Whether it’s your kitchen garden or just a small plant in your room, mint has earned its place in the top most necessary plants for you to have. When planting mint to grow for oneself, the first question that would pop up in their mind would be getting big mint leaves. It’s a fair question that is frequently asked by many and one that will be discussed extensively below.
Why Are Your Mint Leaves So Small?
If you’re new to giving a home to a mint plant or just generally want to learn more about why your mint leaves are turning out to be so small, there are quite a few factors that contribute to their size. While some of these are generic to all plants, some can be very specific to mint itself.
Nutrients
A factor that contributes to all kinds of plants and their growth is, of course, the number of nutrients being provided to them. Is there an appropriate amount of sunlight being provided to it? Is there sufficient water supply to your plant? Is your plant being fed a good proportion of fertilizer for its nutrients?
These are all questions that are important to consider for all kinds of plants and so, of course, mint. The thing with this plant in specific is that growing it is not a major issue. It is considered to be one of the most invasive plants, which even competes with its neighbor plants if it is allowed to grow without any check or restriction. The problem arises not in growing it but in keeping it healthy and fit to your needs.
Location
The location for any plant and its growth matters a lot, whether it’s the immediate location or the part of the world that you’re living in. This adds variation because different places have different intensities in their strengths, and so the harshness of seasons can often be a factor in unhealthy growth.
Other than the entire location as a whole is a factor, its immediate planting area matters. What does that mean? That means many herbs and mint in specific grows best outdoors and not indoors. The location in general also affects the conditions the plant is being grown in, which is a major factor in the leaves turning out to be a different size or the plant’s health as a whole.
Conditions
The conditions that a plant grows in massively affect the output that can be seen in its growth and progress. These conditions can either be the weather and hence the temperature that the mint is growing in or the moisture that it is exposed to. Either way, no matter what conditions a mint plant is being grown in, there are ways you can get your plant to have bigger mint leaves.
How To Get Bigger Mint Leaves?
Now that we have a fair idea of all the reasons that could lead to smaller leaves on your mint plant, we can better discuss all the answers on how to get big mint leaves. All of the solutions are mostly counterparts to best evade all of the problems that are explained above, but there are also a few tricks that can assist in having bigger leaves on your mint plant.
Relocate the Plant
Relocating your mint plant can mean two separate things, and both of these meanings hold their own importance and significance in reference to the health and growth of the plant.
The first meaning is to relocate the plant to a place that has better conditions like warm temperature and more sunlight. As already discussed, the mint plant grows better outdoors, and so if it’s appropriate for the caretaker, it is more advised to try and relocate your plant to provide it the best conditions for it to grow healthily.
The second meaning to relocating your plant is closely related to the roots of the mint plant. If all else fails, the reason for having smaller leaves on your mint plant is because of the roots and how they can spread out to no extent if allowed to do so.
A good way to tackle this challenge is to change your plant’s container to a bigger container if it is growing indoors. Another way to help with its roots without having to change the container is to trim them in the same container.
If the mint is already planted outdoors, it is smart to remove it if it has no boundaries and use a bottomless container to limit its root growth.
Feed Your Plant
Another good way of ensuring your plant’s healthy growth and hence, big healthy leaves is the proper supply of nutrients through fertilizer. That being said, it is important to remember that only an appropriate amount of fertilizer is what is healthy for plants, and adding too much can even be unhealthy to them due to excess nitrogen.
Wondering why your Mint Leaves are turning yellow? Click here to find out why and what to do about it!
Quench Its Thirst
Water is essential to the healthy growth of all living things, and mint is no different. However, mint is a plant that is very easy to grow because it can use even the moisture in the soil that it is planted in to support itself in growing healthily and producing big, healthy leaves.
Cutting and Trimming
The cutting of leaves from each stem can actually make the plant making bigger leaves. Cutting them away from sunlight forces them to be bigger in size to gain sunlight. This is basic 6th-grade science, but cutting them needs more glucose and hence, produces bigger leaves. Trimming the roots of your mint plant also massively helps in having bigger leaves.
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How Do You Make Mint Grow Bushy?
To make mint grow bushier, the same techniques can be applied as we saw in the achieving of bigger leaves. The most widely known and used concepts for having bushier mint plants are of cutting and trimming. By cutting and pinching off leaves and buds from the plant, the plant isn’t allowed to bloom and so becomes more compact and hence bushier.
FAQ
Why Is My Mint Not Growing?
As we’ve discussed already, mint is a plant that is very easy to grow and can require minimal care. This can also sometimes be the reason for its demise where if you care for it too much, i.e., either provide it too much sunlight/too much fertilizer/too much water, it can easily die off, and so if your mint isn’t growing, it may be time to let it relax and grow on its own.
What Is The Best Fertilizer For Mint?
There can be different choices for better fertilizer for mints depending on what stage of growth it is in, but mostly all-purpose fertilizer does the job just fine. Since they’re easy to grow plants and mainly just require the usual nutrients and not too much, all-purpose fertilizer is what is used for most stages; although, for new growth of mint plants, granular fertilizer is also suggested.
Recap
To revise all that we’ve explained above for how to get big mint leaves so far, the most important factors to keep in check are the plant’s roots and the number of nutrients being provided to it. If both of them are under correct supervision and are dealt with carefully, there’s no reason your mint plant would not produce the biggest, healthiest leaves.