When do you harvest camomile

For many who have only bought their own chamomile, it is a surprise that the white petals of the fresh flower should be part of your tea. Commercial chamomile is often so worn out that you only receive the yellow dome. If you are drying your own, you can carefully ensure that all parts of the flower are preserved. Storing Your Harvest Store your dried chamomile is in an air-tight glass container.

Colored glass is the gold standard, but you may repurpose any size or shape of clear glass container. Here are some of my favorite uses, for your health and in the garden. Teething Babies Chamomile is one of the very best herbs for easing the pain of teething.

When my children went through this phase, I soaked a washcloth in chamomile tea and froze it. The resulting teether made a bit of a mess, but nothing that would stain. The relief it gave was worth a soaked shirt. Anxiety Chamomile is a gentle nervine, which means that it feeds and tones the nervous system. For anxiety, it has a long track record. In fact, the longer you drink chamomile tea on a daily basis, the more calming you will find it.

Upset Stomach The digestive benefits of chamomile are one great reason to let your tea steep longer. The bitter compounds found within the plant do not come through until after it has been infusing for longer than your average tea bag. Inflammation In our household, when a mild anti-inflammatory is needed we reach for chamomile. Whether internally or externally, such as in the eyes, a chamomile tea is an easy way to calm and soothe irritated tissues. You can also harvest the seeds at the end of the season if you want to try growing plants from seed next year.

Chamomile seeds are easy to find so you can start your own tea garden. Get a chamomile seed set so you can try both Roman and German to see which you prefer! Chamomile flowers can be harvested all summer long, starting as soon as they bloom. To pick flowers at their peak, wait until they are either in full bloom or just about to fully open. You can still harvest blossoms that are past their prime, but they may not be as potent as those picked a bit earlier.

The best time of day for harvesting is in the morning, after the dew has dried but before the sun gets too hot. The second best time to harvest chamomile flowers is whenever you have the chance. Unless you have a massive chamomile patch, the easiest way to harvest the flowers is with your fingers or a small pair of garden clippers.

There are a few different ways to harvest chamomile, but the idea in all of them is to gently pull or snip the flowers off without pulling up or damaging your plants. Many gardeners find it easiest to simply pinch individual flowers off and collect them in a basket as they go.

You can do this by pinching the stalk just below an open flower with your thumb and forefinger until you break off the flower head. Another, somewhat quicker method is to use your fingers like a rake to grab several flower heads at once.

Then, you can hold the stems of the plant with your other hand and pull up on the flowers until they come loose. Finally, you can also use a pair of clippers or scissors to snip off individual flowers. This tends to be slow going, but it keeps your plants intact and gives you cleanly cut flower heads.

If you enjoy starting plants from seed, you might also be wondering how to harvest chamomile seeds. Then, you can snip them off and spread them out on a wire rack to finish drying. Keep them in a warm spot out of direct sunlight. Once the flower heads are dry all the way through, rub the heads over a bowl to collect the seeds. The seeds are very tiny, so you may need to use a mesh strainer to separate them from the chaff.

Tip: German chamomile reseeds itself often. Gather all the blossoms you can. Chamomile is an annual that self-seeds quite well. In fact, I often leave a few blossoms to go to seed on purpose so I get volunteer chamomile plants the following year.

And I leave a few blossoms to dry out and then harvest them for the seed. After the harvest. The more you pick, the more blossoms grow. I was able to pick another bowl full the next day! Gently shake the flowers and look them over to remove any insects or dirt that may be on the flower heads. If you wish, you can wash the flowers in a basin of water. Drain well and gently pat dry. Air Dry — Spread out the flowers in a single layer and allow them to dry for 1 to 2 weeks in a dark, warm, dry space.

Dehydrate — Dry flowers on a lined dehydrator tray to prevent tiny dried blossoms from falling through the mesh. To avoid blossoms from blowing off the tray, place a mesh liner on top of the chamomile flowers. Delicate herbs and flowers should always be dehydrated at the lowest settings for optimum results.

Always store dried herbs out of direct heat or sunlight to best preserve the color, flavor and medicinal properties. After that it come up anywhere near it's pot or garden spot. Pages Home About me Herbal teas in your kitchen.

How to grow and harvest chamomile. To look at my garden you wouldn't know that I once had a hard time growing chamomile! I spent two years fighting to grow a few spindly little plants that only produced a few flowers each.

It was so sad. Now my garden overflows with it every year. I was simply growing it wrong! I had no idea how to grow chamomile. Actually, I had no idea how to germinate chamomile. Posted by LA Murano. Click for more posts on: Growing Flowers , Growing herbs.