How To Harvest Thyme in Summer so it Keeps Growing – And to Get The Best Flavor
Whether for cooking or medicinal purposes, here’s when and how we recommend picking thyme
Thyme is a highly versatile herb that can be used in savory dishes, baking, oils, and marinades in the kitchen, or for its health and medicinal benefits as a tea, massage oil, or soap. Harvesting thyme is a crucial way to keep plants bushy and stop them from becoming woody, but there are right and wrong ways to do it.
Thyme is at its most flavorful in early summer, but you are not limited to picking during that period; you can potentially harvest thyme year-round. When you grow thyme, you can make regular light pickings throughout the year or a few larger harvests, depending on how you intend to use the herb.
It is important to understand how to harvest thyme, as you can damage the plant by picking too much or cutting too far back into the woody portion. Here, we look at when and how to harvest thyme so it keeps growing, so your plants are healthy and productive for years to come.
When to Harvest Thyme
Thyme can be picked lightly and regularly throughout the growing season, for particular recipes or to brew your own herbal tea. Larger harvests, however, are best left to just two or three times a year. These can be done if you want to dry or freeze an abundance of leaves at their most flavorful.
The peak time for harvesting thyme is in early summer, just before the plant flowers. At this stage of the herb’s life cycle, the oils it contains are most concentrated, giving the best taste.
If you want to preserve the aromatic herb at its absolute best, head out in the morning to pick the leaves. Harvesting thyme after the morning dew has dried is when the flavor is most intense, and it ensures the fresh leaves dry quickly, locking in that flavor.
You can pick thyme from spring until late summer, and there is even scope for small harvests over fall and winter – though the flavor isn’t the same as earlier in the year. And as the plant goes dormant when the temperatures drop, there won’t be much growth to snip.
To extend the season, grow thyme indoors in containers. You can continue picking through winter as the plant keeps growing in the warmer, protected conditions.
To avoid killing young plants, they should only be picked sparingly. If you’ve grown plants from seed, let them establish in the herb garden for their first year, then only lightly harvest in year two. The plants need a year to develop before you can start snipping them regularly.
How to Harvest Thyme
Understanding how to harvest thyme so it keeps growing ensures you snip the right parts of the stem and avoid any pruning mistakes that may leave the plant unable to recover.
To start with, you need sharp, clean pruning tools to harvest thyme. This can be a pair of pruning shears, garden snips (like these Felco pruning snips, available at Amazon), or scissors – whatever you use, make sure it is sharp and makes clean cuts and sanitized so you are not spreading diseases around the garden.
When you are taking just a few sprigs for a recipe, simply snip the stems above a leaf node. This will encourage branching and keep the plant bushy. New stems will quickly regrow, and the plant can easily handle this kind of regular trimming.
If you are taking larger harvests for drying, you need to be more careful about what and how much you pick. This is where it is important to know how to harvest thyme without killing the plant.
You can cut up to a third of the outermost foliage of the plant in one go. Remember the one-third pruning rule and don’t take more than this at once.
The plant can recover from this level of trimming, but taking more becomes a gamble. Excessive pruning past this point can stress and weaken the plant. It may struggle to recover, and any growth it does put on can be unpredictable.
You also need to avoid cutting into the thick, woody stems at the base of the plant. Stick to cutting the green, leafy growth, as the plant is unlikely to regrow from the woody stems.
What to Shop
Four live English thyme plants to put into a herb planter, border, or container garden. Plant the herb in full sun or partial shade and enjoy years of pickings.
Orangelo thyme has a citrusy orange scent and flavor, set against the backdrop of the typical thyme taste. It makes a great culinary herb.
These micro-tip pruning snips have precise blades for making clean cuts in smaller spaces. They make an ideal tool for harvesting thyme.
FAQs
Can You Harvest Thyme With Flowers?
Yes, you can harvest thyme stems that have flowers. In fact, the edible flowers have the same flavor as the leaves and can be used as a garnish. Or you can leave flowering stems on the plant as the blooms are great for pollinators.
Can You Harvest Thyme in the Winter?
Yes, you can harvest thyme during the colder months. As the plant goes dormant, there are limited opportunities to snip green stems if the plants are outdoors, and the leaves are less flavorful than in spring or summer. If you have thyme in pots in an indoor herb garden, you can pick fresh growth through winter.
We mentioned that thyme flowers are great for pollinators, but they are not alone among herbs. Many herbs begin to flower in early summer and provide vital food for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other beneficial insects.
Other herbs to let flower in June for pollinators include borage, cilantro, bee balm, and marjoram. Why not let a few of these bloom this month to help support local wildlife?
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