Medicine cabinets and Christmas bakeries benefit from home-grown anise. Planting and caring for the annual herb is not difficult. The harvest of anise seeds still causes headaches for many a hobby gardener. Read well-founded answers to frequently asked questions here. Here you can find out how to recognize ripe anise and pick it correctly.
If the seed is still green, it is not yet ripe
When is harvest time?
Anise (Pimpinella anisum) belongs to the umbelliferae family and found its way into our herb gardens from Asia. The coveted seeds with the unmistakable aroma ripen in the white umbrella blossoms. As a result, flowering time and harvest are closely related:
- Anise flowering time: July to August
- Harvest time: 6 weeks after flowering
If you plant aniseed in a sunny, dry, gravelly-loamy location, the harvest will start at the end of August. In partially shaded, cool and humid locations, you can sometimes only pick aniseed from October.
How to recognize ripe anise?
The summer flowering time of anise is an important indication that the healing, spicy seeds are now growing. Because the white umbelliferous flowers unfold in stages, we recommend regular visits to the herb bed from August. Harvest-ready anise can be recognized by wilted flowers and seeds with brownish skins.
Pick anise correctly - how does it work?
Race the wilting plants for a bountiful anise harvest. Anise strives to spread the ripe seeds around the bed so that flocks of offspring will thrive. So that this process does not reduce the crop yield, you should be faster. How to pick aniseed correctly:
- The best time is just before full maturity
- Cut off fruit heads with stalks
- Hang the anise stalks upside down and leave to dry
- Spread out cloth or foil to catch falling seeds
Alternatively, put air-permeable bags made of fleece or cotton over the infructescence so that the ripe seeds collect in them. Store anise in dark, airtight containers. This storage preserves the valuable ingredients for at least two years. The dried aniseed seeds should only be crushed in a mortar when used as a spice or medicinal plant.
tips
Anise (Pimpinella anisum) should not be missing in the planting plan for the herb snail. For the aromatic sunbather, reserve a spot in the upper, Mediterranean zone. Balcony gardeners place anise in pots at the top of the sunny herb ladder.