Harvesting Your Medicinal Herbs And Plants

A great deal of gardeners know a lot about raising and cultivating various medicinal herbs and plants, but know too little about the correct ways of harvesting, picking and storing them. However, it is very important to harvest, process and store your herbs properly in order to preserve all therapeutic properties and curative actions of the herbs.

Harvesting herbs can seem to be easy, but there are several common approaches to picking herbs and plants. For example, specialists even differ the techniques and approaches to harvesting medicinal plants and herbs for long-time and short-time usage. Generally speaking, herbs and different parts of herbs should be harvested when they have the highest amount of their flavor essence. Usually, medicinal herbs and plants are harvested and dried in summer and autumn.

There are many techniques of harvesting your herbs. You can use your hands, a sharp knife or gardening shears. Experienced gardeners recommend picking leaves when the plant is about to blossom. Blossoms and flowers should be harvested either when they are about to blossom, or when they are about to reach their full bloom. Fruit and berries should be collected when they achieved their full ripeness. Roots should be picked when the leaves of the plant just begin to change color.

All medicinal herbs and plants, all their parts, blossoms and fruits, etc. should be harvested in the proper time of the day. Pick your herbs and their parts early in the morning, before the sunrise, when the morning dew falls down from the leaves.  If you need to pick the top of the plant, remove either leafy tips or not more that one third of the full top of plant. Do not cut leaves and stems too small before drying. Look for more information and tips on harvesting herbs and plants for your herbal preparations.

Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.

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