When to Harvest Sweet Marjoram: Cutting Just Before the Knots Open

The knots are the signal, and they are easy to see

Sweet marjoram is also called knotted marjoram, and the name is a growing instruction. Before it flowers, the plant gathers its buds into tight rounded green knots at the tips of the shoots, each looking like a small overlapping cone of scales. They sit closed for roughly a week to ten days, and then tiny white or pale pink flowers push out between the scales.

That closed-knot window is when the oil content in the leaf is at its highest for the whole year. The plant has moved everything it has towards reproduction and has not yet spent it on open flowers. Cut in that week and dried marjoram from your own garden is unrecognisably better than anything sold in a jar. Cut two weeks later, once the knots have opened, and it is ordinary.

Not every shoot knots at the same moment. Watch the plant as a whole and cut when most of the tips are knotted, rather than waiting for the last few.

Cut on a dry morning after two dry days

The aromatic oil sits in glands on the leaf surface, and it is at its highest concentration in the morning once the dew has gone and before the sun has been on the plant for hours. Wet foliage also refuses to dry properly indoors and goes moldy in the bundle, which loses you the whole cut.

If you can, wait for two rain-free days before the main cut. Marjoram taken straight after heavy rain is watery, dries slowly and never smells as strong.

1. Wait for the dew to lift Mid-morning on a dry day, once the leaves are dry to the touch but before the heat of the afternoon, is the right hour.
2. Take the top two thirds Cut each stem about a third of the way up from the base, leaving several pairs of leaves and some woody structure below the cut so it can break new shoots.
3. Never cut into bare wood A stem cut back to a section with no leaves on it usually will not regrow. Always leave green leaves below your cut.
4. Sort as you go Drop damaged, yellowed or soil-splashed lower leaves on the ground rather than carrying them indoors. One rotting leaf spoils a bundle.
5. Get it out of the sun immediately Cut material left lying in the sun for an hour has already lost a good part of its scent. Bring it straight in.

Do not wash the cut stems unless they are genuinely muddy. Washing adds water you then have to drive off, and the extra drying time costs more flavor than the dust ever would.

Marjoram dries better than almost any other herb

This is one of the few herbs where the dried version is not a poor substitute. The oils in marjoram are relatively stable, and properly dried marjoram keeps a sweet rounded scent for a year. That is worth knowing because the plant is usually an annual for you, so the main cut has to carry you through the winter.

The whole aim is speed in the dark. Heat above 95F (35C) and any direct light both strip the scent, so a warm airy shaded place beats an oven or a sunny windowsill every time.

1. Bundle loosely, ten stems at most Tie small bundles with string near the cut ends. Thick bundles stay damp in the middle and go musty even when the outside feels crisp.
2. Hang upside down in the dark An airing cupboard, a spare room or a shaded shed with air movement. Aim for 70 to 85F (21 to 29C) with the air moving and no light on the leaves.
3. Allow four to ten days It is ready when a leaf crumbles cleanly between your fingers and the stem snaps rather than bends. A stem that bends still holds moisture.
4. Strip the leaves off the stems Run your fingers down each dried stem over a bowl. The leaves come away in one movement. Compost the stems: they hold little flavor and take up jar space.
5. Rest for two days before sealing Leave the stripped leaves loose in a bowl for a couple of days so any last moisture equalises, then jar them. This is what stops condensation appearing inside the jar later.

Store whole and crush at the last moment

Every time you break a marjoram leaf you open oil glands and start losing scent to the air. Store the leaves whole in an airtight jar in a dark cupboard and crush a pinch between your palms as it goes into the pan. Pre-crushed marjoram sitting in a jar for six months is a fraction of the herb it was.

Check the jar a week after filling it. Any moisture on the inside of the glass means the leaves were not fully dry, and they must come out and go back to drying at once or the whole jar will go musty.

Add marjoram in the last few minutes of cooking. Unlike oregano, its sweetness is delicate and long simmering drives it off entirely, which is the usual reason people conclude their marjoram had no flavor.

Picking through the rest of the season

After the main cut the plant regrows within about three weeks and gives you a good second flush, and in a long warm season sometimes a third. Those later cuts are milder than the knot-stage cut but perfectly good, and they are the ones to use fresh rather than to dry.

Stop cutting roughly six weeks before your first expected frost. A plant pushed into soft growth going into cold weather blackens at the tips and, if you intend to lift it for the winter, arrives indoors in poor condition.

Keep a record of each cut

Write down the date the knots first appeared and the date you made the main cut. That single pair of dates is the most useful thing you can record about this plant, because the knot stage is short and easy to miss, and after two seasons you will know within a few days when to start watching your own plants.

Note the weight or volume you got from each plant and how long the bundles took to dry. Drying time varies enormously with the weather that week, and knowing that a wet-season cut needs ten days rather than four stops you jarring leaves that are not ready.