How do you grow mint in a pot?

Question:

How do you grow mint in a pot?Jordy from South Hedland, WA

Answer:

Jordy,

Choose a fairly large container (1 to 5 gallons). You can purchase mint seedlings at a nursery and transplant them to larger pots when you get them home, acquire plants from through division from friends and relatives or start them from seed. Personally, unless you know someone who can give you a plant, I would recommend purchasing young plants at a nursery.

More often than not, starting mint from seed proves to be a frustrating task for many people. Mint plants are not that fussy about soil and sun, but they'll give you their absolute best if you give them at least partial sun (full is best) and you grow them in fertile, well-drained soil.

You didn't say whether or not you plan on growing them indoors or outside. They'll do well in either case. You can drop the pot right into the ground in your garden or set it in a bright area of your kitchen where it will be handy for cooking. Try and keep them consistently moist. Mint is quite drought tolerant, but they prefer to be kept consistently moist. When growing them in pots you'll need to monitor their moisture carefully and because soil nutrients will get washed away by frequent watering, feed them a 1/2 strength water soluble fertilizer every few weeks (fish emulsion or seaweed works well).

Ellen