Catnip Flowering Tops Yield
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Jeff and Melissa Delimont
Posted on: October 30, 2000

I am planning to raise approximately 3 acres of catnip this year. I have a company that will purchase the dried tops while in flower for $19.00 a pound. I currently do not have a market for the remaining amount of the catnip. I see that your information states that you can raise approximately 4.4 tons per hectare of product. What I was wondering was how much dried weight could someone expect to produce on just the flowering tops?

Our yield data for dry flowering tops indicates that 2300 kgs per hectare has been recorded. Likely, this was for second or third year crop. This translates into 2000 pounds per acre.

What would approximately 3 acres cost to plant and could this be done with a conventional small seed lister such as a wheat drill?

If you sow directly in the field you need about 12 kgs of seed per hectare. That works out to about 14 kgs of seed for three acres. Direct seeding does work but most growers opt for transplants instead. Although growing and planting plugs is more labour intensive and more costly, the costs are partly made up by the quicker harvest time. And more importantly, row planting transplants is much better for weed control. To grow the plugs needed to plant the same area, you need only 1.2 kg of seed.

To get the current cost of seed, please check our online catalogue. Note that we offer a 10kg price for seeds, and if you order by November 30 for delivery the next season you can earn a commercial growers’ early booking discount of 10%.

If your seeder can handle alfalfa or red clover then it can handle catnip seeds.

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