While you can grow most herbs for the kitchen from seeds, peppermint is a little more difficult. Compared to other propagation methods, sowing takes longer and is not always successful. What you should consider when sowing.
How to sow peppermint successfully?
The best way to sow peppermint is to plant it on the windowsill from February onwards. Fill the potting soil into planters, scatter the seeds, keep them clear and moist, and cover with cling film. After 1-3 weeks the seedlings begin to grow and can be planted out in mid-May.
Where to get peppermint seeds from?
You can get seeds without a variety information in the supermarket or hardware store. If you would like to grow different types of peppermint in the garden, you should ask at a gardening store. Sometimes your neighbor can help out with special varieties.
You can get your own seeds if you let the peppermint bloom in the garden and simply shake out the ripe seeds in the fall.
Put peppermint on the windowsill
Since peppermint requires relatively high soil heat to germinate, it makes sense to grow it on the windowsill from February onwards.
Prepare planters (€9.00 on Amazon) with potting soil. Do not scatter the seeds too densely. You are not allowed to cover it because it germinates in the light. Keep the seeds moist but not wet. Cover the containers with cling film and ventilate them once a day to prevent mold from forming.
The first seedlings take between one and three weeks to arrive. Planting is not done before mid-May, when the ground has warmed to around 15 to 18 degrees and the plants are large enough.
Sowing outdoors
To sow peppermint outdoors, wait until mid-May. Create rows about 30 centimeters apart in the growing bed or at the desired planting location. Scatter the seed thinly.
After emergence, separate the plants about 15 centimeters apart. As soon as the peppermint has reached a height of approximately ten centimeters, place it in the desired location at a distance of 50 centimeters from other plants. You should prepare the soil beforehand:
- Loosening
- Remove compactions
- Possibly. refine with sand
- Pulling weeds
- Incorporate tire compost
Tips & Tricks
Since sowing peppermint can be quite time-consuming and time-consuming, you should instead use cuttings for propagation. A few stems are often sufficient, which you cut from a pre-grown plant from the gardening store and let them root in a glass of water.