Contents
Peppermint (Mentha piperita) belongs to the genus Mint from the Lamiaceae or Lamiaceae family. Its natural habitat is gardens and industrial plantations for growing essential oil crops. This is an artificially bred species obtained from crossing Spearmint with Spearmint.
The culture was isolated in southern England in 1696. In 1921, it was included for the first time in the British Pharmacopoeia – a collection of documents regulating the requirements for medicinal raw materials.
Peppermint flowers are located at the top of the shoots.
Botanical description of peppermint
Peppermint is a perennial rhizomatous crop with a herbaceous aerial part dying off for the winter. Erect tetrahedral stems are hollow, branching from the base, densely covered with foliage. The height of peppermint depends on cultivation and care, climatic conditions, mechanical composition and fertility of the soil, variety. It ranges from 30 cm to 1 m.
The leaves are paired, arranged oppositely, have the shape of an elongated ovoid (egg), a sharp tip and a serrated edge. The lower part of the plate is always noticeably lighter than the upper one, the petioles are short. The stems and leaves are usually glabrous, but may be covered with a few hairs.
The flowers are small, two-lipped, located at the ends of the shoots. They are collected in semi-whorls, forming a discontinuous ear. The color depends on the variety, composition of the soil and illumination, varies from pinkish-lilac to purple.
As with other hybrids, the flowers are mostly sterile. Therefore, growing peppermint from seeds is rarely successful. Despite this, the culture is an excellent honey plant.
Flowering usually begins in June, continues until August. In the southern regions and in Ukraine, cutting off the top of the mint during the beginning of bud opening can provoke a second wave of vegetation. This is exactly what they do on industrial plantations to get 2 crops.
The rhizome is horizontal, woody, white, with a large number of thin fibrous appendages, located at a depth of up to 8 cm. It comes to the surface on excessively moist or dense soils.
You can clearly see what peppermint looks like in the photo.
Aroma and classification of peppermint
Peppermint owes its strong cooling aroma to the high content of essential oils and menthol, which is much higher than that of other species. The main amount of volatile substances is concentrated in flowers and leaves. There are so few of them in the stems that they do not have medicinal properties and are useless in cooking.
There are two varieties of peppermint:
- White, with delicate light green leaves and shoots, delicate aroma. It is often referred to as French and is used in cooking and the perfume industry.
The variety is distinguished by a pale green hue and a delicate aroma.
- Black mint is distinguished by dark green leaves and anthocyanin veins and shoots. Its aroma is more rigid and sharp, and the content of menthol, essential oils is much higher than in white. It is she who serves as a raw material for pharmaceutical production.
Black peppermint is easily recognizable by the veins on the leaves.
When creating new varieties of peppermint that are of industrial importance, breeders work in two directions:
- Breeding cultivars that contain the maximum amount of menthol. They are planted freely, since most of the substance is concentrated in the lower leaves. And they tend to fall off when shaded.
- Creation of varieties with a high content of aromatic oils, carotene, other vitamins, organic acids. They are more used in cooking and perfume industry. But they also go for medicines – the beneficial properties of mint, recognized by official medicine, are not limited to menthol.
Where does peppermint grow?
Peppermint is planted wherever there is fertile soil, the possibility of irrigation, and enough heat – from Africa and Australia to the Baltic States and the Far East. As an industrial crop, it is grown in more than 30 countries, including Our Country (Stavropol).
The need for dried and fresh peppermint is constantly increasing, raw materials are purchased at high prices. Cultivation has become a profitable agribusiness in warm climate regions.
Meaning of Peppermint
In peppermint, bred at the end of the 2th century, the content of essential oils in the leaves did not exceed 3-5%. In modern varieties, the volatile aromatic substance is much higher – XNUMX% or more. It is them that are grown on an industrial scale, menthol and other components are isolated, dozens of types of medicines are made, including Validol, Menovazin, Pectusin.
In addition to the pharmaceutical industry, peppermint is indispensable in the manufacture of hygiene products – toothpastes, soaps, shampoos, lotions. The culture is widely used for the production of perfumery products.
Peppermint has taken one of the leading places among the spices of many national cuisines, including the Mediterranean and Moroccan. Aromatherapists, traditional healers, psychics who use herbs in their practice cannot do without it.
Mojito cocktail is impossible to make without peppermint
How Peppermint Reproduces
The culture is a hybrid and propagates vegetatively. When growing peppermint at home or in the country, planting material is:
- fresh rhizomes, dug up before the beginning of the germination of the culture in the spring;
- bushes, divided into parts during transplantation;
- mint in containers or with an open root, bought in a nursery or on the market;
- seedlings – shoots that have just emerged from the ground with 2-3 pairs of leaves about 5 cm high;
- rooted green cuttings;
- drains.
