How to Grow TONS of Mint (And Not Let it Take Over)
How to Grow TONS of Mint (And Not Let it Take Over)
Join @jacquesinthegarden and I as we grow multiple different varieties of mint and discuss ways to prevent it from spreading, propagate it, and harvest at the optimal time for freshness and flavor.
00:00 - Intro
00:08 - Quick Mint Tips
00:42 - Mint Varieties
01:57 - Propagation By Division
04:12 - Propagation By Cuttings
06:45 - Mint In Containers
07:48 - Clean Up \u0026 Harvest
IN THIS VIDEO
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Content
1.36 -> in today's video i'm going to show you
2.32 -> how to grow one of the most popular
3.76 -> herbs of all time mint without letting
6.879 -> it take over your garden i have a ton of
8.559 -> different varieties of mint in this
9.679 -> raised bed which i'm excited to share
11.04 -> with you but first just a couple quick
12.799 -> tips on mint care it's a simple plant to
15.759 -> grow guys very simple you want ample
18.8 -> light not too much though it can be in a
20.8 -> little bit of shade you want a moist
23.439 -> soil that is rich in organic matter the
25.519 -> real one thing you can do wrong with
27.039 -> mint as far as its care goes is just
29.519 -> letting the soil dry out there's these
31.679 -> rhizomes in there there's roots in there
33.6 -> it tends to want a lot of water it's a
36.16 -> fast grower so just don't let it dry out
38.48 -> and now let's go through a little bit of
40.239 -> the history of this plant and some of
41.44 -> the coolest varieties you can grow so
43.2 -> mint is a fascinating plant it's origins
45.52 -> are somewhat unknown it's kind of all
47.28 -> around the world now and no one can
48.559 -> really trace it down to one particular
50.32 -> location
51.44 -> one thing that's crazy about it is while
53.199 -> there are tons of different varieties
54.879 -> which i'll mention in a second they all
56.8 -> share the same stem characteristic the
59.76 -> stems themselves if you really give them
61.6 -> a feel are sort of squarish in shape
64.4 -> they're not really round
66.479 -> besides that the leaf the flavor of the
68.32 -> smell all varies greatly so here's a
70.64 -> couple varieties that i personally like
72.56 -> some classics this one's spearmint the
74.88 -> classic one that you can find in a gum
76.64 -> what's interesting about this one is you
78.24 -> can't really grow it from seed it must
79.92 -> be propagated vegetatively which i'll
81.68 -> show you in a second you've got
83.04 -> peppermint here that's just an absolute
84.64 -> classic and then here's an example of
86.72 -> one a little bit overgrown if i do say
88.56 -> so this is pineapple mint
90.799 -> and it really does have that scent
92.72 -> there's also apple mint orange mint
95.28 -> chocolate mint all sorts of different
97.04 -> types that really do smell the way that
99.68 -> they're named not necessarily taste
101.92 -> sometimes i can't really map the taste
103.68 -> to the to the scent but hey it's still
106.32 -> something fun to experiment with if you
107.92 -> go out to the store i might have five or
109.6 -> ten different varieties of mint popping
111.52 -> in all over the garden and they grow
114.32 -> particularly well in containers which
116.24 -> i'm going to show you right now so here
118.24 -> is a pretty neglected pot of mint you
120.96 -> can see it probably was nice and bushy
123.119 -> at some point in the past but now it's
125.52 -> kind of scraggly and just some outskirts
127.52 -> of little cuttings here that have tried
130.239 -> to survive so what we're going to do is
131.92 -> a full on reset you can see this pots
133.84 -> even a little bit broken here roots are
135.76 -> trying to come out so what we want to do
138.239 -> is we might have to massage this out
139.68 -> just a bit let's get it out here all
142 -> right this is a little more stuck in
143.44 -> than we thought isn't it guys what mint
145.52 -> wants to do
146.8 -> is run and if you don't let it run
149.12 -> you end up getting a situation where
151.92 -> maybe it's even the mint that caused
153.599 -> that crack in that pot because it really
155.36 -> wants to go so this is really tight in
157.28 -> here
158.239 -> there we go that did it as you can see
161.44 -> here the rhizomes they want to run they
163.12 -> want to produce more mint and then
164.879 -> there's just some normal roots as well
166.56 -> so this is where you got to get a little
167.76 -> brutal and you really don't need to be
169.84 -> afraid whatsoever you can take scissors
171.92 -> you can take shears whatever i'm going
173.44 -> to take a little small handsaw and
176.8 -> actually just cut this apart
178.959 -> because what what's crazy about mint in
180.959 -> containers is it really does tend to
183.2 -> displace the soil
