Mint, the refreshing herb that is often used in our daily lives. You can grow this wonderful plant and have it for your own home garden with these tricks!
It’s a great way to use up some of those pots you don’t need anymore or just want to get more creative with them.
Required Things
At home, you will need only three things to grow soil-less mint in your kitchen. Firstly, purchase cuttings from any grocery store or nursery that offer them. Secondly, place the water and mint into a container with holes so as to allow air circulation for root growth while keeping it hydrated.
And lastly use containers of any kind; even an old plastic curd box can work! Net cups are also great if growing plants indoors hydroponically (a process where the roots bathe in nutrient solutions).
Grow Mint In Water
Grow mint without soil with this simple method:
- To plant mint in containers, make holes at the bottom of one container to insert two cuttings.
- Now slice a few good and green cuttings from the store-bought mint. Remove leaves, but not the base of your chosen cutting (it will rot in water). Once you’ve finished slicing up all those fresh bits and pieces, put them inside a jar with some cold water for around 16 hours.
- You can’t just stick a net cup on the ground. Remember, at least one or two nodes of cuttings must be below the container to make sure they are well rooted in order for them to grow properly and produce larger yields than if you planted it aboveground.
- The roots of a plant will also grow from the nodes.
- Plants will grow and branch from nodes on the roots. After filling all of the holes in your pot or container, now it is time to remove any extra branches that you have not used for a plant yet leaving two below which can be connected with tiny pegs at their base.
- Also, remove any leaves below.
- Place your cuttings in the first container, and then fill up a second one with fresh water. Place that over the top of it to help maintain humidity levels while you’re not tending to them.
Where To Place Container
Mint is a sun-loving herb that requires 6 to 8 hours of sunlight. Mint can also grow very well in half shade, but if you’re growing it indoors without soil and full sunshine – like near a kitchen window or with some smart systems for indoor gardening – make sure your mint gets plenty of light so the leaves are green and fresh year round!
When Will Cuttings Start To Regrow?
After planting your cuttings for 5 to 6 days, you will notice the first roots start developing. After 10 to 12 days of waiting, they’ll be ready with some leaves and a couple inches worth of root growth!
At this point in time, you can plant them into pots filled with potting soil where they should grow very well as long as it’s sunny or half-shady. Keep watering them regularly until new shoots come out.
Pruning
Cutting and pruning your plants will help them grow to their full potential. Once the leaves of a cutting start to sprout, you need to trim it every 10-12 days so that we can have enough produce for our hungry mouths! Just remove any upper branches from the plant until only one or two are left behind.
This is just like a haircut; in return, more shoots will be generated which make this bushier but won’t take up as much space! In turn, there should now be plenty of fruits ready for harvesting with minimal effort required on your end
When To Change The Water?
Mint can be grown in water without the use of fertilizer, but it will take a lot more time to grow because there won’t be any nutrients.
If you want your mint plant to grow as quickly and efficiently as possible, we recommend using some kind of food or chemical like aquarium fish food pellets once every 3-4 days so that the roots have something on which they can feed.
Fertilizers
One of the best ways to fertilize your plants is by using a water-soluble fertilizer. This type of plant food will last for 3 weeks or more and it’s perfect if you don’t have time to change out the water every 2 days, which we all know can be exhausting!
All purpose plant food has an NPK ratio that makes it great for watering: 30% Nitrogen (N), 10% Phosphorus (P) ,10% Potassium(K). If yellow leaves start appearing on your plants, add just a little bit more fertilizer at this point in their life cycle – usually after 15 days.
First Harvest
After 25 days of being planted, a person can harvest their own grown mint leaves. After the roots develop, the leave will grow at an accelerated rate.
Just change the water after 3 to 4 days or add all-purpose plant food with your next water change every 15 days and your plants should be okay!
Smart Way To Grow Mint For Whole Year
A smart garden is a perfect way to grow delicious mint year-round. You can use any kind of brand and the plant will thrive in all seasons, even without soil! Aerogarden is an indoor gardening system that you can grow herbs in without sunlight.
You will need a light to help the plants thrive, but Aerogarden comes with one included which has been proven by NASA and MIT as being more efficient than any other type of artificial lighting available on the market today.
The LED growing lights are used for this purpose because they have many benefits like optimizing growth or increasing photosynthesis while using less energy overall when compared to traditional fluorescent bulbs.
