A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 harvesting?

Hi,
This is going to sound like a stupid question, but I am really new at gardening - I just bought a bunch of my favorite herbs to create an indoor, kitchen windowsill herb garden, and I live in south Florida. So what I'm wondering about is how to "harvest." Do I use scissors, or my fingers, and where do I cut, or pinch (and is there any trick to it? I am worried about hurting the plants. I don't have a very good track record with keeping anything green alive!
And can I start to harvest now? I'm psyched to start using the rosemary, oregano, peppermint and basil in food and teas, but is it OK to use the leaves already (I just bought the herbs a few days ago). And how much can I use? Because it looks like some of my recipes would entail taking a lot of leaves off these small plants. Thanks so much for any help!

Cali,
Welcome to The Garden Helper's Forum,
We're very glad you found us.....

Just wanted to let you know I was going to move
your post into the HERB SECTION, I know we have several gardeners' here that love herbs and will be able to help you out alot better in to there..

*and don't forget to take a peak around, ther'es lot's to do here, and so much to keep you busy, no matter what season of the year it is...

One thing I can tell you about herbs is,
they liked to be pinched... makes them more compact, sends up new side shoots, that signals to them, they need to produce more, and all around is good for them..

Thank you! and when you say "pinched", do you just mean pulling the leaf off the stem, or is there some other trick to it? thanks again!

Well, I'm not all that firmilar with Herbs,
I grow some, (peppermint, lemon thyme, chives) but they are outdoors perennials...

*I know there's the others here
that cook with them and will come thru sometime*
but it would I guess depend on the type of herb you're using....

Like a basil would be used by the leaf maybe,
but rosemary would be by the stalk/stem... *I don't know if I'm using the right word for it, but where there's a stem, and many tiny leaves off to the side, you would take like 3" or 4"
of the stem and pinch or use scissors and cut off at that mark or inches'...
Sometimes they leave that stem whole in cooking other recipes could use it when they strip off the tiny leaves from the stem....

Christina and 4Ruddy/Vanessa use them..
I know they can help more intensely...
they both grow them and cook with them....

Hi Cali,

I'm new too. My basil requires a lot of pruning or it gets woody. I usually take the stem and all back to within a leaf or two of any earlier branching. I'm trying for a very full bush this year because last year my basil got very leggy. I let my plant get a good foot tall before I began pruning it because I didn't want to take to much of the leaves because I know it needs them to live. I haven't taken more than 15% of the leaves in any one pruning. But I can prune about every 3 to 4 weeks so it works out pretty good.

I know what you mean about the recipies calling for a lot of the fresh herbs. I have a recipe for Pumpkin and Sage Soup that called for 15 leaves. There is no way I could take that off of one plant until it was over a year old. But then some of that is because I don't fertilize a lot so my plants don't get as big and pretty as some others do.

I hope you are able to get the information you need for the other types of herbs you have. I've had mint in the past and just cut it as needed for tea. All I can tell you is that I usually kind of worked like I was hand clipping a lawn. I grew the mint from seed and it was very tiny. Not at all like you see in starter plants. But the taste was good so I'm not going to complain. I hope to find some chocolate mint this year for my garden. I love the smell.

cali, "pinched" means simply pinching the very tips of the branches with your finger and thumb to cut off the tip growth. This stimulates branches further down the stem and makes for a bushier, fuller plant.

Awesome, thank you!

Hi Cali

How big are your herbs? Is there anyway you can post a pic?

If you look at the my post titled, "My Indoor Herbs", there is a pic on page 2 of the few I have growing. I've used a little of the cilantro for a dip I made one evening. I keep pinching back my basil as Obywan described but I haven't used any yet and probably won't for a while. Like you mentioned, it would require taking too much off. My herbs aren't doing as well as they did last year but I think I just need to move them to my "green house", which is my spare bedroom because I have stronger lights up there. I just liked the idea of having them on my kitchen counter. Most herbs love plenty of sunshine!!

I know exactly what you mean about "hurting your plants". The first year I grew them, I didn't want to touch them...feeling the same as you. But don't worry, it is very important to pinch them back!!! When cooking with fresh rosemary, you need such little as it's a very strong tasting herb so when pinching that one, you may even have enough to add to roasted vegetable or chicken or wutever you like until you get good sized plants. And as you probably already know, rosemary is a perennial, it will get really big, the size of a bush. I'd put this one outside if I were you. They can live up to 30 years!

When you do harvest, be sure to harvest only what you can use fresh, as herbs lose a lot of flavour after they're dried.

Try to post a pic so we can see how big they are. Good luck Cali and welcome to the forum!!

Christina

BTW...

Comfrey is a good one to talk too as well as many others. I didn't see her here yesterday but I'm sure she'll be around before too long.

If you just bought your herb plants then they are probable to small to begin harvesting them. How big are the pots they were in when you bought them, and what herbs did you buy, also did you repot them and to what size pots? Different herbs you different things with as far as when and how to harvest. As far how, it really is your preference, you can just pluck a leaf at a time, being careful to not bruise it until you get ready to use it, or you can just snip leaves with alittle stem left on them, the stem can be used also again it is up to your preference. Another thing since these are indoors, be sure not to over water, as that is the cause of death of alot of indoor plants and if you plan to fertilize these plants be sure to use something that will not be harmful to you, Miracle Grow "seems" to be safe to use and if used diluted will keep your plants healthy and green. And as stated if you pinch or cut the top center part of the plant, it will cause it to be more compact and bushy, but if these are small don't do it yet, let them get alittle taller.

Hi,
Sorry it's taken me so long to respond, and thanks so much for all the great advice. My herbs are the small-size ones you see at grocery stores. I bought them - lavender, greek oregano, basil, rosemary and peppermint - at Home Depot and then repotted them at home into ceramic pots (the same size as the plastic pots the plants came in - probably about four inches tall and four inches in diameter). I followed some guidelines I found online - I put gravel in the bottom and used a mix of potting soil and perlite. I don't have a digital camera so I can't post a picture, but I'll try to borrow a camera this weekend. But they are basically the smallish potted herbs you'd find in any grocery store. I've kept them in a sunny, west-facing windowsill in my living room and have had to water them about every four or five days, when the soil gets really dry and they start looking droopy.
-Cali

With herbs like Basil and Orgeno, dont let the the plant flower! Keep pinching the tops, will make the plant more bushier which is good. If you let them flower they will pretty much slow down on growing!

With the four inch sized pots you will proable later on need to move to a larger pot for some of them...If they become leggy then you have to add more light.

Thanks! i haven't actually taken any leaves yet, but i'm starting to see some new growth, so i think i will pinch some leaves off the top of the longest stems... also, what size pot would you recommend i move them to? and, forgive my ignorance, but i keep hearing the word leggy and i'm not sure what it means...

Leggy means that the plants grow tall and wirey (not thick enough to support its own weight- the plant usally flops over!)

Deepcreeklake

your right about keeping it from seeding as that is what make Basil become woody. I grew it 2 years ago by seed and the plants got over 3 feet tall in my garden. I gave ALOT of it away but used what I could. As far as Oregano goes it`s hard to hurt that plant. I bought a SMALL patch and it got 6 times the original size it was. Spreads out and grows like a weed.

I myself treated the herb plants like a bush and I prne them often but with plastic sisers, other times I just rip it off the plants.

as far as tea goes I`d like to grow tea as it will taste different each harvest So anyone know there I can get tea seeds?

What I have always done in the garden..is when the plant gets large and starting to flower...I take the sissors and prune it back severely, these prunings can then be dried and stored for future use...Or with something like Lemon Balm or fragrant herbs...the leaves can be added to your bath water,or tied in a bag and added to the bath water. Most of the herb plants when they get big like this...will tolerate the pruning and put up new growth, for another big harvest.

thanks so much for all the advice. i have another question... i hate storing my wool sweaters in moth balls for the summer, and I've heard that lavendar works well for clothing storage (keeping moths away, I guess) does anyone have any ideas for how to go about it? I assume I have to dry out the lavendar leaves, but then I'm not sure what to put them in.

Satchels are usually made of satin or nylon. Something shinny with a very fine grain texture. You can make them look like little string purses or little pillows. I've even seen them made into pretty garden hats. I think the design is limited only by your imagination and sewing skills.

thank you! my sewing skills ARE limited. but now i know what type of material to buy.

Um I have a question. How big should my chives and mint plants be before I start harvesting?