Mentha or Mint Plant is a common household garden plant widely propagated for its highly medicinal leaves, roots, and stems.
It has a soothing menthol feel, and the taste is refreshing. When cut fresh, its leaves produce a unique and appealing flavor that’s quite relaxing.
Leaning on the simple methods of Propagating this well-desired irrepressible plant assured I never run out of it anymore. I will also explain to you how you can have an entire garden of mint plants all to yourself.
Can I Root Mint Plant Cuttings in Water?
Mint plants can be rooted in water, and the process is relatively easy, even for newbie propagators of garden plants.
Your Mint cuttings will root in water with the proper environmental conditions and adequately prepared stem cuttings.
How to Prepare Mint Plant Stem Cuttings
Getting your cuttings ready for rooting is the first step in determining the success of the propagation process.
- First, select the best stems on a mature Mint Plant, not less than three inches tall. Choose the stalks directly attached to the plant’s leading trunk and with well-developed nodes and foliage.
- Chop off the selected stems at a point below the nodes, with each branch bearing its mature leaves. Ensure you’re using a clean, sharp pair of scissors, kitchen knife, or gardening shears to cut.
- Now place the cuttings on a dry, warm surface for a few hours or a whole day, depending on the current atmospheric conditions; remember to pluck off the two lower leaves on the stem.
Your cuttings are ready for rooting after they’ve appropriately healed (calloused) from the wounds sustained while making the cuts.
Rooting the Mint Cuttings in Water
- Get your transparent glass jar or any container and fill it with water. The water level should be at most 2 inches in the glass container.
- Next, place the calloused Mint cuttings in the water jar with the leaves well above the jar’s surface.
- Ensure you change the water at least once every two days, and your cuttings will begin to root in less than a week. The mature plant should be watered twice daily in its growing season.
- Allowing the cuttings to develop mature roots improves the success rate of the propagated plant, so don’t be in a hurry to transplant them. Conversely, it would be best to leave the roots in the water jar for a short time after they’re fully developed; they may eventually begin to rot and die off.
- Ideally, your Mint cuttings will be ready for transplanting within 7-10 days after rooting in water. Remember to place the water jar under indirect sunlight to facilitate their growth.
Rooting Mint Cuttings in a Soil Mix Potting
Mint Plants are primarily rooted directly in a soil mix potting because it is the easiest method of growing new Menthol plants.
Before planting the calloused stem cuttings, ensure the soil mix potting is ready for the new plant. The pot must be well-drained by drilling holes at its bottom and sides.
- Now fill up the pot with the soil mix until it is almost full
- Make small holes on the surface of the soil mix using your little finger or a blunt pencil
- Next, insert the stem cuttings into the pits, at most 2 inches from the surface. You can root as many cuttings as possible in the same pot. Each cutting should be well spaced from each other, and their leaves should be allowed to spread without contact.
- You can dip the cuttings in a rooting hormone such as honey to improve the rooting process before inserting them in the soil, but that’s only sometimes necessary.
- Now fill up the empty spaces in the pot with more soil mix to strengthen the cuttings in position.
- Wait a few hours before watering. Ensure you water the plants moderately to prevent excess water that may cause roots to rot. Mint plants require moist soil environments to thrive but don’t do well in flooded soil.
Place the pot under indirect sunlight until the plants are well-grown.
What Soil Mix is suitable for a growing Mint Plant?
Mint plants or Mentha flourishes in moist soil with excellent drainage and unrestricted airflow. You can enrich your homemade soil mix with compost or other organic compounds such as perlite.
My favorite homemade soil mix formula includes:
- Part vermiculite (peat moss works flawlessly, too).
- A part compost.
- A part of fine sea sand.
This gives all the grit, percolation, and aeration needed to propagate the Mint plant until maturity.
Does Mint Plant like Direct Sunlight?
The younger newly propagated Mint plants should be kept from direct sunlight because their tender leaves and fragile stems can’t withstand the sun’s intensity yet.
As they mature and develop brighter and stronger foliage, they can bask in the morning sunshine’s full glare or under partial shade. This is how to keep them happy, filling their environments with beautiful peppermint aromas.
Can Mint Plants Survive the Frost?
Yes, they can.
Have you heard of garden plants capable of dieing and coming back alive?
Mint plants have an excellent tolerance for Frost that they die temporarily during winter, only to return to life in early spring.
Careful, though, they’re pretty tenacious; it’s best to Propagate them in clay pottery before they take over the entire space.
They’re best propagated in the early growing seasons of the year, that is, the period between late spring and early fall.
Should Mint be Propagated along with other Garden Plants?
Mint plant is quite tenacious and assertive; it is not a very accommodating neighbor. You should carefully select the garden plants to include with Mint in your garden.
Therefore, Mint should not be combined with Thyme, Oregano, Basil, Chamomile, Parsley, Lavender, or Rosemary plants. Generally speaking, most Herbaceous garden plants shouldn’t be propagated close to a Mint plant.
How long can Mint Plants Survive?
The survival of a Mint plant is tied to the nutritional components of its soil potting. A potted Menthol Plant regrows itself yearly to survive for a long time, usually more than ten years.
You can improve their general health and appearance by repotting once every two years to keep their soil texture rejuvenated. Repotting benefits the Mint plant; it retains its scent fresher and long-lasting flavor.
Mint plants have such fantastic health benefits that there needs to be a concerted effort toward improving the public’s awareness of their health benefits.
One of such benefits is their healing properties on our skin. They’re used to rejuvenate the skin and improve its appearance.
Not only do they clear off dead cells on the skin, but they also reopen closed pores and leave the skin smoother, more supple, and better hydrated. I highly recommend them.