Growing Tarragon Indoors
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Yenny Onggosanusi
Posted on: December 15, 1998

I live in an apartment with no balcony or access to grow outdoor. I’d like to purchase tarragon and more chives, but I’ve heard that I should force tarragon and chives in order to break their dormancy. Would you mind telling me how to do that, please?

The problem with both chives and tarragon is that they need about a month of freezing weather in the late fall or early winter to induce at least a short dormancy. If this is not done, then the plants get weaker and weaker and eventually just fade away. To get them to break that dormancy, just bring them back into the warm indoors - they will be back in growth in a week. If you have no friends who could hold your plants for about a month in an unheated garage or a sheltered spot in the garden, you could open a window, enclose the open part with plastic and place the pots into the opening for the required month.

Back to Medicinal Herbs and Their Uses | Q & A Index

Copyright © 1997-2024 Otto Richter and Sons Limited. All rights reserved.