The last two methods are unproductive – the culture grows rapidly in favorable conditions, literally in a year the planting material can be shared with neighbors and friends. They are used in such cases:
- in a snowless cold winter, the plants froze, leaving a few bushes;
- it is not possible to get planting material, but a bunch of peppermint with strong fresh shoots was bought on the market or in the supermarket (reproduction is not always possible, but worth a try);
- if they want to practice growing more valuable crops, or to interest children in gardening.
On industrial plantations, peppermint is planted in two ways:
- mechanized – fresh rhizomes;
- manual – seedlings.
Features of growing peppermint from seeds
Peppermint is a hybrid. The culture blooms well, but produces very few seeds, most of which are barren. They are of interest only to breeders when breeding new varieties.
It is not known where the seeds sold in every garden center and store come from in such quantities. You can plant them, but at best, some other mint will grow. It is possible that it will have bare stems and narrow leaves, differ from the varieties growing nearby with a high content of menthol or just a strong smell. For peppermint, water, field, spearmint is often given out. Or maybe not grow at all.
How to plant peppermint
Peppermint is easy to plant, the culture quickly takes root and grows. When only a few bushes are needed on the site, they have to be restrained the very next year. If development is inhibited, it is necessary to look for the cause.
Recommended dates
In the Middle lane and in the North-West, peppermint is planted in April-May or August. In the south, the best time is early autumn.
Container specimens in temperate climates can be transferred to a garden bed or flower bed throughout the growing season. In the south, in the summer, this is prevented by heat – the culture will need to be shaded for the first 3 weeks or the planting will be postponed to autumn.
Peppermint can grow in a container until the end of the season
Site selection and soil preparation
Mint grows on almost any soil. Their acidity can range from 5 to 8, ideally 6-7. But the mechanical composition is of great importance. On sandy loam, the culture constantly lacks moisture, the rhizomes fail, in the spring the shoots appear later than the deadline.
Dense soils are an even bigger problem. Mint rhizomes cannot develop normally, they are literally squeezed out to the surface, where they quickly dry out, and the culture dies.
Ideal site for planting mint:
- smooth;
- lowland;
- weedless;
- with close groundwater standing;
- sheltered from strong winds in summer and covered with a thick layer of snow in winter;
- sunny in temperate or cool climates, in the south – light partial shade;
- with loose, rich in organic matter, neutral or slightly acidic soil.
The best predecessors of mint are cereals, legumes, corn, vegetables. In one place, the culture can grow up to 7 years. But this is advisable only when the purpose of mint is purely decorative. To obtain high-quality medicinal and culinary raw materials, the culture is transplanted every 3 years.
The bed is dug up for at least 2-3 weeks on a shovel bayonet, all clods are broken. The roots of weeds are selected, if necessary, peat, sand, humus, starting fertilizers are added. If it was not possible to loosen the site in advance, it is rolled or compacted in another way – using a board, rammer or abundant watering.
The most common mistake when planting mint
This culture is easy to plant, move from place to place, propagate vegetatively. Failures are usually due to ignorance or negligence of gardeners. For mint to take root well, rhizomes should contain 70-80% moisture. Immediately after digging, the water begins to evaporate. Already at 60% moisture, the ability to germinate the culture drops sharply.
To avoid this, it is enough to hold the mint bought with an open root on the market for several hours in water.
Immediately after digging up the mint, it is recommended to immerse its root in water and keep it there until disembarkation. Take out one plant at a time.
When mint is planted in furrows, they are preliminarily watered abundantly. Or rather, filled with water. The culture is planted almost in the dirt. The root is partially immersed in wet soil, and does not have time to dry out.
Planting peppermint outdoors
The site has been prepared and compacted. Mint roots are saturated with liquid and immersed in water. You can start landing:
- Make a wide furrow with a depth of about 10 cm.
- Fill it with water.
- Allow liquid to be absorbed.
- Lay out in a line of rhizomes or seedlings of mint.
- Fall asleep with soil.
- Seal.
If you need several strips, the distance between the rows is 50-60 cm. A small amount of mint can be planted in separate holes.
During the first 3 weeks, the culture is regularly watered, not allowing the soil to dry out. When shoots appear, weed by hand, peel the top layer of soil.
How to grow peppermint
Planted in a suitable place for culture and managed to take root, the plant practically does not need care. If the soil is fertile, and was previously filled with organic matter, mint is fed only at the end of the season with potassium-phosphorus preparations.
