Tips on Herb Care for Garden Centres

Watering: Herbs like to be a little on the dry side. Keeping herbs on the dry side forces the roots to stay at the bottom of the pot, looking for moisture. This promotes vigorous roots and healthy strong plants. The best time to water herbs is in the morning so that they have a chance to dry out by nightfall. Remember that the front and back rows of your plant displays will dry out first, so they may require a second watering. Don't let your herbs sit in water because this makes the roots "lazy" and less vigorous. This is especially true on a cloudy day. Water your herbs only when they need it and water thoroughly - right to the bottom of the pot - this may require repetitive watering. Otherwise the roots will collect near the top and the next time the plant dries out it will die.

Fertilizing: Your herbs have been fertilized daily before they arrive at your store; therefore it is essential that you continue feeding them. Use 20-20-20 at 200-300 ppm (2 tablespoons per gallon) two times a week. If you fertilize every two weeks (as opposed to twice a week) the concentration of fertilizer you will have to use would be too high for the plant - especially if you do not water thoroughly. This would result in the fertilizer building up in the soil and burning the roots - due to high salt concentration.

Cutting: The most important tip to remember when cutting, snipping or pruning your herbs is to leave a growing tip. This means that you can cut back to where there is growth on the sides of the stem. For example you can cut leaf basil to where there is still side growth - but never lower. However an exception is chives and garlic chives; these can be cut to the soil level. Also do not let your herbs grow too tall in the pot. Keeping them clipped will promote a vigorous plant with lots of side growth (branches and leaves).

Display Techniques: The ideal temperature and location for herbs is 18-20 degrees C (65-70 degrees F) and full sun, with low humidity and excellent air circulation. If you put your herbs on display in an unheated poly house, on a sunny day, the plants will have high heat and high humidity and low temperature and high humidity at night. This is a recipe for mildew and damping off. Ideally, you are trying to establish a day time environment 24 hours a day. Rotate the plants on your display bench as the plants in the middle of the display bench always receive more water that those in the front and back. Always push the pots together and keep the flats filled as this eliminates the possibility of the plants being under watered. When a single plant sits exposed, it dries out faster and does not have the benefits of a cooling environment. This holds true for multi-racking as well as for multi-layered shelving, as the top layer is the driest and gets the most sun, while the bottom layer is soaking wet and the plants suffer - even though all layers may be watered evenly.