Swiss Mint - Boom and Bust Cycle

My swiss mint is now a year old!  But it's not any bigger.  In fact, it's now smaller.  Let me explain.  Initially the mint grew really well.  Look how big the leaves were.  I even managed to prune it several times and grow new plants from cuttings.  I think most of those died months later.  The mother plant survived though, but barely.   

I'm not really sure why but the stems became spindly.  The plant started losing it's leaves and the new leaves that grew were small and a little rusty.  Still the plant survived.   Although, it's been sunny the past two months, the swiss mint still didn't recover completely.   So I decided to change the soil completely.  I figured maybe that would help. 

Since I had some extra vermicompost left from my various bins, I replaced the soil with vermicompost.  A few weeks later, my swiss mint looks small but well on its way to recovery.  Once again the stems are fat and the leaves are big.  I even have an accidental melon growing in the middle.  I think this is actually the most dramatic impact of vermicompost that I've seen among the many times I've used themf for my plants. Will the swiss mint recover for good or is it just teasing me?  We'll see in a couple of months.

By the way, my newly recovered chocolate mint is dying again.  I'll talk about that next time.

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Herb Garden Updates

Summer is a great time for plants!  Most of my herbs are doing a lot better than they did 6 months ago.   Of course I have to be more dutiful in terms of watering (sometimes twice a day) but it's worth it.  Let me show you a couple of my favorite plants. 

Look at the before and after photos of my chocolate mint.  There's a two month difference between these photos but look how lush the plant has become.  I added vermicompost into this pot and moved it to the sunniest location in the garden.  What did the trick?  I'm honestly not sure.  All I know is that I've been nursing this plant since November and I'm glad it looks like the day I bought it (lush and vibrant).  Oh dear I have to greet my mint happy birthday.  It's over a year old now.    And for those would be gardeners, don't believe everything that you read.  My mints have shown no inclination in taking over the garden counter to what I frequently read back then.   I tried planting the mints on the ground several times, but they never thrived. 

Vermicompost Experiment: Will Vermicompost Help Cure a Sick Mint? - Results

Three months ago, I wondered if vermicompost will help cure one my sick Chocolate Mints.  As a background, my mints (all of them!) got hit by some sort of disease that caused them to become leggy at best and dead at worst.  So I thought maybe the good microbes in vermicompost will stem the tide.  Well it's been three months since I shoveled in some vermicompost into the pot (about a shovel-ful and only once during the three-month period).  I wouldn't jump up and down in excitement, but I am glad the Chocolate Mint looks better.  So at the end of this experiment, I would call this inconclusive.  Next time, I'll  be more aggressive in adding vermicast. 

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Herb Cuttings Smell Bad

Have you ever tried rooting herbs in a glass of water? I've tried it with a good number of herbs: sweet basil, cinnamon basil, Thai basil, Swiss mint, chocolate mint, Japanese mint, lemon mint, tarragon, rosemary, stevia, lavender, cat's whiskers and some others.

In some cases, it would work. When it does work, I would usually see roots within a week. I don't usually remove a lot of the leaves (you'd usually read something like retain only the top four leaves) so the cuttings generally wilt for a few days without perking up.

If it's been a couple of days and the leaves look fresh, those cuttings will probably root.

In some cases, the leaves start to look wilted or just dry. Chances are, that will not root.

Vermicompost Experiment: Will Vermicompost Help Cure a Sick Mint?

Yesterday I decided to gather some vermicompost from my Worm Bin 1.  After sifting, I got some, but not a lot  as you can see from the picture.  It seems my bin is still too wet to allow for efficient vermicast harvesting.  The contents were all clumped together.  From the picture, you'd also see that some worms (African Nightcrawlers) went through the sifter.  I returned them to the bin of course (albeit a bit dizzy).

I then got my sick Chocolate Mint.  As you can see, the plant looks ravaged.  I think some caterpillar ate all the leaves.  I removed some soil from the pot and replaced it with the vermicompost I gathered.   Then it's a wait and see game.  Will the supposed beneficial microbes help my chocolate to recover?  Time will tell.

