Sorrel Is Easy To Harvest: Let Plants Grow To 10cm And Cut Off Any Flower Stalks
Elizabeth is a Permaculture Garden Designer, Sustainability Consultant and Professional Writer, working as an advocate for positive change. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews with an MA in English and Philosophy and obtained a Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design from the Permaculture Association.
Reviewed By DAN ORI
Dan has over 27 years’ under his belt caring for plants and gardens. Working as a Horticultural Instructor and Consultant, he draws on a diverse range of experience that includes working as a Head Gardener, Tree Surgeon, Garden Centre Trouble Shooter, and writer of academic papers. Dan has a Level 3 Diploma in Horticulture and is currently a candidate for the RHS’s most prestigious award – The Master of Horticulture.
Contributions From EMILY CUPIT
Emily is a Gardening Writer, Photographer and Videographer from Derbyshire, UK. She is the Founder of Emily's Green Diary - a community of more than 75,000 people who share in her gardening journey.
IN THIS GUIDE
There are several different types of sorrel that you might grow in your garden, but whichever type you decide to grow, harvesting is incredibly easy and straightforward.
To understand how and when to harvest whichever variety of sorrel you are growing in your garden, keep reading, as I’ve listed everything you need to know below.
When To Harvest Sorrel
Sorrel is typically sown indoors in February or outside in April.
You can also choose to buy a young plant that you can plant out between April and August in your garden.
You can grow sorrel in containers or in the ground and in full sun or partial shade, though you should always make sure that the soil or growing medium is moist yet free-draining.
You can begin to harvest baby leaves as salad leaves just a month to 6 weeks after sowing and can choose to harvest at any time after the plants are around 10-12cm tall.
The key thing to remember is that you should aim to harvest the most tender, young leaves rather than leaving these to grow too long, as the smaller and more tender the leaves are, the better their taste will be.1Werner, T. (2015, April 29). Sorrel, Explained. Epicurious. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/what-is-sorrel-recipes-article
Cutting Flower Stalks
If you want to continue to harvest leaves throughout the growing season, you should cut off any flowers that form.
The first flower stalk that the plant puts out in early summer should be cut so that the plant can produce an adequate quantity of flavourful leaves.
Subsequent flower stalks may be allowed to remain though they will negatively impact both the growth and quality of leaves.
Cutting off the flower stalks will always positively affect the leaves in both quality and quantity.
“I will always try to remove all flowering heads, as sorrel can spread through your garden rather rapidly by seed,” shares Dan Ori, a Horticultural Consultant.
Sorrels are perennial plants, that should overwinter successfully in most UK gardens, so you can simply let the plant die back naturally in the autumn and it will return with new growth the following spring.
How To Harvest Sorrel
Sorrel can be grown alongside other salad leaves in a container or in the ground.
When growing it in this way, for baby leaves, you can simply take a pair of scissors and snip off everything close to the soil or growing medium when the plants reach around 10-12cm tall.
If you do this in mid-or-late summer you can cut back sorrel to the ground and get a fresh crop of new leaves.
If you harvest outer leaves the plant will continue to grow fast and put out new leaves – new leaves will regrow in a couple of weeks.
Sorrels elsewhere in the garden can simply be harvested by taking a pair of scissors and cutting off fresh new leaves in small batches whenever they are required.
You should pick sorrel as close as possible to when you will use it, as it wilts quickly once picked.
You can use sorrels in salads or cook with them in a range of recipes.2Sorrel Salad. (2022, August 26). Foodwise. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://foodwise.org/recipes/sorrel-salad/
It pairs well with eggs or potatoes in a range of dishes and is also commonly used to add a citrusy zing to soups or sauces.
