Mint is a flexible, easy-to-grow plant that many beginning gardeners try as a “first” crop, along with other easy plants like lettuce and radishes.
Mint is simple to manage, and it will provide you with lovely, flavorful leaves all season long with very little management! Is there a wrong way to harvest mint and a right way to eliminate injury to the plant?
Mint can be harvested in a way that does not kill the plant by harvesting it at the right time, using the proper tools, harvesting the appropriate quantity, and cutting the stem instead of pulling the leaves and stem off the plant. Harvesting mint that is new-growth in the early morning will provide you with the greatest results.
Mint is likely one of the hardiest plants in the vegetable and herb garden, however, you should still make sure that your collecting methods do not injure or damage the plant in any way.
Just be aware: Poor harvesting can damage the plant, and it could die or be damaged and become sickly, plus it produces an inferior crop.
How to Pick Mint Leaves Like a Professional
Mint is a very forgiving plant, making it ideal for beginning gardener to practice their growing techniques!
Even if mint is hardy and a robust garden plant, I recommend that you follow proper harvesting protocols with your mint plant to avoid unnecessary trauma, which may possibly kill the plant.
We created some recommended protocols for you to harvest your mint thoughtfully and keep it thriving during its growing season, and consistently supply you with fresh succulent leaves.
Harvest Mint at the Right Time
The time you harvest your mint is an important part of keeping a healthy plant.
If your mint plant is new to your family, then you will want to allow the mint to settle in from the transplant before you think about harvesting from it. Allow it to settle in for at least 10 days to 2 weeks.
Transplanting a plant causes it to go into shock, and is a large contributor to wilting when plants are transplanted. Newly planted mint needs undisturbed time to have the transplant shock pass, and time for the plant to establish itself in its new growing environment.
If you harvest too soon from the plant, you will add trauma to transplant shock and possibly weaken the plant or create susceptibility for the plant to become diseased or experience reduced growth as a result.
Once you give your mint time to settle in, the best time of day to harvest some leaves is early morning.
If you harvest in the morning, the leaves will be the freshest and most succulent full of essential oils to provide the greatest flavor.
Key Takeaway: Once the sun is out and there is heat in the day, the leaves lose moisture, and the essential oils in the leaves also dissipate in intensity, meaning that you are more likely to obtain dried and less flavorful leaves.
Never Pull Your Mint Leaves to Harvest
As a new gardener, maybe you are just wandering around your garden and notice that your mint is growing well,l and decide to go and harvest some to flavor your meal.
You should never just grab the mint shoots or leaves and pull or rip them from the plant. This pulling can damage the stems of the plants, and if you pull hard enough, it may even damage the roots of the plants. The harvested leaves could be crushed in your palm, allowing the flavor to seep out of the leaves.
If you bruise or crush your mint leaves, the leaves may wilt and lose flavor and texture before you even use it in your meal.
While pulling too hard on the mint plant can lead to the dislodging or damaging of the roots, allowing the plant to become susceptible to pests and disease, and limiting the plant’s ability to take up nutrients.
This can result in a weak, unproductive plant that takes time to recover.
Use the Right Tools to Harvest Your Mint
Utilizing the right tools to harvest herbs and vegetables can help maximize the flavor of the harvested portion and limit any residual damage to the plant.
Your best choice for harvesting the mint is a pair of sharp gardening scissors or some small, sharp shears, which are the most appropriate tool. Blunt cutting instruments will bruise the stem you are cutting, and the plant that is left behind. If cutting with a knife, you have to bend the stem over, which causes bruising.
Some gardeners like to use the pinch method for harvesting the tender young mint stems.
This method involves pinching the tender stem between your thumb and forefinger and using your thumbnail against your forefinger to break through the stem.
This method is fast and quick, but it also bruises the stem and can potentially damage the plant.
Harvest the Right Amount of Mint
The inherent hardiness of mint allows it to be harvested quite aggressively without causing damage to the plant. Harvesting aggressively and frequently should provoke your mint plant to generate further lushness and density in its leaves.
However, while harvest time can have positive effects on the mint plant, harvesting more than it can handle can lead to poor growth. Aggressively harvesting the leaves, like you can with a mature mint plant, typically equates to harvesting up to two-thirds of the leaves of the plant. This level of harvesting may not be wise for a new plant.
When harvesting for the first time, you’ll want to not cut more than one-third of the leaves, since you do not want to shock (or stress) the new plant.
However, if your new plant has been in its pot or the ground for a month or so, you can be a little more aggressive, taking up to one-half of what is new growth on the plant.
The madness of cutting too much new growth too quickly will inhibit the plant’s sufficient resources to establish itself properly, letting you to experiencing a sub-standard crop while allowing it to develop from being a strong, healthy plant.
How to Cut The Leaves to Harvest Mint
While your mint plant is a strong soldier and will likely outlive most mistakes during harvesting, you will want to harvest to protect the plant and promote other growth, rather than stunt the growth of your plant.
To harvest your mint correctly, take the new growth when the stems are still soft. Leaves that occur on hard, brown stems will be tough and contain much less flavor than the new growth. The best place to cut mint is just above a node on the stem. This ensures that new leaves will be cultivated at this point.
Cutting the stems just above a root node will encourage new leafy growth to occur from the last node below the cut and will encourage bushier growth of your mint plant.
What to Avoid: If you are harvesting stems at the top of the plant, this will also discourage the plant from flowering too soon. Once the mint flowers and produces seed, the plant will die back so it can prepare for its dormancy season.
What To Do If Your Mint Dies Back.
At the end of your mint growing season, the stems will look brown and woody.
The plant will appear a little scraggly and sparse. You can take this opportunity to prepare your plant for the next growing season.
After the growing season, when your mint has started to die back, severely prune the plant to one inch above the soil’s surface. I know this is a drastic measure, but it does help the plant put the energy into resting during dormancy so it can grow even stronger in its its second growing season.
Mint will greatly benefit from this deep prune at this point in its growing cycle, but many novice gardeners are afraid of being this severe with their plant’s pruning.
You can be assured that this deep pruning will not harm the mint but will make it grow even stronger in the next season.
Conclusion
Mint is not only an easy plant to grow, but it is also extremely useful for the household.
Whether it is for flavoring food or preparing pest repellants for your other garden plants, the uses of mint in your home and garden are numberless.
Properly taking care of your mint and following correct harvesting techniques will help to ensure the health and productivity of your mint plant and reward you with a bountiful harvest through the growing season!