Growing Herbs in January for Unconventional Uses

Growing Herbs in January for Unconventional Uses

Herbs are grown by many enthusiastic gardeners, but not only they use the power and strength of herbs for year-round use. Housewives also grow herbs by their windows, on windowsills, balconies or verandas. Growing traditional herbs used in the kitchen as spices, unconventional newly discovered herbs and herbs used for herbal teas, such as the well-known calendula also used as calendula ointment, we can start already now in this January time.

Since some plants need a longer time for pre-cultivation, we start sowing several species right now. We always start the process by sowing and pre-cultivating seedlings for planting or by direct sowing. Growing herbs will naturally follow, and then the desired harvest. If we have perennial plants, we will also need to deal with overwintering and spring cultivation after winter.

Rosemary – has recently become an increasingly popular plant. It is used in food, but is mostly grown for its medicinal effects. However, it must be protected in winter, as rosemary is susceptible to frost in our conditions when grown outdoors. It is an evergreen, perennial richly branched sub-shrub. It grows very slowly at the beginning, but as soon as possible, germinated plants should be transplanted into pots. Sow seeds from January to May at a depth of 0.5 cm, seeds germinate unevenly and slowly, taking up to about 26 days.

Stevia – already at the end of January we can start sowing our beloved stevia, which certainly already has a place in our kitchen for its use. We sow these fine seeds until February or March on the surface of quality substrate. Since stevia needs light to germinate, we do not cover the seeds. Stevia is very sensitive to drying out, so we keep the sowing substrate moist, but we must not overwater it. Before the seeds germinate, we recommend covering the sowing box with a piece of white non-woven covering fabric or foil. After seed germination, we remove the covering so that the plants don't stretch. Stevia grows slowly at first, its germination rate is around 70-80%. It is demanding in terms of heat and stops growing when the temperature drops below 10⁰C and starts to die when it falls below 5⁰C.

Lemongrass – is certainly an unconventional herb, but it already has plenty of fans and enthusiastic growers. We pre-cultivate lemongrass and it takes about 8-10 weeks. Germination takes 10-20 days, so when growing lemongrass we need to arm ourselves with a bit of patience. But the result will certainly be worth it. However, not all seeds may germinate, as the germination rate in this case is around 30%.

Basil – and it wouldn't be basil, the queen of fresh herbs, if it were missing from our discussion. At this time, we don't yet sow basil for pre-growing seedlings for transplanting, but for growing in pots for gradual harvesting of small leaves. In this case, we sow in a pot with a diameter of 10-14 cm without pricking out into moist horticultural substrate, approximately 5-8 seeds per pot, to a depth of 0.5-1 cm. We keep the strongest plants, 3 plants in a 10 cm diameter pot, 5 plants in a 14 cm diameter pot. For growing in pots, it's better to choose smaller, more compact varieties, such as Genovese, Compact, or Mánes.

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