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Tarragon: Planting, Growing, and Harvesting | The Old Farmer's Almanac

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Tarragon

Botanical Name
Artemisia dracunculus
Plant Type
Herb
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Part Sun
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The Editors
May 4, 2022
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Tarragon is a perennial herb with long, light green leaves and tiny greenish or yellowish white flowers. Here’s how to grow tarragon in your herb garden!

For cooking, use French tarragon. Russian tarragon can easily be mistaken for French, but Russian tarragon is coarser and less flavorful than French tarragon.

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Planting
  • You can’t grow French tarragon from seeds. You must purchase the plants or take an established plant from a friend’s garden. Get the transplants in the spring or fall.
  • Plant the transplants in well-drained soil about 2 to 3 feet apart in order to give each plant room to grow. A full-grown plant should cover about 12 inches of soil.
  • The plants should grow to around 2 or 3 feet in height.
  • Tarragon is a good companion to most vegetables in the garden.
Growing
  • Be sure to prune the plant regularly to prevent flowering and to keep the height to around 2 feet (otherwise the plant will fall over).
  • If you live in a colder climate, be sure to put mulch around the plants in late fall in order to protect the roots during the winter.
  • To help keep your plants healthy, divide them every 3 to 4 years in the spring or fall. New plants can grow from stem cuttings or root cuttings.
Recommended Varieties
  • French tarragon, which goes great with meats, poultry, and seafood
Harvesting
  • Harvest your plant regularly. Two or three plants will suffice if you regularly prune them.
  • Tarragon is best used fresh in the summer.
  • You can freeze the leaves or dry them. If left to dry for too long, though, the leaves lose their flavor, so be careful. As soon as the leaves are dry, store them in airtight containers.

Gardening Products

Wit and Wisdom

Put tarragon in your shoes before a long walk to give you strength.

Pests/Diseases
  • Many rusts, including white rust
  • Downy mildew
  • Powdery mildew
  • Various fungal leaf and stem diseases
Herbs

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Comments

Hamid (not verified)

7 months 4 weeks ago

what to feed tarragon ?

Use a standard fertilizer made for foliar (leaf) growth. A “balanced” fertilizer will do.

jinx (not verified)

8 years 4 months ago

I just started growing FrenchTarragon in a pot a month ago, but lately i noticed that the leaves on the bottom started to dry. And some of the stems turns yellow. What shall i do with that?

The only real disease that troubles tarragon is rust. What you described are not symptoms of rust. I suspect it is a water-related issue. It may need a little more than you are giving it. When you water, give it a good soak, then let it dry out before soaking it again (versus frequent shallow watering).

VIVENCIO D. DE… (not verified)

7 years 2 months ago

My comment is like submitted by jink last May 17, 2015, why this happened?? thanks I hope you can answer and advised.

Joseph Blair (not verified)

8 years 5 months ago

I grew tarragon from seed and used a florescent tube growing light.

jrsweig (not verified)

9 years 3 months ago

Your probably growing Russian tarragon if you grew it from seed, not french, which has a better flavor...Russian tarragon is pretty much a weed

EJ THOMAS (not verified)

9 years 3 months ago

is it safe to eat tarragon buds and flowers?

Hi, EJ: Like who knows how many things these days, tarragon has been found to possibly have carcinogenic and/or mutagenic effects in the lab (animals). The jury is still out, but it is very probable that even if this is true, you would have to ingest huge amounts of tarragon at every meal for the rest of your life (however abbreviated it may or may not be!) in order to be harmed. You do what you want. We eat them!

Anonymous (not verified)

11 years 4 months ago

I grew Tarragon from seed a couple of years ago and it is still going strong in my garden! :) ~ christine (Loveland, CO)