Growing Killer Catnip Bud
Home - - - Stella the Cat's Page

This plant was started from scratch in March, and by May it was about this big.
Catnip likes LOTS of water and LOTS of sunshine. It grows like crazy, but you have to give it lots of water. I water this one about 4 times a day, and instead of a pan under the pot I have a cut up bucket, so that after watering it's sitting in about 4 inches of water. On a hot day, the plant will suck that dry in a few hours.
The real trick to growing catnip is in the pruning. You have to be brutal about it. If you don't prune, you'll end up with a bunch of long straggly stems, with only a single bud at the end of each.
Catnip Leaves are fine, but that's not what drives cats crazy. You want the skanky Killer Catnip Bud!



Around about the Fourth of July, I stopped pruning and let all the stems grow out a bit, to open the plant up and let lots of sun in. So it started to get a little scraggly looking, but it was time to let it go to bud!
On July 12, the stems had grown out about 8 inches (in just a week!) And... the first buds were starting to make an appearance.

Back To
Home - - - Stella's Page
July 26 -- The first round of
buds appear. Snip them off and set them in a single layer on a cookie sheet,
and set them in the oven at 190 degrees with the door open a crack.
(Just like making beef jerky.)
After they're dry, I stick 'em in baggies and store 'em in the freezer.

It'll stay small through the winter (if you live in California) and in the Spring you cut it all the way down to the dirt. The roots will live and start a bunch of new shoots (about twice as many as the year before) and you start the whole thing over again!
Here it is in March 2003...
the new shoots are coming up,
and this year's crop is on the way!
Winter seems to be long, this year.

May 2003 --
The second year with this plant and all's well. I got busy with my
boat and didn't get the water system going until this month, so the plant
is small and hardy. You can see how the brutal pruning is working, though
the plant itself is about 5 inches high and 8 inches wide.





By July 4 it was time
to let it go to bud,
so it's starting
to get scraggly.
Most of the little buds
are the same size,
but one was just
a little too big (below.)

So I snipped it off,
crushed it a bit
to release the oil,
and let Stella Blue
test out the first of
the year's crop...
Well, then she put on
a little Grateful Dead and chilled...

April 2004 --
I got my act together this year and planted spring flowers in March, so the irrigation system is in full swing. It ought to be a good year.
Stella has had her fill of the trimmings from the brutal pruning exercises...

Update 2006 --
I thought I killed the plant, because I was
working too much and I didn't turn on the irrigation system until months after
the
winter rainy season.
The dirt was so dry there was 1/2" of space around the edge of the pot,
and everything was dead.
So I soaked it really well, over and over for a day, and a million little shoots started coming up. Maybe the roots were still alive (although I doubt it) but I think perhaps some seeds had fallen down into the dirt after it had flowered last year.
Whew, we're back in business,
bushier than ever.

July 10, 2008
Stella
Blue is gone,
and thus, the plant.
We had a short, wonderful, thirteen years
together,
and I'd do it all over again if I could.
Respectfully submitted,
Wal

For some reason,
Stella has never attacked the plant.
It's right there within reach.
I've given plants away to friends, and their cats have destroyed
the plant before it could bud.
But Stella just
uses it for shade.
She always has been a
very well behaved cat.
Perhaps she's just enjoying the smell. Who knows?