When to Buy Herb Seeds versus When to Buy Herb Plants

    This is often a difficult decision for many herbanites and understandably so.  The economical question is why spend as much for an herb plant as one could spend for the seeds to make 20 – 100 plants.

    Let’s address that issue with some practical advice and tips.

    One area where seeds make sense is if the herb is a hot weather annual herb such as cilantro and one uses a great deal of the herb.  It may make sense to seed weekly throughout the growing season so there is a constant supply of cilantro.  However another option here would be Culantro which is much less work for the herbanite gardener.

    Seeds make sense when the herb has a very short life cycle and especially if the herb is “out of it’s natural climactic zone” such as French Tarragon, Dill.  Herbs in a hot, humid climate often go to seed rapidly and produce few leaves so a constant supply of new herb plants is necessary.  When the herb is set on going to seed, then there is a short period of leaf production and the window of opportunity narrows as the season progresses.  It is here that by seeding each week that the herbanite has a continuous supply of fresh leaves for a longer time period.  Herbs that may fall into this classification would be basils, possibly parsley, summer savory, and chervil to name a few.

    For traditional perennial herbs such as rosemary, lavender, oregano, sages, thymes etc. one plant, well established, will last for years so the cost of a plant is literally at most pennies, nickel or dime per year depending on the life of the plant.   Remember herbs require little or no care at all which precludes the use of fertilizers, insecticide sprays etc.  Most herbs are “beneficial weeds” and need to be treated as such.

    Seed growing requires the purchase of many seeds and staggered planting or the herbanite ends up with a lot of herbs, same variety, all becoming available at once.  If there is not a way to preserve the herbs, or use them as an everlasting, then one must consume or share at once before it dies.   Also seeds generally may require the replanting into another container prior to being ready to go outside so there is a handling cost ( read TIME) to get ready to go into the garden.

   Generally speaking there is minimal requirements for equipment to grow from seeds and often this can be done by reusing a container that was being used for something else or reusing one of the trays one received from taking home the herbs from HerbFest.  As long as there is drainage holes in the bottom, fairly shallow depth (reason for this is no reason to spend money on a growing medium by filling up with much more medium than needed) and use something like saran wrap to create a “hot house” environment to encourage sprouting.  

    The above can be done in the home, on a window sill, or area where there is sunlight, but be careful not to overheat if left in sun.  As the heat warms up the growing medium, the Saran wrap contains the moisture and prevents the drying out of the medium which would kill any new plants.

   If one wants to do the propagation outside, and does not have a greenhouse,  then find an old storm window and place on a hinged declining frame.  The reason for the decline is as the plants emerge a simple stick can be put at the lower edge to hold the window up for fresh air to enter and for heat control.  At night the window is lowered and during the day it is left open for better ventilation and heat reduction.

 
   For most Herbanites the single most important issue is planting too much, too soon inside.  Rather than being able to experiment with 10 varieties of basil the herbanite gardener ends up with 100 plants of one single variety!!   The crush of winter, the anticipation of spring and summer often leads to this natural tendency to forget how many plants, how soon and how many leaves all come upon the herbanite at harvesting time.

    For me, as one who pays someone to grow literally thousands of herbs, I’ve found it far more fun, economical to buy  herb plants at once versus the expense, frustration, and cost of trying to “save money” by buying seeds knowing that severely limits my choices of new and unusual varieties of herbs in my garden.  This coming from one who purchases over 10,000 herb plants over a 7 day period annually to resell.

   Let the pros grow, let me play and have fun.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Italian Parsley  

   Parsley, Italian and Curly, are not annuals which confuses many customers as to why each year they have to replace them.  Parsley is a biennial, a plant that lives for two years, however the second year the plant is not intent on producing leaves but is set on survival and the energy of the plant is directed toward seed production.  Most HerbFest buyers replace it yearly.
     Herbanites buy most of their herbs so they can use the leaves either for culinary purposes or possibly for aromatic, decorative everlasting arrangements.   Most herb seeds are for regeneration with some exceptions such as cilantro where the seed becomes the spice, coriander.   Once the plant no longer is producing leaves then the practical use of the plant is lost for most people who use herbs for cooking.

      Parsley will survive a second season but only to become long and spindly, hardly any leaves and a long, extended stalk with possibly 3-4 leaves at the end.  As soon as possible the plant will develop seeds and then dies.  There is hardly any practical use whatsoever for a second year parsley plant simply because there are no leaves and the stalk does not provide the culinary benefits.

     This is the reason,  for the herbanite,  that parsley is considered an annual and not what it truly is, a biennial.

   (Note the flat leaf of garlic chives, unlike round leaf of regulat chives)

How To Harvest Your Chive Herb Plants, Regular Chives and Garlic Chives

      Each year at the annual HerbFest there are many people who replace chives annually, be it regular or garlic chives.  The typical comment will be “I killed my chives last year so I’m back for more”.  My response generally is “yes you must have because they are very hardy here in zone 7”.

       Typically upon inquiry it is found that the customer did as anyone would normally do and that is decide upon how many chive leaves are needed for the particular dish being prepared and cut accordingly. Example of this is the customer will go to the chives, cut down the leaf stalk until they have what is needed and then clip.  Nothing wrong with that and appears reasonable however now the chive has been stunted in its’ growth or possibly killed if in a drought condition during the summer.

•         Chives should be cut at the base, not high up in the leaves themselves.  By cutting near the base that encourages the chive to “expand” it’s base area adding more leaves to the plant.  When the leaves are cut half way down it actually kills that leaf from the point cut to the base.  If the plant is stressing at all that can be the “final blow” to its existence. 

         This is a similar concept to salad greens, except with salad greens one would cut the outer leaves, at the base, and not half way down as a similar death also occurs.  Cut the middle of most salad greens half way and you’ve destroyed the plant.

          Once the leaves have been cut then any remainder leaves should be put in a freezer bag, UNCUT (don’t want the essential oil that gives the flavor/fragrance to be released) and stored in the freezer bag, in freezer, until needed.   Remove the leaves, then cut, and as the leaf defrosts the oil is released into the dish. 

 
      At the HerbFest we sell organic, heirloom variety vegetables, tomatoes, and peppers that were grown from organic seeds, ie. plants grown organically that produced the seeds.  Well honestly one of the problems I've always had with heirloom variety veggies is they generally do not look very appetizing, to protect them from pests and maintain the organic standard is somewhat more work, but most importantly is the shelf life is generally not very long so you better pick and eat or can quickly.

     One of our HerbFest customers revealed to me a new interesting fact that is often forgotten on heirloom variety vegetables - they're reproducible!!!  Yes many of the veggies etc. you buy in the store now have been genetically altered so all the grower gets is one production cycle from the original seed.  The seeds are altered so no one can eat the veggie, say tomato, and then save the seeds to grow their own plants the following year.