Medicine cabinets and Christmas bakeries benefit from home-grown anise. Planting and caring for the annual herb plant is not difficult. However, harvesting anise seeds is a headache for many hobby gardeners. Read well-founded answers to frequently asked questions here. You can find out how to identify ripe aniseed and pick it correctly here.
When and how should you pick anise?
Anise should be harvested about 6 weeks after flowering, i.e. late August to October. Seeds that are ready to harvest can be recognized by wilted flowers and brownish shells. Pick the fruit stalks just before they are fully ripe, cut off the stalks and hang them upside down to dry.
When is harvest time?
Anise (Pimpinella anisum) belongs to the umbelliferous family and found its way into our herb gardens from Asia. The sought-after seeds with their distinctive aroma ripen in the white umbrella flowers. Consequently, flowering time and harvest are closely related:
- Anise flowering time: July to August
- Harvest time: 6 weeks after flowering
If you plant aniseed in a sunny, dry, gravelly-loamy location, the harvest will start at the end of August. In partially shaded, cool and moist locations, you can sometimes only pick aniseed from October onwards.
How to recognize ripe anise?
The summer flowering period of anise is an important indication that the healing, spicy seeds are now growing. Because the white umbel flowers unfold in stages, we recommend regular check-ups in the herb bed from August onwards. Ripe anise can be recognized by wilted flowers and seeds with brownish shells.
Picking anise correctly – how does it work?
For a rich anise harvest, compete with the wilting plants. Anis strives to distribute the ripe seeds throughout the bed so that hordes of offspring can flourish from them. So that this process does not reduce the crop yield, you should be faster. How to pick anise correctly:
- The best time is shortly before full maturity
- Cut off fruit heads with stems
- Hang the aniseed stems with fruit heads upside down and let them dry
- Spread out a cloth or foil to catch falling seeds
Alternatively, place air-permeable bags made of fleece or cotton over the fruit heads so that the ripe seeds collect in them. Store aniseed in dark, airtight containers. This storage preserves the valuable ingredients for at least two years. The dried anise seeds should only be crushed in a mortar when used as a spice or medicinal plant.
Tip
Anise (Pimpinella anisum) should not be missing in the planting plan for the herb snail. For the aromatic sun worshiper, reserve a spot in the upper Mediterranean zone. Balcony gardeners place anise in the pot at the top of the sunny herb staircase.
