Let me tell you, mint is one of the easiest plants to grow from seed. I’ve been growing and dividing mint plants for years, and I’m going to share my tried-and-true method with you today, along with some cool tips I’ve picked up along the way.
Why Should You Divide Your Mint Plants?
Before we dive in, here’s why you definitely wanna divide your mint:
- Prevents overcrowding in pots
- Creates free new plants (who doesn’t love free stuff?)
- Keeps your mint healthy and vigorous
- Perfect way to share with friends and family
- Controls mint’s crazy-aggressive growth
Best Time to Divide Mint
The perfect timing is when your mint plants are waking up from their winter snooze and starting to show new growth. Usually, this happens in early spring. But honestly mint is pretty forgiving – I’ve divided mine successfully at other times too!
What You’ll Need
- Sharp, clean secateurs or scissors
- Fresh potting compost
- Containers with drainage holes
- Some grit for drainage
- Your overgrown mint plant
- Optional: thin layer of fine grit for top dressing
Step-by-Step Guide to Dividing Mint
1. Prepare Your Plant
First things first, take your mint plant outta its pot Don’t be shocked if you see the center has died back – that’s totally normal! Mint grows outwards using runners (technically called stolons), and sometimes the middle just gives up
2. Check the Root System
Gently remove excess soil and look for:
- Healthy white roots
- Horizontal stems (runners/stolons)
- Natural division points
3. Division Time!
Here’s where the magic happens:
- Look for natural separation points
- Identify sections with both roots and stems
- Using your clean secateurs, snip the plant into sections
- Each section should have:
- Some healthy roots
- At least couple of growth nodes
- Some vertical stems if possible
4. Potting Up Your Divisions
Now for the fun part:
- Fill your pots with gritty compost
- Plant each division at the same depth it was growing before
- Add a thin layer of grit on top (this helps keep moisture in and weeds out!)
- Water well but don’t drown ’em
Pro Tips from My Experience
- One plant can easily give you 5-8 new plants – seriously!
- Even sections without roots can grow if they have healthy nodes
- Use gritty compost – mint loves good drainage
- Keep your new plants in semi-shade while they establish
- Don’t forget to water regularly but not excessively
Common Problems & Solutions
Sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned. Here’s what to watch for:
-
Rotting Centers
- Normal for older plants
- Focus on healthy outer growth
- Remove any mushy bits
-
Poor Growth
- Check drainage
- Ensure enough light
- Don’t overwater
-
Failed Divisions
- Make sure cuts are clean
- Keep soil slightly moist
- Protect from direct sun initially
Aftercare for Your New Plants
Your baby mint plants need some TLC:
- Keep them in a semi-shady spot
- Water regularly but don’t overdo it
- Pot up when roots start showing through drainage holes
- Pinch out growing tips to encourage bushiness
Making the Most of Your Mint
Now you’ve got multiple mint plants, here’s what to do with ’em:
- Fresh mint tea (my absolute fave!)
- Give as gifts to gardening friends
- Create a mint variety collection
- Use in cooking and cocktails
- Dry some for winter use
Final Thoughts
Dividing mint plants isn’t rocket science – it’s actually pretty fun and rewarding! I usually do mine once a year, and it’s amazing how many new plants you can get from just one pot. Remember, mint’s pretty much indestructible, so don’t stress too much about getting it perfect.
FAQs
You can divide mint in the summer, but it’s best to do it in the spring when the plants are already growing.
Q: How often should I divide my mint?
A: Once a year is plenty, usually in spring when new growth appears.
Is it normal for the middle of my mint plant to look dead? A: Yes, that’s normal. The plant puts all of its energy into growing runners on the outside.
If you don’t want your mint to take over your whole garden, you should keep it in pots.
Now you’re all set to become a mint-dividing pro! Got any questions? Drop ’em in the comments below. Happy gardening, folks!
A Look At Mint’s Incredible Root System
The root systems of mint have two primary features:
- fine, fibrous tendrils that grow vertically from the plant and take in food from the soil while also holding the plant in place; and
- rhizomes are a type of plant stem that grows underground and can spread out horizontally over long distances, sending out new plants that grow through the ground.
Actually, the roots aren’t very interesting because they make the usual root ball that we all know. But the rhizomes are something else entirely.
They are easy to spot because they have thick stems (when they’re not covered in dirt; see a nice picture of them below). They grow aggressively outward from the plant in a web shape, only to make new mint plants. And they’re very, very good at it.
The photo above is a one-year-old peppermint plant. When I bought this plant last year, I left it in the nursery pot and set it in some soil on a raised garden bench for the summer. Those rhizomes are just one year’s growth, winding around the interior of the pot. Imagine if those rhizomes had been free to roam the yard!.
I hope the photo above drives home the advantage of growing mint in a pot. Even if you’re an avid cook or a connoisseur of mint tea or mojitos, it would be quite the feat to use up all of the plant’s leaves in one season. The average home gardener does not need an ever-more-sprawling plot of mint.
If you’ve just bought your first mint plant from the garden center, check out my guide for how to grow mint, complete with pro tips and advice.
When to transplant mint
It’s fairly easily to know when a mint plant needs to move to larger pot. In most growing zones in the U. S. , mint will die back in the winter (store the pot in an unheated garage or shed, or at least protected from wind outside). It will, in fact, look quite distressingly dead. But, hold steady.
In the spring, when the temperatures regularly warm above 55ºF, watch for mint’s revival. You’ll begin to see tiny leaves and shoots emerge from among the dead stems.
Leave the plant to do its thing for a bit. If the weather is dry, give it a light watering now and then.
Once the growth begins in earnest, you’ll see a pattern emerge. If the green growth is consistent across the surface of the soil, the plant doesn’t really need repotting.
But if the center of the pot has no new growth, with new green sprouts ringing the edges, it definitely needs to be moved to a larger pot. The rhizomes beneath the surface drive the new season’s new growth, and if the sprouts appear only around the edges of the pot, that means the rhizomes have grown outward from the center of the plant – as is their imperative to do, to spread outward – and are running around the walls of the pot (remember the photo above) because they have no room to do anything else.
When you move mint, you don’t need to move it to a much bigger pot because its root ball isn’t very big or deep. I usually just go one size up (which, in the U. S. , pots sizes usually come in 2″ increments), acknowledging that the plant might need repotting again next year. Make sure the pot has a drainage hole.
Choose a pot that’s large enough for the plant to sit in comfortably, with room below for a fresh soil base of an inch or so, and enough space around the sides to fill in with new soil.
If the root ball is particularly compacted, you can gently break up the roots a bit by splitting the ball in half from the bottom up. I normally don’t, though. I also leave the rhizomes alone, even when they look quite squooshed.
If the pot’s drainage hole is more than a 1/2″ in diameter, place a small rock, a square of screen, or even a coffee filter, over the hole, to prevent soil from crumbling out.
Add a layer of soil to the bottom of the pot, and then set the plant in the middle. Add soil around the sides evenly so that the plant remains centered. Continue adding soil up to the level of the original surface. Press the edges down to firm the soil, and water well.