As a footnote, I also placed some new cardboard bedding (thank you Pizza Hut!) to Worm Bin 1 to make it look like a proper worm bin and not a hodgepodge of food and bedding.  I'll also let it dry out for a week before I try harvesting anything again.

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Mint Epidemic

Oh man!  Almost all my mints (Japanese Mint, Chocolate Mint, Lemon Mint, Peppermint and Swiss Mint) are sick across the garden.  Well almost all of them.  My Spearmint (which recently got a vermicompost boost) seems to be the only healthy one.  I think there are two problems.  First of all, the lower leaves of my various mints are drying up.  I'm not certain if it's mint rust.  It looks a little like that.  I'm not sure if it's fungus either.  Early this week, I moved most of my mints to the sunniest part of the garden.  Maybe it'll help dry the soil (I was also wondering if it's root rot).   I just know that my plants generally perform better when out in the full sun.

Here's the other problem.  I think there's a caterpillar infestation again.  They're eating all the mint leaves!  I don't get it though.  How come they're not attacking the Cat's Whiskers.  Among my basil plants, they're attacking the Sweet Basil a lot more than my Cinnamon Basil plants. Anyway, most of my mints (no matter how big) have been stripped clean of leaves!  Argh!!!  It's irritating.   I hope most of them survive this episode.  Sigh.

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Hydroponic Mint and Foliar Feeding

I finally did it!  I managed to put jargon in my title.  Today, I'll talk about another chapter of my mint adventures.  First of, let me tell you about the multiple varieties I now have:  my original Chocolate and Japanese mint, my Jean donated Peppermint and Lemon Mint, my new Swiss Mint and my Sua donated Spearmint.   Whew!  It's a good thing I've become somehow familiar with their leaf shapes and scents.  Otherwise I'd mix them up.

How to Make Japanese Mint Tea & Wedding Favors

It was bound to happen.  My Japanese Mint and Chocolate Mint babies have grown up and I've had lots of fun propagating them.  But like all herbs, the time comes when we have to eat them.  I've been reading up on mint tea so I figured I'd give it a try.  I plucked about 10 leaves from my mother Japanese Mint plant, washed them and boiled them in water.  I strained the leaves and drank the tea.  It's alright.  It tastes like tea.  I didn't have that many leaves to harvest though since I've been on a cutting and planting spree.   Then I tried Cinnamon Basil tea.  I used roughly the same number of leaves.  It tasted like water.  hahaha...I think I need more leaves next time.  Lastly I tried Chocolate Mint tea.  I didn't drink it since there seemed to be some oil after I boiled the leaves.  Hmmm...I'm not sure if that was a result of a dirty kettle or if I managed to extract some oil.  The oil was colored chocolate.  I'll try it again next time.

Japanese Mint & Chocolate Mint: A Newbie Gardener's Dream

There's nothing more encouraging than success.  If it's your first time to garden, naturally you'll want plants that will thrive under your care.  From the ten (have I reached ten already?) or so plants that I've recently tried, I will highly recommend the Japanese Mint and the Chocolate Mint.  Look at the before and after photos separated by 30 days.

As you can see, both plants seem more lush in just 30 days.  But wait, there's more!  In the 30 days, the combined number of mint plants in my small garden has grown from the original 2 to 19!  But wait, there's more!  There are 19 in my garden, but this doesn't include about 3 or 4 that I've already given away.  That includes a 100% propagation rate.  How nice is that?!  Is that an ego boost or what?

In fact, I've been doing so many cuttings left and right that I've already enrolled myself in Gardener's Anonymous (GA). It's much too addictive.  Alright first time gardeners, go get your mints!  They're easy to propagate, easy to care and useful for curing your flatulence!

Just do a quick search on mint in my blog to read my minty fresh adventures!

Japanese Mint Before & After

Chocolate Mint Before & After

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