How can you dry lavender at home, timing of collection and preparation
Lavender is a unique plant with an unusual aroma. The inflorescences contain a large amount of useful trace elements. It is used for decorating bouquets, making teas, essential oils and even desserts. How to dry lavender at home so that the raw materials do not lose nutrients during processing.
When to Harvest?
You need to harvest lavender when it begins to bloom en masse. The peculiarity of the flowering of the plant is that the flowers bloom from top to bottom and it is not necessary to wait for the whole inflorescence to bloom. The main thing is to open the lower flowers. The flowering period for the culture begins around mid-June.
Although the flowering period for lavender is quite long and is about 3-4 months, it is undesirable to delay harvesting. The later the inflorescences are cut, the less nutrients they contain. If you hold out until the end of summer, then it will no longer be possible to cut off the inflorescences. Seeds will appear in them, and such inflorescences are no longer suitable for use in cooking or for brewing tea.
Harvesting lavender is best done late in the evening or early in the morning, when it is not hot outside and the sun is not baking. But the best time is considered earlier in the morning before sunrise, when the morning dew has not yet dried on the plants.
Collection process
To cut the inflorescences, use only sharpened scissors or secateurs. After pruning, there should be no creases on the stems. Cutting with blunt pruning shears negatively affects the health of the bushes. You should cut off no more than a third of the entire stem. If you cut more, the root system can die. And since the culture belongs to perennials, if the inflorescences are cut off incorrectly, you can lose the entire bush.
The older the bush, the more inflorescences it will have. And, accordingly, the harvest in summer will be much larger. In the first year of growing the plant, 1-2 bouquets are cut from the bush. After 2-3 years, the number of bouquets may exceed 10.
How to dry lavender?
It is necessary to dry lavender so that it does not crumble, it is necessary according to simple rules. First of all, you should not dry raw materials in the sun. For drying, only closed dark rooms that are well ventilated are suitable. You can dry the inflorescences under a canopy in a draft. The main thing is not to allow the sun to fall on it.
The cut stems are collected in small bouquets and tied with thread or bank rubber band. After a few days, the stems decrease in size, and if you use a thread, the bouquet may fall apart. Hanging down with flowers.
If you dry the bouquets in a suspended state, the inflorescences will remain the same rich shade as fresh ones. In natural conditions, the workpieces will dry for 2-4 weeks.Check it regularly to ensure that the lavender dries. If the flowers start to fall, then the bouquets have dried up.
Another way to harvest raw materials for the winter is to dry the inflorescences in the sun. This is not the best way. During drying in the sun, some of the nutrients evaporate, but if the deadline is tight, you can use it. Cut flowers are laid out on a flat surface. They are regularly turned over so that the workpieces dry evenly. In this way, you need to dry lavender no more than a week.
They store lavender in an apartment in cloth bags or glass jars. It is not recommended to use plastic bags for storage. In them, the raw material will melt and may become moldy. In addition, when storing raw materials in bags, plants lose their unique aroma. It is best to use ceramic utensils for storage. In such containers, lavender will remain fragrant until next spring.
