It needs sun.

Most herbs need SUN and heat to develop the oils that give the taste and scent to the plant. Winter herbs rarely taste as strong as in the summer.

Yes - get it outdoors where it can breath. Inside it will grow sappy, etiolated and much less tasty.

Early spring plants that are extra bloated with water don't have the same taste either. Check back posts - no flavor is a spring complaint. I would imagine indoor plants to also have the same complaint. When possible, harden your plant off and move it outdoors.

As far as a chemical smell, I don't use Miracle Grow for any edibles. I opt for organic or as chemical-free as possible soil and seed-starting mixes. I view it as a GIGO issue - "Garbage In, Garbage Out."

FataMorgana

Just a quick update. I put both my peppermint and chocolate mint outside for a couple of hours to begin hardening them off. They're almost dead at this point. The plants are extremely wilted. I don't know how their health diminished so quickly, but I don't know that there's much I can do now. Should I continue trying to harden them off?

Can you describe the conditions outside? Sunny? Hot? Windy? Have you watered them?

I suppose that would've been helpful. Yesterday before I put them outside, they were already pretty terrible looking. They had adequate water, but not so much it drowned them. First the chocolate mint started to go, then the peppermint. So I put them on my balcony. It was cloudy, so I figured it'd be best to let them have a little light, but not too much yet since they had been indoors. After about two hours, it had started to rain and I was not home, so they got a little wet which made them even more droopy from the rain clinging onto their stems.

This post was edited by Starrling on Wed, Apr 9, 14 at 11:16

Just a thought-that pot is huge for plants of that size. Lots of danger of over-watering.

Linda

They were extremely root bound when I bought them, so I wanted a bigger pot to put them in. The soil is barely damp, not wet or drenched. Would it not survive from something like that?

Unfortunately, "a couple of hours" is too long for the first day of hardening-off. Though it makes a difference to put a plant in shade or dappled shade rather than full sun, even too much wind can have negative affects on a plant used to windless indoors conditions.

So give the plant a rest from outdoors for a day or so, make sure the soil hasn't dried out (wind can be dehydrating), and try again when the plant recovers from the wilting.