184.959 -> so as you can see this was obviously
186.4 -> once full
187.92 -> of soil but if we cut this in half
190.08 -> yeah there's soil in here for sure but
192 -> there's also a ton
193.599 -> of root mass and so let's say i wanted
195.599 -> four new mint plants well that's very
196.959 -> easy i'll just cut this
199.12 -> into
200.319 -> quarters here cut this one right here
202.879 -> what i can do is kind of
205.68 -> tease this apart as well i can kind of
208.159 -> hack off the bottom
211.44 -> we don't really need that stuff down
212.959 -> there
213.92 -> we still have some mint going up top
216.879 -> you can pull out some of these at least
220.159 -> all we need is this much
222 -> that's really it and then if we were to
223.92 -> take
224.84 -> this and pot it back up in a fresh pot
227.76 -> of soil in fact we could probably even
229.44 -> use
230.799 -> some of this stuff here now that it's
232.64 -> been freed
234.239 -> of the mint mayhem
236 -> but what you would do is just reset into
238.48 -> a new container
241.12 -> pop it in just like this
243.2 -> put some soil around it and you're good
245.12 -> to go and you could do this with this
246.4 -> mint with this mint whatever so this is
248.64 -> a good way to reset an overgrown mint
250.959 -> container hey this is jacques from jock
252.879 -> in the garden and today we're going to
254.239 -> be talking about propagating mint so
256.639 -> what you're going to need is a clip a
258.479 -> knife something like that
260.32 -> a nice pot of soil or multiple pots
262.96 -> and if you want also you could just use
264.479 -> a cup of water so the first thing we're
266.56 -> going to do
267.52 -> is come into the mint and we're going to
269.52 -> just look for a nice branch
271.759 -> that we don't mind slipping away so i'm
273.759 -> going to come in here
275.12 -> and what you want to get is a branch
277.28 -> that has multiple leaf nodes because
279.04 -> what we're going to do
280.479 -> is actually strip off those leaves and
282.479 -> i'll talk a little bit about why we're
283.759 -> doing that the other option you do have
286.32 -> is actually to dig around the plant but
288.24 -> i'm going to bring the camera in closer
289.6 -> and show you what i'm talking about what
291.28 -> we want to do is get in close to where
293.199 -> the plant is actually contacting the
294.96 -> soil and we're going to in particular
296.88 -> look at this section right here where we
298.88 -> have multiple branches making contact
301.36 -> with the soil so what i'm going to do
304 -> is i'm going to come in and clip where i
306.24 -> see the start of these
308.24 -> and then we'll take a closer look
311.12 -> up yeah so that's exactly what i was
312.88 -> thinking this actually has roots so you
315.28 -> could see
316.24 -> right
317.039 -> right there next to my thumb there's a
318.479 -> couple little roots hanging out and
320.56 -> these roots are totally fine to
322.4 -> transplant now oh there's a good shot so
324.56 -> you could actually just shove this into
325.68 -> pot of soil which we're going to do
327.039 -> right now what you can see on the
328.8 -> example that i actually clipped from the
330.16 -> ground is that the roots are coming out
331.84 -> where the leaf nodes are so what we want
333.68 -> to do
334.56 -> is take a section of mint that has
336.4 -> multiple leaf nodes and we're going to
338.16 -> actually strip those leaves off by just
340.16 -> simply running our fingers down
342 -> so now any one of these points where the
343.6 -> leaves originally were can now produce
345.68 -> roots
346.639 -> so what we'll do is we'll just take a
347.919 -> cup of water
349.44 -> throw the cutting in after maybe a week
351.6 -> you'll start seeing little roots and in
353.52 -> two weeks or so you'll start seeing much
355.039 -> more roots and at that point you could
356.24 -> just transplant it out so that's option
358.4 -> one that's the easiest
360.319 -> the other option you have is to take
361.68 -> some soil and just directly grow your
363.84 -> plant
364.639 -> it's the same principle you want to take
366.24 -> a section of plant
368 -> i'm going to go ahead and trim that and
369.84 -> find where there's a leaf node
372.16 -> strip the leaves off you could even go
374 -> back a couple
375.44 -> and you have a few options here you
376.88 -> could just shove it in the pot
380 -> keep it somewhere semi-shaded and make
381.759 -> sure it gets enough moisture and that
383.44 -> will produce roots
384.88 -> the other option you have is that you
386.479 -> could also just lay it down in some soil
388.479 -> like this
390.08 -> take a little extra bury it in
392.88 -> so that's really all there is to it you
394.479 -> could just let that sit in a couple
396.8 -> weeks time this will start producing
398 -> roots in these pots you'll be able to
