Last edited on 3 Feb 2024. View history

Caraway Thyme

A variety of thyme

How to sow caraway thyme: Transplant cuttings or seedlings or direct seed indoors

Sun requirement for caraway thyme: Plant in Full Sun

Thyme is a perennial evergreen herb in the Lamiaceae (Mint) family. It is related to Oregano. Thyme is cold-hardy to -28.8 °C and a perennial in US Hardiness zones 5-8. Thyme can live for 5-6 years but needs to be divided or replaced after 3-4 years. It can be used fresh or dried to season dishes.

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Growstuff is a free, community-run site for people who grow food. Keep track of what you plant and harvest, find seeds to swap, and see what is growing near you. Join to record your own caraway thyme.

Caraway thyme facts

Lifespan

Annual living and reproducing in a single year or less

What are growing degree days?

A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.

Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.

For caraway thyme, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 4°C and a shortest growing cycle of 100 days at its best temperature, about 1650 growing degree days to a first harvest.

Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your caraway thyme will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.