What Is the Price of Spearmint Seeds? A Detailed Guide to Growing Methods
Spearmint, also known as green mint, fragrant flower vegetable, fish-fragrance herb, and so on, is a perennial upright herbaceous plant of the mint genus in the Lamiaceae family. It is cultivated or has become wild in Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and other parts of China. The stems and leaves can be distilled to extract spearmint oil, and it can be used both as medicine and as food. Now let us take a look at spearmint seed prices and growing methods!
How Much Do Spearmint Seeds Cost?
Spearmint seeds cost about 200 yuan per jin. The tender branches and leaves of spearmint are often used as a seasoning spice in food, and can also be added to condiments to enhance the flavor of dishes, or used alone or mixed with other herbs as a refreshing tea. The plant contains aromatic oil, which is used for candy and toothpaste fragrances, and is also used in medicine. The leaves, tender branches, or the whole plant are also used as medicine, treating colds with fever, cough, consumptive cough, common cold, headache, sore throat, nervous headache, gastrointestinal bloating, traumatic bruises and pain, red and stinging eyes, nosebleeds, dark ulcers, general numbness, and children's sores and boils.
Spearmint's Growth Habits
1. Temperature: When the average daily temperature is above 5°C and the soil temperature reaches above 2°C, spearmint's roots, stems, scales, and buds begin to sprout. The optimal temperature during the growing period is 25-30°C. It can also grow normally when the temperature is above 30-40°C. Planting underground rhizomes around the Start of Winter allows them to overwinter safely.
2. Humidity: Spearmint needs more water in the early and middle stages of growth, but during the budding stage it needs plenty of sunlight and a dry climate to promote the growth of oil gland cells, so it is suitable for growing in China's subtropical monsoon humid climate zones.
3. Light: Spearmint is a light-loving plant. Its leaves are both the organs of photosynthesis and the main place for storing essential oil. If the planting density is too high and ventilation and light penetration between plants are poor, the branching nodes will be high and there will be few branches, thus affecting the yield and quality of the essential oil.
4. Soil: Spearmint does not have high soil requirements, with sandy and loose-textured soil being preferable, and neutral soil being suitable in terms of pH. However, because the aboveground biomass of spearmint is relatively large, it has a high demand for fertilizer, especially nitrogen fertilizer.
Spearmint Propagation Methods
1. Seed propagation: Because spearmint shows great variation when propagated from seed, asexual propagation is mostly used in production.
2. Rhizome propagation: In early March, cut fresh spearmint rhizomes into sections and place them in prepared planting furrows, then cover with soil, press firm, and water thoroughly.
3. Division propagation: In early spring, when new spearmint shoots have grown to about 8 cm, dig them up together with the rhizomes and transplant the divided plants.
4. Cutting propagation: In May to June, select robust aboveground stems and cut them into small sections 6 cm long, insert them into a seedbed, and transplant after they have rooted and survived.
Spearmint Growing Methods
1. Reasonable density: Spearmint has strong branching ability, with many branches and low nodes. The suitable density for the first crop is about 10,000 plants per mu, with a row spacing of about 0.4 mm and a plant spacing of about 0.17 m. The suitable density for the second crop is 40,000-45,000 plants per mu. If too dense, manual thinning or mechanical thinning must be carried out.
2. Cultivation and weeding: Loosen the soil and weed 1-2 times before spearmint closes the rows. When loosening the soil, loosen shallowly near the plants and more deeply between the rows. Loosen the soil promptly after rain if the soil becomes compacted. Before harvesting, weeds should also be removed by hand once to avoid mixing them in during harvest and affecting the quality of the essential oil.
3. Timely fertilization: Apply topdressing 1-2 times throughout spearmint's growth period. When the plant height is 10 cm, apply 5-8 kg of urea per mu. The second fertilization can be based on growth conditions, applying 3 kg of phosphate fertilizer and 5 kg of urea per mu in early to mid-June to promote strong stems and increase oil in spearmint, raising the yield.
4. Timely harvesting: Spearmint has the highest oil content in the stems and leaves at the beginning of flowering, which is the best harvest time. It should be harvested on a morning during a stretch of sunny days. Harvesting in rainy, windy, or weak-sunlight weather has a great impact on yield. After harvesting, spread it on the ground to dry until about 70 percent dry, and then it can be distilled and processed.