Desi Pudina (spearmint)

This is the pudina that farmers and nurseries actually plant for the fresh-leaf market: local spearmint (Mentha spicata), multiplied from suckers or rooted cuttings. It is not a released variety. It is grown as a perennial — planted about 40 × 40 cm, first cut about five months after planting and then roughly every three months, staying productive for around four years with good care. CIMAP has released improved spearmint cultivars for oil, such as Arka (carvone about 64%), Neera and MSS-5, but the everyday planting stock for leaf is the local type. Fresh pudina is listed on Agmarknet as "Mint(Pudina)".

Plant typeSucker (improved variety)
MaturityPerennial; first cut about 5 months after planting, then about every 3 months
Yield potentialFresh leaf; spearmint oil trials about 65–140 kg/ha by cultivar
Disease resistanceNo specific disease resistance claimed; keep beds clean and renew the planting stock
SoilWell-drained, organic-matter-rich loam or sandy loam
SeasonAll seasons

• Sowing timeAlmost year-round where water is available; June–July is common in the south (rooted cuttings/suckers)
• Seed rateAbout 400–450 kg of fresh suckers per hectare (roughly 160–180 kg per acre)
• SpacingRows 45–60 cm apart, suckers laid end to end (about 10 cm apart) in furrows 5–6 cm deep
• Sowing methodLay fresh, healthy suckers in moist furrows, cover lightly with soil and irrigate at once
• IrrigationA light irrigation at planting and a week later, then about every 10–12 days through the summer (roughly ten irrigations); stop about a week before each cut
• FertilizerAbout 120 kg N, 60 kg P₂O₅ and 40 kg K₂O per hectare with about 20 t FYM, the nitrogen split over three to four doses including one right after the first cut (NHB mint package)
• HarvestingCut leafy shoots about 5 months after planting, then about every 3 months; tie in bunches and sell fresh

Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.

• Tamil Nadu
• Punjab
• Uttar Pradesh
• Haryana

• CIM-Unnati

  CSIR-CIMAP menthol mint developed from the genotype MASP-19 and introduced around 2020 — reported to give about 20% more oil than the existing checks, with menthol near 74%.

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• CIM-Kranti

  CSIR-CIMAP cold- and frost-tolerant menthol mint (half-sib selection, released 2013) with about 80% menthol; stays green and grows through winter when other varieties die back, and gives 10–12% more oil than the best checks in the main summer crop.

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• Kosi

  CSIR-CIMAP menthol mint released in 1999 (about 80% menthol), a half-sib selection from HY-77 (Kalka); early-maturing, suited to later planting, and among the varieties with the most stable oil yield across years and sites.

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• Kushal

  CSIR-CIMAP menthol mint for late (April) transplanting, a tissue-culture somaclone of Himalaya (patent priority March 2003); about 77–78% menthol; tolerates waterlogging during sucker production; among the most stable oil yielders in multi-year trials.

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• Saksham

  CSIR-CIMAP high-menthol mint (about 82–87% menthol in the oil), a tissue-culture somaclone of Himalaya selected in menthol-laced medium (patent filed November 2000); early-maturing.

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• Himalaya

  CSIR-CIMAP menthol mint bred from a cross of Gomti and Kalka (HY-77) (US plant patent filed April 1997), with about 80% menthol; the parent of the somaclonal varieties Saksham, Kushal and Sambhav.

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