GROWING MINT IN COCO PEAT
Growing mint in coco peat is a great way to start using coco peat for your home garden. Mint is a popular herb which is often needed in the kitchen, but it may not be always available at hand. A bunch of mint purchased at the shop is usually too large to be fully utilized. Further, the mint may not be fresh which results in a significant loss of flavour. Growing mint at home means that there is always a fresh supply of mint.
Mint is one of the easiest herbs to grow. To get the planting material you can buy a fresh bunch of mint. Select the sprigs with a thick hardy pinkish stalk. Usually these sprigs may also have some roots at the lower nodes of the sprig. Remove the large lower leaves of the sprig without damaging the buds, budding leaves and roots that may have formed. Leave the terminal leaves. (You can store the leaves in a zip pouch as shown in the picture in the refrigerator. Blow a little air into the pouch just before unlocking and the leaves will stay afresh for a week). Keep the bottom of the sprigs immersed in water so they do not droop.
For the potting mix take 50% expanded coco peat, 20% sand, 20% organic manure and 10% ash and limestone. Mix it together with a little panchkavya. Plant the sprigs in the potting mix and firm the mix around it. Mint grows very fast so do not plant too many sprigs very close to each other. Water the pot well leave it at a place which gets a few hours of full sunshine every day.
The sprigs slowly take life over the next few days. Usually the terminal slender portion may die out, but that is not a cause for worry. However, remove any sprigs that completely die out. Within a few days your pot will be overflowing with lush green mint leaves.
Make sure you keep the soil moist. You should also fertilize the soil with diluted panchakavya or manure tea once a week. While fertilizing the soil, make sure the leaves do not come into contact with the fertilizer solution as you need to harvest the leaves from time to time. During normal watering you can wet the leaves a little to keep them clean and healthy. If the plants show signs of deficiency it is a good idea to change the potting mix as the nutrients in the old potting mix may have been depleted.
