It is Spring, well all most, so it is time to start work on our Organic Rosemary, the Autumn tip cuttings are ready for up potting and the new tips are starting to grow on our mother plants so it is time for a fresh batch of tip cuttings.

Every Autumn I take a load of Rosemary tip cuttings to over Winter, when the mother plants I have in the garden start to grow, usually mid January into February, I check the roots of the cuttings, and if they are strong enough separate them out into individual pots ready for sale in our markets. For a quick guide on how to propagate organic rosemary by tip cuttings I wrote this guide up last week Organic Rosemary Propagation by Tip Cuttings

When I tip out the Autumn cuttings I realised I may have left it a little late. The rosemary tip have really sprouted a big ball of roots and the pots were totally pot bond. The rosemary plants themselves were a bit yellowy green, rather than the rich deep green of healthy plants, the soil was virtually none existent, the young plants had eaten the lot and the roots were wrapped around the bottom of the pots.

However it was not really as bad as it looked. I gently separated out the individual plants. I shook off the most of the remaining soil. I then carefully pulled off the lower roots that had wrapped themselves round the bottom of the pots, they do not really give the plant much support, so that what remained was the established root ball at the base of the stem. They were then ready to pot up.

Choosing pots that were at least two times as deep as the root base, I up potted all the young rosemary plants into rich Neuhaux organic soil. This soil is actually too rich for the plants, if we were planting them in pots, or in the ground, to grow our selves I would make up a mix of 50% soil from the garden and 50% Neuhaux, but I want these plants to grow fast, and rapidly change back to the deep green they should be. Like wise they will get watered a lot more than they would

in the garden, rosemary planted in the ground in Spring really only need watering weekly for the first year, and then once they have established a good root base they do not really need watering at all. Rosemary planted in Autumn, which is really the best time to plant them, do not need watering ever.  I find that Rosemary takes a good year to get it’s root ball established. There is not much growth the first year above ground, it is the second year it takes off.

Last but not least I started all over again, taking a bunch of new rosemary tip cuttings, with Spring round the corner these young chaps should be ready for up potting in a couple of months. Time for a tea break.

For more information on growing organic rosemary check out Growing Organic’s Organic Rosemary Page