Dill (Anethum graveolens) has been a very popular plant for seasoning and natural medicine since ancient times. To get the maximum flavor and he alth potential from dill, you should harvest the plant parts and seeds correctly.
When is the best time to harvest dill?
Dill should be harvested from May to September depending on the time of sowing, although dill tips can be cut first. To harvest dill seeds, they should be sown outdoors at the end of June at the latest and the seeds will ripen by autumn.
The right time to harvest dill
When harvesting dill, a distinction must be made between harvesting the dill tips and harvesting the dill seeds for kitchen purposes or re-sowing. Depending on the time of sowing, young dill tips can sometimes be harvested from the herb pot or from outdoor cultivation as early as May. Until September, individual dill tips can be cut into pieces of around 15 to 20 centimeters or even whole plants for processing or storage.
Harvesting dill seeds for use as a spice
If you want to harvest the dill seeds for use as a spice, they must be sown outdoors by the end of June at the latest. Then the brown seeds can ripen on the initially yellow flower umbels by autumn. To easily harvest and process dill seeds, it has proven useful to cut off the entire flower umbels when they are fully ripe and bundle them into small bouquets. Hang the dill bunches upside down in a well-ventilated place and place clean paper bags over the flower umbels from below. As the drying progresses, the seeds fall into the paper bags and can easily be bottled for further storage.
Harvesting and using dill tips
When growing dill in smaller pots, the plants can grow rather weakly, as their roots are actually relatively deep. Nevertheless, the amount grown in the pot is often enough to use cut dill tips for the following foods:
- for a broth for pickling gherkins
- as an ingredient in salads
- as a seasoning for fish dishes
- for dill potatoes as a traditional side dish
Storing harvested dill
If you correctly harvest the shoot tips of he althy dill plants in a balanced ratio, you can cut and process fresh dill several times under good site conditions. If you have particularly vigorously growing dill plants or want to stock up for the winter, the question arises as to how to store dill correctly. The best method for storing dill seeds is to dry them gently and store them in a dry, well-ventilated area. Dill tips, on the other hand, are preferably frozen to better preserve the aroma. Freshly harvested dill retains its aroma for up to three weeks when stored in the refrigerator.
Tips & Tricks
If you want to self-sow dill in your garden, you should leave a few flower umbels with seeds when harvesting. The chances are then usually good that the dill will look for a new ideal location as a crop rotation plant close to the old place.
