Peppermint

An Intro to Peppermint

MY STATUS: Grown Successfully to Harvest from Plant Sections 

Peppermint is a hybrid of two species in the mint family of herbs. Like spearmint, it's a perennial and can grow to heights of a couple of feet, though often it just stays low and spreads along the ground. The leaves of the plant are used in similar ways as spearmint. All of the growing conditions of the plant are the same, as well. For detailed information, visit the page on spearmint.

What I Did

DAY 1 - PLANTED SECTIONS OF A MATURE PLANT

Because peppermint is a hybrid, any seeds it produces are often not reliable for propagating more peppermint. If you can get seeds to grow at all, the plants may not be what you expected them to be. So, propagating from cuttings or sections of a mature plant is only good way. I knew a friend on Pohnpei with some well established peppermint and was able to pull up a small section of stems and roots. I planted this in a small, shallow pot with gravel on the bottom and regular potting soil.

DAY 54

I keep the peppermint up in my garden shelter on the roof where it's well away from the spearmint down on our porch (if grown close together, the plants will cross-pollinate). The garden shelter was designed to get full sun, which mint doesn't need all the time, so I move the container around inside the shelter, shading it when necessary with other plants. Like the spearmint, I've sped up the process of filling the container by taking cuttings from the existing plant and sticking them in empty parts of the pot. In a few days, they put down roots and begin to spread. The peppermint hasn't grown quite as quickly as the spearmint started at the same time, but it has done fine. I may switch the locations of the two varieties of mint and see if this one has just been slowed by too much sun. (above).

DAY 99 - GROWTH SPURT

This plant has really filled out over the last month. It's been brutally hot, so I've kept in the shade of other plants and watered liberally. The funny thing about it is that it likes to grow out rather than fill in the area it has. The plants have grown out along the concrete in every direction. You can see why they say to keep this plant contained. It's a tireless traveler.

DAY 209 (12/20) - INDOORS

Growth was significantly hampered by the blistering weather of the early fall this year. The container is so small that it dries out super fast and needed to be watered several times a day. I couldn't keep up and the plant started to look sick. The final straw was when I was gone for a couple of days and it got too much sun and no water. I thought the plant was a goner, but I brought it inside and have kept it here ever since. It's doing great now and recovering quickly. I clipped back all the dried out parts and new shoots are coming up all over the place. It will certainly make a full recovery. When it's back to 100%, I'll transplant it to a larger container (I recently transplanted the spearmint and oregano plants and they have simply exploded with growth). The lesson is that peppermint doesn't need to be in Pohnpei's direct sun. It seems to be very happy and exhibit the most growth in the shade or even indoors next to a window.