mine is outside, and no matter what I do, I can't seem to kill it! It has spread like wildfire, healthy as can be after at least 4 years. I started with 1 small plant, and I pull it out, cut it down, everything to try to kill it. But, alas, it loves where it is and just won't die.
I have never had much luck growing herbs in the house.
Maybe it's not getting enough sun? Try putting it outside and see how it does.

hmmm. Maybe it has out grown the pot it's in? Or maybe too much sun? I have mint problems here, it has to be in shade, have humousy soil and get plenty of water. If it's getting the same amount of sun that the rosemary's getting, maybe it's too much, but they do spread quickly and seem to like larger pots.

Thanks guys!

The mint is outside on the fire escape.

The plant is only about a month old...I turned it out of the pot today and the root ball is pretty small (compared to the container).

I have south-west exposure, but because of the buildings across the street I only get direct sunlight for about 4 hours. Is that too much for mint?

heathen, I put it in plain old miracle gro potting mix..does that work?

I am not sure where you are... but in MOST places in the US, that would be fine. Okay... so, you put it in MG soil, did you fertilize it on top of that?
When you checked the soil, was it soggy or dry or damp?

Heathen:I am in NYC. I haven't been fertilizing because the bag says "fertilizes for up to 3 months" and I was afraid to "burn" the plants. Last year, I didn't grow mint, but I used potting soil from the 99c store. Could the fertilizer be making my mint taste bad?

The last time I checked the soil, it was dry on top and damp about an inch down...I took your advice and added more water both on top and into the self-watering compartment.

Hi mate.

From the UK. You said "The plant is only about a month old...I turned it out of the pot today and the root ball is pretty small (compared to the container)."

Thats a bad sign as mint roots are normally prolific. I'm not saying that this is the case, but if you bought it as a plant,(was it container grown?) it could just be from bad stock.

Regarding the fertilizer someone suggested...I have to make the point that Mint does not need a high nutrient soil, in fact I have only used a product called Growmore, once a year on my herb plots...in July...ie, mid growing season over here.

Hi ray!
I bought a little plant and it grew really well this past month..I was even able to make mojitos for 4, that's how well it grew! :)

I checked the roots further and what it is is a small, sort of central, root ball of about 4 inches (maybe it got rootbound in the container it came in?) in an 8-inch ball of soil. On the surface of the "soil ball", there are few white roots peeping out here and there, a couple running along the sides, but not a lot. It it possible to be rootbound in the middle even though it's in a bigger pot?

Sorry if I'm asking silly questions guys, this is only my second year fire-escape planting, already a challenge within itself! ;)

Yes, it might have been rootbound originally. If the roots were really matted on the outside of the original 4" pot, tease them out gently so that they can grow outwards.

How often are you watering? Water thoroughly every few days (more often in very hot weather) and let the top inch or so of soil dry out between waterings. If some of the soil in the middle is dry, it might be hard to re-wet it. To ensure a thorough watering, dunk the whole pot (2/3 of the way up to the rim) in a pot of lukewarm water for a half hour or so.

I've had my mint plant for about a month or two. It thrived when I first had it, grew like crazy. It needed water very often, almost daily. We had some hot days for about a week. I'd water my mint in the morning before I went to work, but by the time I got home from work (I work 10 hour shifts), it would be limp, laying on the windowsill with all the leaves curled under. I had to put the pot in a bowl of water and let it water itself from the bottom; that was the only way I could get enough water into it and not have it looking like it was dead when I got home from work.

After watering it like this for about a week, I noticed the roots were growing out of the bottom of the pot about 4 or 5 inches! The roots at the tips were black, which I believe was rot. I cut off the black roots and put in a bigger pot. Is it possible to have too big of a pot with mint? When I originally got the plant, the roots were growing out of the bottom of the small pot, so I repotted it and it was only about 2 weeks later the roots were growing out of the pot again, so I repotted it into a pot 3 times its' size. Was this wrong? I've heard mint is a deep rooter, so I wanted to give the plant plenty of room to grow.

Problem is, now a lot of the leaves are turning yellow and withering. Was it wrong to sit the pot in a bowl of water and let it water itself? Could that be what made the roots rot and grow out of the pot? It seemed to be doing well when I had it in the bowl of water, but I wonder because then the roots rotted.

Thanks for any help you can give me! Oh, it also seems to thrive in sunshine, but I've heard others say it needs shade. I'm guessing all plants are different? It only gets bright sunshine for a few hours a day, then medium to low light.

NYGARDENER: Thanks for your tips! Any suggestions on how to tease out the roots in the center ball? I'm not sure how to do that without ripping up the "new roots" that are sparsely running through the soil.

That said, after manhandling the plant a little to get a close look at the roots (to post here), I plopped it back in the pot and pulled off the yellowing leaves..now it looks like it's doing well again (I see new growth).

If it starts to die off again, you will once more find me here! :)

PS: what is one suppposed to do with the stolons? They've gotten a bit long--I have no room on the fire escape to lay down more soil. Do I coil it inside the pot to make more plants? Do I cut them off?

musicofthelight: my mint has been in a selfwatering pot for about a month. the roots arent growing out of the bottom yet, or rotting, but then again I posted here because i was having problems with it, so i don't really know :)

musicofthelight  If you left it in standing water for a week that could definitely cause root rot. If you just bottom-watered like that for a half hour every day (or for about 10 minutes after the top of the soil is wet), or better every few days, it should be fine. Healthy roots that grow out of the bottom of a pot will often turn black at the ends because they're not in contact with soil; this is air-pruning, not rot. Mint will thrive in large-ish pots; a month or so ago I transplanted a 4" plant to a 14" pot, which it has now filled.

manillesol, if you think it was rootbound and then repotted without loosening the outer roots, you could remove the plant from the pot and shake it. That will remove the soil from around the new roots without severing them and expose the matted roots within, which you can then tease out.

Thanks nygardener!
Are you in the city? Because maybe you can help me with another problem! Recently, something has started digging in my windowbox. It's been here before, back when I started with small plants. It uprooted them, ate off the leaves, I'm guessing, because when I found the plants, they were leafless.

It hasn't been back in a while, but this morning, I saw a big hole in the windowbox (about 3 inches) and a part-eaten basil leaf. Any ideas? Please don't say it's a New York rat..I'm going to have a heart attack.

It's more likely a squirrel. I had an upstairs neighbor who loved to leave out nuts to feed the squirrels and, of course, they would take them and race downstairs to bury them in my planters. They would rip out any plant that didn't have cast-iron roots. But ... they never made a 3-inch hole in a window box!

I hear them scurrying and rustling at night... are squirrels nocturnal? Eating my basil...maybe Italian squirrels? I do live above a mozzarella store.. ! :)

I don't mind so much the digging and burying...just put the dirt back where you found it, guys...instead of in a mound suffocating my parsley! lol