How to plant rosemary?

Understand how to plant rosemary to enjoy its benefits all year round

how to plant rosemary

Edited and resized image by Vincent Foret is available on Unsplash

Knowing how to plant rosemary is worth it, because who knows how to grow this plant has rosemary all year long! And the advantage of having rosemary available throughout the year for harvesting is that, in addition to being a delicious and fragrant vegetable, its consumption provides health benefits.

The terpenes present in rosemary have a high antioxidant capacity, active principles against bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecalis, Shigella flexneri, Salmonella typhi and Staphylococcus aureus; and antidepressant properties similar to those of fluoxetine.

Furthermore, studies show that rosemary extracts can prevent the replication of cancer cells, thus inhibiting tumor growth. Other studies show that rosemary essential oil improves memory performance.

Anyone who knows how to plant rosemary also helps bees, as rosemary flowers are a great source of food for them.

A rosemary tree can reach up to two meters in height and stay alive for up to ten years! Rosemary comes from the Mediterranean region of Europe and was brought to Brazil by Europeans. Belonging to the botanical family Lamiaceae, the botanical genus of rosemary is derived from Latin ros marinus, which means “dew of the sea”. To learn more about the benefits of rosemary, take a look at the article: "Rosemary: benefits and what it is for".

  • The importance of bees to life on the planet
  • What are terpenes?

How to plant rosemary

Growing rosemary can be easier than most people realize. As a drought-resistant plant, rosemary can spend up to three days without watering in arid and rocky places.

The main requirement for planting rosemary is space. Crops in small pots can even be maintained over time and facilitate harvesting, however, rosemary crops in beds or large pots have better development.

Step by step

1. Find seeds, seedlings or branches

The easiest way to plant rosemary is through seedlings. But it is also possible to start cultivation using branches and seeds, the latter being the most difficult way. Seedlings can be purchased at plant markets, or you can order one from an acquaintance who will grow them on a large scale. If you can't find seedlings, try to find a way to cut a branch (stake) from four to six inches; if you don't find any of these options, try purchasing the seeds. The more exuberant the original seedling, the better your rosemary cultivation will be.

2. Prepare a suitable environment

Rosemary has a certain resistance to drought, but does not tolerate extreme temperatures. It is usually recommended to plant rosemary in temperate and tropical regions, with direct sunlight and low humidity. Avoid excessive watering and rainy regions.

3. Keep the soil very moist only at the beginning

If you have chosen to develop cuttings, remove the leaves from the first three centimeters so that they do not rot, as this will be the part you will bury. If you can, prefer to plant the cuttings in the spring, the best time for this. So keep the soil very moist until rooting – which takes a few months in regions where the winter is mild and about a year where it is cold. Leave the seedling in a nursery until transplanted to a well-drained sandy-clay soil with a neutral or low alkaline pH.

4. Provide space

To plant rosemary and be successful leave a space of 80 centimeters to one meter between the plants. When transplanting the seedlings, make holes of 15 x 15 cm and add one kilogram and 200 grams of compost.

5. Decrease watering over time and pruning

When the young crop starts to grow, reduce the frequency of watering, keeping the soil slightly dry. Rosemary does not tolerate waterlogged terrain, so irrigation should be sparse. Although pruning is not necessary for the species' health, it is recommended to cut a few centimeters from the branches in spring to maintain the plant's shape.

6. Enjoy

Rosemary can be harvested 90 days after planting begins. However, the ideal is to wait until the second or third year of cultivation, when the foot is already well developed. During spring, choose the largest branches and cut the final 5 to 7 cm, a size that does not harm the plant's development. If harvesting twice a year, one harvest should be in autumn, in the upper half of the rosemary, and the other in spring, 50 centimeters from the ground.

To conserve your harvest throughout the year, freeze or dehydrate the harvested branches.



$config[zx-auto] not found$config[zx-overlay] not found