Posted on February 11, 2008 in Herb Garden
If you are worried about harvesting the herbs and for this reason you are restricting yourself from harvesting herbs, then you are suggested to be calm. You don’t need to worry about that because there are some easy and effective guidelines. Find them below.
Harvesting herbs at your home can be done very easily and effectively. Only you need to follow some of the guidelines.
Few Guidelines for Harvesting Herbs
Here are few guidelines that you need to follow to harvest herbs in your garden.
- If you are opting for such herb plants those have volatile oil like lemon balm and mints, you need to harvest them just before the noon. It is so because by noon the oil is supposed to reach the leaves.
- Generally, rain washes away a good quantity of aromatic oils from some of the herbs. So you need to wait for at least one day but you are strongly advised to wait for two to three days to allow the plant collect the oil again.
- If it is not the harvesting time then you should never pick more then one third of the available harvest. It will allow most of plants to survive. You are unsure of the amount of harvesting then you start with one tenth of the harvest and keep on observing.
- The gathered plants should be healthy and should not be taken from such a place where they are exposed to air and soil pollutions.
- You need to go for the plants which you can grow at your home instead of collecting from wild places.
- Normally, it is better if you can harvest entire branches instead of removing leaves only.
- Herbs like mint, lavender, oregano and pennyroyal those have flexible stems are easier to be picked with the entire plant. You need to keep the leaves as more as possible. It aids in preserving their healing properties.
- You can harvest the plants like elderberry and oak by only picking every leaf separately.
- You need to start harvesting the herb at such a time while the plant has sufficient foliage to continue its growth.
- You can harvest the annual herbs until the frost comes.
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