In fact, mint is unpretentious, and many people have itgrows in vegetable gardens, some grow it at home on the windowsill, and somewhere it just sprouts like a weed. But all this is medicinal mint, the one we drink a decoction of when we have a cold. But not everyone knows that there is also indoor mint. Meanwhile, this aromatic plant of the Labiatae family, also known by its botanical name Plectranthus, is quite popular among amateur gardeners. And if the healing properties of this specimen can be debated, then its ability to replace peppermint as an additive to tea is undeniable. What kind of plant is this, and how easy is it to grow at home? Let's figure it out.
Varieties of room mint
This plant is called a house plant or a domestic plant.mint. Like all labiates, plecranthus is valuable for its aromatic leaves. And they smell thanks to special glands in the leaves that secrete essential oils. In indoor floriculture, several varieties of plecranthus are known, and the three most popular are:
- Plectratus shrub or Mole tree is an evergreen shrub that reaches one meter in height;
- Plektrantus southerly, also known as Swedish or Scandinavian ivy - a herbaceous plant with lagging shoots reaching a meter length;
- Plextrantus Ertendal (no other name) is an evergreen half-shrub, the crown of which forms curtains.
However, the most common indoor plantIn floriculture, the type of domestic mint is the Mole Tree. This is what is meant when talking about growing indoor mint. And it is more similar to garden mint than its other relatives.
Conditions of detention
As we have already said, this plant isunpretentious. However, for favorable growth and reproduction it requires certain conditions. Plekranthus fruticosa (domestic mint) grows well on fertile substrates and organo-mineral fertilizers. It does not like exclusively mineral fertilizers. This plant loves the light and needs year-round (it is evergreen after all) bright, but diffused lighting. The leaves of domestic mint are pubescent, like those of violets, so it does not tolerate spraying well, and when water gets on the leaves and stems, spots appear on them, which then dry out or rot. But this plant requires abundant watering in the warm season and moderately abundant in winter. In nature, the moth tree grows in a temperate climate, so when kept indoors, an average temperature of about 20-24 ° C is favorable for it. However, domestic mint also tolerates hot weather, but hypothermia is detrimental to it. The minimum temperature that this plant can withstand is 10 degrees Celsius. Home mint is not demanding to air humidity, but it does not tolerate proximity to a heating battery and dry hot air. So the ideal conditions for this plant are a warm, bright room, good watering without spraying and fertilizing with flower fertilizers twice a month.
Care and Growth
Basic care for indoor mint consists oftimely watering, fertilizing, pinching and replanting. It needs to be replanted once every two or three years, adding a mixture of turf soil and garden compost to the flower pots. During the period of active growth (and the plant is active almost all year round), indoor mint needs to be pinched and flower stalks broken off. These measures will make it possible to form a compact and fluffy bush. Woody shoots that are losing their foliage and decorativeness need to be cut off. Rejuvenating formative pruning can be done at the end of winter or in March, and pinching can be done all year round. Mint tolerates pinching and pruning painlessly and responds to it with new numerous shoots. Possible problems:
- if the plant is experiencing a deficit of illumination, then its shoots are strongly stretched and droop, and the leaves turn yellow;
- dry and dark edges of the leaves of room mint, if it is not enough to feed or fill,
- supercooling is fraught with damage to roots, young leaves and growth buds,
- to pests and diseases, domestic peppermint is quite stable, however, it is possible that a plant of aphids, a scab, a whitefly or a spider mite, can be excluded.
Indoor mint is propagated by cuttings.apical shoots or rooting parts of woody stems. Mint can be cut all year round, and the cuttings can be rooted in water or wet sand. Rooting cuttings do not require special conditions except for a constant temperature of about twenty degrees. With good care, indoor mint lives in a flower pot for about five years. But experienced gardeners claim that with constant rejuvenation and cuttings, its lifespan is unlimited. So it is not only an evergreen houseplant, but also practically everlasting. So if you want to have an unpretentious fragrant and grateful plant in your home, then indoor mint will be a flower quite suitable for these purposes. In addition, it is believed that it is able to drive moths out of the house, and mosquitoes and flies do not tolerate its presence. If you do not believe it, then settle indoor mint in your home and see for yourself. Good luck! We recommend reading:
