- Clay pots are great for herbs because they keep moisture.
- Houseplant mix is just fine. Compost mix may bring bugs.
- Feed every month in summer and every three months in fall and winter.
- You’ll know when to water if you stick two fingers in just below the surface and it’s dry. They like to be most, not damp. Make sure your pot has adequate drainage.
- Grow rate is highly variable. Repot when they’re overflowing. If you move them too early then their roots will spread before the leafy greens. They grow down first, then up, they want to be cosy first.
Think of where they’d grow in the wild. :)
Ps: old teabag contents, in moderation, make great fertilizer.
Oh my god, this is extremely helpful – thanks a lot!! Just a question about your third point, by ‘feed’ do you mean water or fertilizer? I’m assuming fertilizer?
Fertilizer, or old tea bags. Herbal teas are best.
I can’t see all the comments, so this may have been mentioned, but make sure you have a good spot that gets bright sun most of the day. I don’t even bother with herbs indoors because my kitchen faces East and I don’t have a bright enough spot. If you notice your plants starting to look a little “leggy” (sending out long shoots with lots of distance between the leaves) that’s a good sign they are not getting enough light.
Thanks – especially for the tip about them looking ‘leggy’! Thankfully I’ve got a good windowsill that gets a lot of sun, so I’m hoping they’ll thrive (over the summer, at least).
EDIT: And yep, strangely enough, there are only 3 comments here (6 now, including my replies to each of them), but the text below my post says there’s 20 comments in total…strange?
Ah, maybe it is just a bug in the comment calculation then. I did think it was odd when I replied that an hour old post on a brand new forum about plants already had 17 replies, haha.
I’m jealous of everyone with bright indoor spots :) I actually don’t know if it makes any difference taste-wise for herbs if they get leggy, but it does make for a scraggly, sad-looking plant.
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mint n’ balm to my knowledge like moist-but-well-draining soil. I’d check daily to see if the top inch or so of the soil is dry and water when it is.
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naw, generic is fine. You picked hardy herbs!
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if you were planting these outside and in the ground, I’d be cautioning you that they were about to take over your entire flower bed and suggesting you grow them in pots instead.
3.1. You can transplant your seedlings straight into big ol pots, they’ll be fine. Don’t get ones that are too small, and don’t plant them in the same pot. They like to spread out!
3.2. I’m serious, though, don’t plant them in the ground. If you ever move the pots outside for a while, keep them on concrete away from beds where they could spread seeds or runners.
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pick a real sunny spot in your house-- where I live these lil guys would thrive best at a southern or western facing window.
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pinch the flower buds off as you see 'em to force the plant to spend more time on the foliage and less on flowers and seeds.
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if you fertilizer, (big if, it likely doesn’t need it for a while if the soil is fresh from the store) pick one with more nitrogen than potassium or phosphorous, since you want lots o’ leaves and not so many flowers or fruits
Enjoy! These herbs are a delight to grow and use in foods. Love 'em.
You’re a godsend!! Just one question – any tips on nitrogen-dense fertilizers? In the past I’ve used coffee grounds as a generic fertilizer, but not sure if they’re dense on N, P or K.
I’m about to head and buy some pots + soil, feeling very reassured, thanks!!
Coffee grounds have a high N content relative to P and K, but they’re pretty acidic. Be careful using too much!
Honestly, most all fertilizers publish their “npk ratio”, either online or on the package. Usually general purpose fertilizers are high in nitrogen (like miraclegrow, for example), but it’s easy to get in the habit of checking the npk ratio before buying.
Again, I would recommend you not fertilize your newly potted plants if you use a potting mix from a store, usually they have enough fertilizer for at least a while and you don’t want to use too much or you’ll burn your plants.
If you pot right now, they’re probably good until like Feburary/March. After that, you can fertilize over a few weeks in the Spring and top off a bit in the summer. Then, no fertilizer in fall and winter until the following spring.
That might not be like… the objectively best way to do it? It’s just one way. Mint and lemon balm are pretty self sufficient tbh, so… don’t over think it ;)
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