• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • John F Dean
  • r ransom
  • Jay Angler
  • Timothy Norton
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Tereza Okava
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • M Ljin
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Megan Palmer

!!!!!!!! When to harvest horsetails?

 
pollinator
Posts: 70
Location: Japan,Toyama (Zone 9a)
25
forest garden foraging rocket stoves
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
So the horsetails have started popping up here (Equisetum arvense), and I'm looking forward to a good harvest this year!

I've read conflicting information online about the best time to harvest, but that's likely as people are harvesting them for both culinary and medicinal reasons, so was wondering if anyone here had any insights.

I'm mainly looking to harvest them for medicinal reasons, so any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

So far I've heard:

If the strobil (initial fertile shoots) are sporing then they've already lost their medicinal potency.
Harvest the strobil, cut off the heads and peel them before eating.
Leave the vegetative until late spring to ensure maximum growth before harvest.
Harvest the young vegetative shoots before they branch out.



Field-Horsetails.png
Horsetail strobils and vegetative shoots
Horsetail strobils and vegetative shoots
 
Beauty is in the eye of the tiny ad.
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic