The bay laurel tree is an exceptionally easy-to-grow, beautiful, and beneficial plant that can significantly save money for home cooks by providing a continuous supply of bay leaves.
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[Music]
well hello everyone welcome to another
very exciting episode right here on the
Mi Garder Channel I know all of you are
going to like this one because today
we're going to be talking about how to grow
grow
bay leaves now this is the bay laurel
tree and for those of you that don't
know the bay laurel tree is what
produces all the bay leaves that you use
in your cooking so one of the nice
things about this tree is it's very
beneficial another nice thing about this
tree is that it can save you a ton of
money another nice thing about this tree
is that it's very easy to grow in fact
it's in the top probably two or three
easiest uh trees to grow here in our
tropical collection and so it's going to
be an easy one for you to grow as well
and another really nice thing about this
tree is that it is one of the most
beautiful beautiful foliage plants
personally I think this is probably my
top one or two again top favorite
foliage plants because it is just so
incredible the leaves get super dark
they are just uh they're just there's
something about them I don't know I
don't know what it is but when this is
starts really producing and really
starts filling out it just has this
shrub like look that is it's incredible
it's really incredible so it's a very
beautiful foliage plant as well and uh
and like I said it's very easy to grow
so without further Ado let's get into
how to grow it cuz I know you all are
going to want to try it so the first
thing you need to know about the bay
laurel tree is that is actually grown in
arid climates so it's much treat it's
treated much like your avocados and
cacti and uh your Mediterranean herbs
things like that so if you have any of
those and you've ever grown those you
know that the first thing we need to
talk about is soil now when it comes to
soil uh when you're growing the bay
laurel tree you want to make sure that
you add a very good well- draining mix
now I would not recommend using just
your standard potting mix for other
plants that might be fine however when
it comes to your Aid climate crops we
always recommend at least a at very
minimum a one to1 ratio of sand to
potting mix and that sand is what's
going to add that really well draining
nature to your to your growing medium
personally we add a little bit more than
50% so um you know add minimum 1 to one
but we typically add like 60 to 75% sand
and then the remainder being our potting
mix because we really want to increase
that drainage to where there's no water
that's going to be standing that's not
being absorbed into the uh organic
matter here so we have uh we use promix
for our potting mix and that has a good
ratio of coconut husk fiber and spum
Pete Moss as well as perlite and
vermiculite and I really love that
because it holds on to some moisture but
it drains really quickly in fact if you
overw waterer pretty much the the water
will go right through the pot which is
what you're looking for and then all
that's remaining is just a little bit of
dampness from that spum Pete Moss and
coconut husk fiber that hold on to that
moisture but not too much because these
will suffer from root rot very quickly
in fact they're uh they're very prone to
ro root rot I say that 10 times fast
they're very prone to root rot because
they do not grow in areas that get a lot
of rainfall like I said these are grown
in very arid climates uh Southern
California and uh and areas like the bay
regions of of California grow this and
because it is such a uh is such a easy
and and very hands-off crop to grow they
pretty much line the streets with these
in fact there's whole streets where
these can literally be seen growing and
uh I wonder if anyone even buys bay
leaves in that part of California
because it's uh they they literally grow
everywhere another nice thing about
these trees when it comes to uh to their
their ease is obviously the watering
because they don't like a whole lot of
water anyways and so when it comes to
other plants you might be freaking out
if you have to leave on vacation these
ones will probably do better if you're
on vacation because the you know to a
certain extent the less water you give
them the better they do they really
don't like that much water and so we'll
only water these Bay trees when they
really need it and when you you'll
notice when they need it because the
leaves are really stiff they're very
very stiff right now but when they need
it they'll give a little bit of a a
droop and they'll become a little bit
limp and that's really all you need to
know to water them um another thing too
is if we don't see that sign we'll
typically give them just a little bit of
water about once a month and that's
really how rarely we water these so
don't need you know you can pretty much
get the soil pretty easily and the
watering is very easy as well so so far
very easy plant to grow now I want to
talk about fertilizing because
fertilizing is the next thing that
people often get hung up on and
fertilizing these are really not that
difficult you just need a very good
all-purpose fertilizer it's a lot like
if you saw the uh the curry tree episode
we talked about how trees that are not
really cultivated uh for their fruits
and and things like that they really
don't need that much uh nutrients or
fertilizer because they're grown as just
a tree like we have trees here like
Maples and you know walnut trees and
things like that they're not cultivated
specifically for a need so these are
really just like wild trees that grow
and therefore they they grow in a wide
variety of climates soil conditions and
are are subject to a lot of different
varying nutrient contents in their soil
so they really don't need that much but
they will benefit from having a good
all-purpose fertilizer so just something
that's that's uh well balanced in all
your macronutrients as well as trace
minerals and you should be more than
fine we personally give them Trifecta
plus here Trifecta plus is our go-to
fertilizer it's our allpurpose
fertilizer of choice for all of our
plants including our vegetable garden
and that's just what we use and it grows
the plants really well in fact when we
got this seedling it was only about this
tall it was really small in fact it was
just a cutting it was a rooted cutting
in a uh 1 in by 1 in cell and that has
grown into this now these obviously will
get very tall uh that requires some
pruning because they'll just keep
growing and they'll keep growing out as
well but the nice thing the really nice
thing about these is they don't mind
being pruned so you can prune them back
you can hack them back and uh in fact I
accidentally U I accidentally cut the
main growing tip as you can see I cut
the main growing tip right there and
then it just put out a whole new shoot
and it was totally fine so uh actually
sent out another side shoe down here too
so it's growing really quickly and um
and it's something that we actually
harvested leav from even at this age
we've harvested a few leaves from uh
from this plant for our cooking which is
nice the next thing I want to talk about
is sunlight cuz sunlight is rather
important when it comes to growing trees
you do not want to give them any less
than 5 hours of Sun make sure you throw
them in a really good south facing
window or in our case we put them
underneath these lights 16 hours on uh 8
hours off and they do great but the
other thing too is that these will do
better uh the more sunlight you give
them they grow in arid climates and arid
climates are known for having very
strong sun and a lot of it so there's
not a whole lot of shade cover when it
comes to these so don't be afraid to
give it more sunlight just make sure it
gets at least over five the next thing I
want talk about is sun or uh is
temperature and humidity so with
temperature kind of I just talked about
the sun is very direct and there's a lot
of it that means it's usually pretty hot
um these grow in very climates that get
temperature swings of anywhere from 60 to
to
110° maybe in a given day so I like to
say that temperature is not necessarily
the most important thing as long as it
is above 60° and uh maybe below about a
105 so I'm sure it would probably
appreciate something in the 80 to 85
Degree range because that's about the
average uh that's about the average
temperature of a really Aid climate so
um something that uh you don't really
need to worry about that much as long as
you don't leave it outside and uh and
also too um I guess that brings with
humidity so humidity is something that
is important when it comes to these
because these can be very prone to
powdery mildew if you have them in a in
a human environment their leaves are
very coarse and that leaves a lot of
surface area for uh fungus and Milo to
land on so one thing you want to focus
on is having them in actually a dry
location um we have ours in a room that
has a humidifier turn up turn up to
about 50% and that's not really ideal
but because we have such strong lights
I'm kind of taking the good with the bad
and um they they should not get in 50%
humidity they should not get powdery
mildew but the Le what I'm trying to say
is the less humidity you have the better
you're going to be because in Aid
climates their humidity can be 10 to 30%
and usually not a whole lot more than
that so it's very dry it's a it's a very
very dry uh dry air and so that is kind
of what you want to look for for growing
these because obviously the better you
can reproduce the natural growing
environment the better it's going to do
um but all in all it's a very easy plant
to grow and uh and something that you
really don't need to worry that much
about when it comes to growing
conditions the final thing I did want to
mention is I always recommend taking a
pH test of your soil because a lot of
your Aid growing crops grow in a rather
High PH soil or rather high acidity soil
or low PH sorry um sorry if they
confusing there but uh the nice thing
about growing these in in your average
potting mix is that usually if you get a
good quality one like promix is what we
use um that usually is pH balance to be
slightly acidic due to the spum Pete
Moss but always check because if you
need to add a little bit of powdered
sulfur or Rock sulfur you can do so and
the plant will definitely do better in a
lower pH because that extra acidity is
what it's normally used to and that
helps to uptake nutrients it helps to
reduce stress and it also helps with
root development and leaf production so
having pH uh having proper pH at least
is very very important to have uh with
success with your plants so um that's
all there is to Growing bay laurel
plants I really hope you enjoyed I
really hope you'll try this again I got
these I'll post a link to where I got
these I'm not sure if they're still
selling them or not but I got these on
Amazon and they were just selling a tiny
little cutting and um like I said it's
growing really well for me so I'm sure
if there still selling them they'll grow
really well for you uh as long as you
keep these things in mind for this
growing guy you should be fine so I'll
catch you all later on the next episode
if you like this video make sure to
smash that like button and also make
sure to subscribe if you're not yet
already because we got a ton more stuff
coming out we have a ton coming out with
the sprouts and more tropical growing
guides and a whole lot of stuff so
you're not going to want to miss it and
so as always this is Luke from the my
Gardner Channel reminding you to grow
big or go home we'll catch you all later
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