Next spring, at the beginning of the growing season, nitrogen fertilizer can be given. But you can’t be zealous, especially if the culture is grown for cooking or treatment. An excess of nitrates reduces the content of essential oils and increases the risk of developing fungal diseases.
Mint is grown without shelter, but in a snowless winter it can freeze. In cold regions, it is better to protect the crop with spruce branches or fallen leaves of healthy fruit trees.
Watering Schedule
Peppermint is very demanding on soil and air moisture. Even after short-term drying, the culture quickly loses leaves. On the other hand, water should not stand under the bushes, otherwise the root and greenery will begin to rot.
In summer, mint is moistened 2-3 times a week, but you need to focus on the weather and your own conditions – the composition of the soil, the illumination of the site. Of great importance is the position of the beds – on a hill, daily watering may be required, in the lowlands they need less.
Weeding and loosening the soil
The soil under the peppermint should be loose. But you can peel it until the culture has grown – horizontal rhizomes quickly recover from damage, but they do not need to be disturbed once again. Therefore, when planting, they attach such great importance to the mechanical composition of the soil.
Weeds are ubiquitous. They germinate inside mint bushes and require manual weeding. The easiest way to care for a bed, on which the crop grows in stripes. The aisles are loosened and weeded completely with a chopper or flat cutter.
After 3 years, when the soil is compacted, and the roots of weeds and mint are intertwined, the culture is transferred to a new place.
It looks like a small field with peppermint
Pests and diseases of peppermint
While planting and caring for outdoor peppermint is easy and hassle free, pests and diseases are a real problem. It would seem that the essential oil culture should repel insects and destroy harmful spores. Unfortunately, this does not work with mint.
The culture has a lot of pests. The main ones are aphid, mint flea, scale insect, leafhopper, tick, green shield beetle, weevil, mint leaf beetle, wireworm, pennitsa.
Pest eaten mint leaves
To destroy and scare away insects in the area intended for the collection of medicinal and culinary raw materials, you need folk remedies. A culture grown for purely ornamental purposes can be treated with insecticides, but flowers and leaves should not be torn afterwards.
Diseases of peppermint – verticillium wilt, spotting, powdery mildew, rust, anthracnose, mycoplasma (growth).
Powdery mildew-affected mint leaves
For preventive purposes, plant residues are removed from the site at the end of the season, more often they are transplanted.
When to Harvest and How to Dry Peppermint
The greatest amount of useful substances and essential oil in peppermint is concentrated at the beginning of flowering. On industrial plantations, they take advantage of this and harvest the crop twice, mowing the top as soon as the buds begin to open.
You can pick fresh leaves for tea throughout the growing season. Those who love the smell of menthol take the lower ones. Preferring a more delicate aroma, they collect flowers and leaves from the top of the shoots.
When is peppermint harvested for drying?
In most of Our Country, the time when peppermint is dried is stretched from June to July. In the south, if you cut greens and flowers from a crop in early summer, you can wait for a new crop by August.
Harvesting mint for medicinal purposes and cooking is carried out at the same time. But for tea and sauces, you can not take the lower part – there is a lot of menthol, the smell and taste will be too harsh. For medical fees, on the contrary, it is this substance that is of greatest importance.
Harvesting is carried out in the morning in hot, dry weather. The culture is cut off entirely if it will be used to make medicinal mixtures. For culinary needs, you can take only the upper part.
Drying Peppermint
It is not recommended to wash mint before sending it to dry – this will reduce the quality of raw materials. If it is very dirty after heavy rain or inaccurate watering, 2-3 days before collecting greenery, the bush is washed with water from a hose or watering can.
Cut shoots can be harvested whole, tied in bunches, or cut off flowers and leaves. Raw peppermint is dried at a temperature of 20-30 °C. The bundles are freely suspended, and the leaves are laid out on clean white paper in a well-ventilated, light-free room.
In hot weather, the attic is not recommended. The drying temperature of peppermint there will be noticeably higher, and the raw material will lose a significant part of the essential oils.
Peppermint can be dried in bunches or as individual leaves.
Peppermint storage
If the mint was dried in bunches, it is impossible to cut off the leaves to reduce the volume – this again will lead to the loss of nutrients. They should be stored whole, in tightly closed cardboard boxes at room temperature in a dry place. Leaves are taken as needed and in such quantities to be used at a time.
Separated from the stems, peppermint is poured into glass jars and tightly closed with a lid. Contain at room temperature without access to light and moisture.
Conclusion
Peppermint is useful in the kitchen and in the treatment of many diseases. The culture is easy to take root and does not require special care. Even the smell of fragrant grass can soothe, relieve fatigue and improve mood.
