My lemon verbena still looks not so good. The leaves are getting spots of brown on them now and still wilting.
I decided to cut them down. They are about 7 inches tall now.
My question is how long should I have them in the dehydrator if I dehydrate?
If I dry them on paper towels on screen I would probably leave them for about 3 days or till completely dried.
What would you do?
I am reading all I can and trying to learn all I can about herbs but it can be so confusing!
air dry or dehydrate?
I simply put all of the leaves in a paper lunch bag and leave them on top of the refrigerator for a few days until they're completely dry. The heat from the frig. dries them nicely. It's really not very hard to dry herbs. Of course, here in Tucson it's already pretty dry but it's very easy almost anywhere to dry herbs. You may want to shake the bag a few times during the drying process.
I did herb with a dehydrator once and they all turned brown. I like the stick-em-in-a-paper-bag method myself.
Yup, it's oh so easy. Really, all I need to do to get dried herbs here is leave 'em in a collander on the counter for several days. No need for a dehydrator!
Momherb
If I were to air dry, I would cover with cheesecloth or a paper bag to protect them from dust.
Definitely not in the sun and would think these will dry far too quickly for the dehydrator.
My stove is gas with a pilot light. That small amount of dry heat allows me to lay them on a cookie sheet in the oven and quickly dry herb leaves.
Both the oven and refrigerator ideas are great - paper bag is too, but it really would be dependent on your humidity levels. Make sure you don't stuff the bag (or anything else) or you'll end up with moldy sprigs - lots of air circulation is really helpful. If your air is pretty dry, though, it's hard to lose with the advice you've gotten.
I used to just hang things up to dry when I lived in AZ - can't do that as easily here, at least not in the summertime.
With the humidity we have here, no way can I just hang herbs up to dry. I use a dehydrator on the lowest setting. How long it takes depends on the leaf thickness and how full of water the leaves are (how long ago did it rain, how succulent that type of plant is, etc.). I dried some mugwort recently and it took about half a day. I pulled the leaves off the stems before I dried the herb too.