Gadenin日本語Get the appCut the flower stems out as soon as you see them
This is the single most important job of the sorrel year. From late spring the plant sends up a thick, reddish, upright stem from the center of the crown, quite unlike the flat leaf stalks around it. Once that stem is running, the plant redirects everything into it. The leaves stop enlarging, go tough and stringy, and the flavor turns from sharp to harsh.
Cut the stem right down at the base of the crown, not halfway up. A stub simply branches and sends up two more. Follow the stem down with your fingers until you feel it join the crown and cut there with a knife or snips. Do this every week or so from late spring onwards; a plant checked regularly stays in leaf right through summer.
Removing the flower stems has a second effect that matters just as much: it stops the plant setting seed. Sorrel self-seeds heavily, and one plant allowed to run to seed will put seedlings across several feet of bed and into the paths. Cutting the stems is both a leaf-quality job and a containment job.
- Learn the difference by touch A leaf stalk is soft, flattened and bends easily. A flower stem is round, stiff and noticeably thicker at the base. If you are unsure, look at the tip: the flower stem has a tight cluster of green beads instead of a leaf blade.
- Cut at the crown Reach to the base and cut flush. Cutting higher leaves buds that branch, and you end up removing three stems next week instead of one.
- Check weekly from late spring Stems rise fast in warm weather, several inches in a few days. A weekly walk down the row keeps every plant in leaf; a monthly one does not.
- Do not let one plant get away If a stem does flower and the beads turn brown, cut and remove it before the seed drops. Once it has shed, you will be pulling seedlings for two years.
If the whole plant has already gone tough and coarse, cut every leaf off at about an inch (2.5 cm) above the crown, water and feed it. It regrows a full flush of tender leaves in two to three weeks.
Keep the root run damp, not wet
Sorrel comes from damp meadows and its leaves reflect how the roots are living. Let the soil dry out and the leaves go small, leathery and unpleasantly strong; the sharpness stops tasting like lemon and starts tasting metallic. The plant rarely dies from drought, it just stops being worth eating.
In open ground a mature plant with a deep taproot copes with most weeks unaided. Water it thoroughly in any dry spell of more than about ten days, giving a full gallon (4 L) per plant so the water reaches the depth the roots actually occupy, rather than a daily sprinkle that only wets the top inch. In containers the picture is different: check every day in summer, because a 3-gallon pot in full sun can go from damp to bone dry between mornings.
A two-inch (5 cm) mulch of compost or leaf mold over the crown area does more for leaf quality than any amount of watering. It holds moisture, keeps the surface roots cool, and suppresses the weeds that otherwise grow up through the middle of the clump where you cannot get at them.
| Situation | How often to water | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Open ground, spring | Rarely needed | Rely on rain unless two weeks dry |
| Open ground, summer dry spell | Every 7 to 10 days | 1 gallon (4 L) per plant, slowly |
| Container, spring and autumn | Every 2 to 3 days | Until it runs from the base |
| Container, summer | Daily, check by finger | Until it runs from the base |
Feed after cutting, not on a calendar
Sorrel is a leaf crop that you cut repeatedly, so the sensible rule is to feed in response to harvest rather than on a schedule. After any cut that takes more than about a third of the plant, scatter a handful of balanced general fertilizer or a mulch of compost around the crown and water it in. That drives the next flush.
Two feeds a year are enough for a plant you pick lightly: one as growth starts in very early spring, and one after the main early-summer cut-back. Overfeeding with high-nitrogen material makes large soft leaves that flop, tear when you cut them and rot at the base in wet weather. Steady moderate feeding gives smaller, firmer, better-flavored leaves.
Do not feed after early autumn. Soft late growth is what winter damages; a plant that hardens off going into the cold comes through and starts pushing leaves earlier the following spring.
Divide every three or four years
A sorrel clump does not go on improving indefinitely. By the third or fourth year the center of the crown gets woody, the leaves coming from it are small, and the productive growth is all round the outside. That is the signal to lift and divide in early spring or early autumn.
Lift the whole clump with a fork, cut away and discard the woody center, and replant three or four pieces from the outer ring, each with a bud and some root. Replant at the same depth with the crown at soil level and water in. You get a full crop again the following season and you have replaced the plant without buying anything.
Keep a note of what happened when
Three dates repay writing down every year: the date you first picked a usable leaf in spring, the date the first flower stem appeared, and the date you cut the plant back hard. Over two or three seasons those dates tell you exactly when your weekly stem patrol needs to start, which is the difference between tender leaves all summer and a tough plant by midsummer.
It is also worth noting which plants in a row bolt first. Sorrel raised from seed varies, and there are usually one or two individuals that run to flower a fortnight ahead of the rest. Those are the ones to remove when you divide, and the reliable ones are the ones to propagate from.