Last edited on 3 Feb 2024. View history
Cretan Oregano
Cretan Oregano
A variety of oregano
A low, creeping 20 cm perennial culinary herb with woody, often purplish stems and hairy-backed leaves. The whole plant has a strong, warm, aromatic scent and flavour that is kept when it is dried. Sow into trays in spring, prick out at 2.5 cm diagonal spacing at the first two leaves, and transplant at 30 cm diagonal spacing when the ground reaches 15 degrees C.
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Cretan oregano facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
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 Cretan oregano, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 6°C and a shortest growing cycle of 90 days at its best temperature, about 1260 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 Cretan oregano 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.
Growing Cretan oregano
- Sow seeds in trays 8 weeks before planting out
- Water until established at planting out every week
- Pick sprigs at first harvest every 2 weeks
- Trim after flowering 8 weeks after first harvest
- Divide the clumps 24 months after planting out
Plant Cretan oregano with
pumpkin
sweet potato
zucchini
Photos
PhotosCretan oregano crops
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Origanum onites L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Lamiales Labiatae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
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