GrowhoodShare plants. Grow together.
Library

Herbs & cuttings · Beginner friendly · 5 min

One mint stem, a whole new pot

Root a culinary mint cutting, keep it contained, and grow enough to give away.

Reference photograph: Forest and Kim Starr · CC BY 3.0 US. Display may be cropped. Not the offered plant or packet.

Propagation reference: Royal Horticultural Society. Gulf seasonal context: Dubai Garden Centre. Adapt timing to your own city.

By Growhood · Updated

Watch the technique

Follow this article's GCC timing and care advice alongside the demonstration.

  • Propagating mint from cuttingsBy Gardenary on YouTube
    Video notes

    A cutting demonstration for making more mint. Keep the new plant in a suitable container, and follow this article’s advice on light, cleanliness and gradual establishment.

    Links only, with no embedded player or autoplay. Video link checked .

Opens YouTube in a new tab.

Growing instructions

  1. 01

    Start with known culinary mint

    Choose a healthy spearmint or peppermint plant with no obvious pests, rust or damaged stems. Ask about pesticide use before treating it as an edible herb. Do not use an unidentified wild plant just because its leaves smell minty. A shared cutting preserves the parent plant more reliably than seed.

  2. 02

    Snip below a leaf joint

    Take an 8–12 cm non-flowering stem with several leaf joints using clean scissors. Remove leaves from the lower part, leaving a few healthy leaves at the top. Avoid taking so much that the parent loses most of its foliage.

  3. 03

    Root in a cool, bright spot

    Put the lower bare joints in clean water without submerging the leaves. Stand the jar in bright filtered light away from AC vents and hot direct sun. Refresh the water every few days and remove any rotting stems. Several roots may develop in 1–3 weeks, depending on the plant and conditions.

  4. 04

    Move it into its own pot

    Once several roots are a few centimetres long, gently pot the cutting into fresh mix in a container with drainage. Water it in and keep lightly moist while it adjusts. Mint spreads vigorously, so give it its own pot rather than planting it loose among other herbs.

  5. 05

    Adapt care to your Gulf growing space

    A bright indoor window can work if there is enough light. On a balcony, start with gentle morning sun and afternoon shade; protect new roots from overheated pots and drying wind. In very humid coastal conditions, leave space for airflow. Water when the mix needs it, but never leave the pot standing in water.

  6. 06

    Wait for new growth, then pass it on

    Let the plant establish and produce new leaves before gifting it. Trim above a leaf joint to keep it bushy. You can later share another stem cutting or a healthy rooted division. Label the mint type, rooting date, growing conditions and any treatments, and arrange a local handoff in cooler hours.