Mint plants are grown in the greenhouse.  In the spring a transplanter places the plantlets in the field.  These are strawberry plants, but mint is planted the same way, with the same machine. This first planting outside of the greenhouse is called the nuclear generation.  Nuclear plants are sometimes hilled, and are not harvested for oil.  Nuclear generation roots are dug the fall after transplanting, or the following spring.

Roots are dug with a mint root digger, or in this case, a modified potato digger.  They are planted with a mint root planter.  The digger usually digs into a truck that hauls the roots to the field to be planted.  Here the digger is digging directly into the planter because the adjoining field is being planted.  When the nuclear generation is replanted it becomes the foundation generation.  The next two years are generations #1 and #2, and are used to establish most oil production fields.  Healthy fields will produce for several years.

Mint likes sun, moisture, and nutrition.  Integrated Pest Management programs monitor the fields for diseases, weeds, insects, and proper growing conditions.  Beneficial insect populations help to control harmful insects, reducing the reliance on chemical insecticides.  Hand weeding finishes off the weeds that come through the herbicides labeled for mint.  Water management keeps moisture available for the plants, and helps the predator mites who like a humid environment.

Rainbow Gardens - 2500 Whitefish Stage - Kalispell, MT 59901 - http://rainbowgardens.net

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