399.759 -> see them coming out the side at that
401.28 -> point you could really just plant it out
403.28 -> and that's as easy as it is for mint
405.039 -> propagation if you want to control your
407.039 -> mint the only foolproof way is to force
410.08 -> it to grow in something like this where
412.08 -> it can't spread just a classic container
414.4 -> so here's a mint that we have it's not
416.639 -> too root bound this is something that
418.16 -> you might find at the local nursery and
419.919 -> when you're potting it up from what you
421.52 -> buy at the nursery
423.28 -> it spreads so quickly that i would say
426.16 -> you know typically when you like pot up
427.36 -> a house plant you say oh you potted up
429.039 -> an inch bigger than the pot it's already
430.88 -> in with mint you could go a little bit
432.72 -> larger this is just about at that inch
435.36 -> point so what i would do is i would just
437.759 -> scratch the sides up just a little bit
439.84 -> just to kind of loosen the root matter
442.639 -> it really does get crazy with mint you
444.479 -> would not believe how fast it can tangle
446.479 -> itself up so you want to open it up a
448.319 -> little bit
449.599 -> and then just pop it in and what you'll
451.12 -> do is take some potting soil and just
452.56 -> backfill around this and this will grow
454.8 -> like this for pretty much an entire
457.039 -> season and then you get into some of the
458.96 -> propagation techniques that help you
460.96 -> take one mint plant and either turn it
462.96 -> into many or reset it when it outgrows
465.759 -> this pot and start the process all over
468.16 -> again we're back out here in this front
469.759 -> mint bed and i want to do a little
470.8 -> cleanup and harvest and kind of talk
472.639 -> about some of the ways that you can do
474.16 -> this and guess who just showed up
476.24 -> babka's hungry for some mint so let's
477.84 -> harvest some for her
479.36 -> as well so mint unlike a lot of herbs or
482.639 -> greens you know something like lettuce
484.24 -> you probably want to come out harvest it
485.68 -> right in the beginning of the morning
486.96 -> with mint
488.16 -> right about now it's about 11 a.m is a
490.16 -> great time to harvest it so i can come
492.24 -> through and just harvest more or less as
494.4 -> much as i want and when you harvest you
496.639 -> want to cut right above a leaf node
498.72 -> because you're going to get branching
500.319 -> out both sides so i can also sort of
502.24 -> landscape and prune this mint at the
505.199 -> same time that i'm harvesting it's a
506.72 -> great time because the aromatics are
509.12 -> high right before noon so you kind of
511.44 -> get it at its peak freshness so i'm
513.44 -> taking a few sprigs there that's going
515.12 -> to force this to bush up quite a bit and
517.279 -> i want to clean up some of these other
518.8 -> ones here too and then we can talk about
521.12 -> some of the uses for mint some of our
523.2 -> favorite uses is what we call herb water
526.24 -> which is basically just taking a mason
528.56 -> jar full of water you can throw in mints
531.04 -> and sprigs and maybe every few days just
532.959 -> replace them mint grows so fast you're
534.72 -> going to have no problem doing that at
536.32 -> all and then just one final thing i
538.08 -> wanted to touch on as you grow mint in
539.839 -> your garden is yeah i have maybe one two
542.56 -> three four five six different types of
544.16 -> mint here sometimes it has been shown
546.72 -> that planting them all together can tend
548.959 -> to make their flavors blend out and
551.76 -> become indistinguishable from one
553.279 -> another so i haven't noticed it too much
555.76 -> in my garden but a few gardeners that i
557.44 -> respect have told me that that's the
558.72 -> case so one thing i'm thinking about
560.399 -> doing is maybe putting in dividers i
562.64 -> still want mint in this bed and i want
565.36 -> all the varieties that i have but if i
566.8 -> put in some dividers not only does that
568.48 -> prevent spreading but also perhaps it
571.44 -> separates the mint out a little bit and
573.279 -> maybe that flavor combination doesn't
575.6 -> happen i don't know it's something i'm
576.959 -> going to have to try here in the garden
578.48 -> so as i harvest this mint i really
579.92 -> encourage you to give it a grow this
581.519 -> season it is one of the easier things
583.6 -> remember containers are your best friend
585.44 -> if you don't want to worry about mint
586.959 -> until next time good luck in the garden
588.959 -> and keep on growing come here
591.92 -> okay she doesn't want to play with me
593.2 -> right now so i'm just going to take my
594.399 -> mint and go inside
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRAJ3l2Mm4k