How to Harvest Dill So It Keeps Growing

Start by taking a good look at your dill. If it has not been harvested yet this year, it tends to grow tall and gangly, with long stems reaching up out of the container. That is exactly the plant you want to prune back.

Cutting it back is what makes dill grow more bushy instead of leggy. And you can eat from it at any point in the season, so there is no need to wait for a perfect moment. Once you know what a full, un-harvested plant looks like, you know where to make your cuts.

The one thing to watch for is flowering. Look at the very tops of the stems. When you see little flower buds starting to form, that is the plant getting ready to bolt and go to seed.

Once dill flowers and sets seed, it usually starts to die back, so you do not want that happening in the middle of summer. Catching the buds early gives you time to pinch them off and keep the plant in leaf-making mode. Save the go-to-seed step for the very end of the season.

To stop the plant bolting, remove the flowers. Follow the flowering stem down to the little elbow where the leaves meet the flower head. Pinch or trim right at that branch juncture.

You can do this with your fingers, or use shears or sharp scissors if the stem is thick. The goal is to take the flower off while leaving the leafy growth below it. Once you start pinching, you will really smell that fresh dill. Do this to every stem that is trying to flower.

When you want dill for cooking or pickling, harvest whole leaf sections rather than plucking tiny fronds. Each little section that elbows off on its own counts as one leaf. Once a plant has four or five of these, it is big enough to start harvesting from.

Grab a section and pinch it off at its juncture. The important rule: never take more than about a third of the plant at one time. Leave the rest so it can keep growing and feeding itself.

Always harvest from the top of the plant, and always find one of those branch junctures to cut at. Cutting at a juncture near the top is what encourages the plant to grow outward and get bushy instead of stretching taller.

On a big, established plant you can take a good amount from the top in one go. These upper stems are usually thicker, so shears make it easier, though many gardeners just break them off by hand while cooking. Cut cleanly at the junction and the plant fills back in below.

With a big container of dill you can pull a generous handful from the top and still leave two-thirds of the plant growing. That is your harvest, ready for the kitchen.

Take it inside for pickling, dressings, or whatever you are cooking, and the plant keeps going. Harvest from the top at the junctures, take no more than a third at a time, and pinch the flowers before they bolt. Do that and one pot of dill will feed you all season long.