Last edited on November 29, 2025. View history
Catnip
Catnip
How to sow catnip: Direct seed indoors before frost, or outdoors after last frost
Sun requirement for catnip: Plant in Full Sun
Catnip is a herbaceous perennial in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It resembles mint, with triangular, coarse-toothed leaves, square stems, and small, pink, white, purple, or blue flowers. Like mint, it can become invasive, so it is best planted in containers. Catnip is used an ornamental, to make herbal tea, and as a companion plant. It is deer-resistant and attracts beneficial insects like bees and butterflies and deters pests like flea beetles, Japanese beetles, aphids, weevils, ants, squash bugs and mice. It also attracts cats because it contains the chemical nepetalactone, which can cause cats to enter a brief state of euphoria.
- 13
- plantings
- 2
- harvests
- 1
- seed packet
Catnip facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
80cm × 80cmRow Spacing
45cm Members' seed packets: 70cmGermination
7–14 days median of members' seed packetsWhen to sow
Grown for
leaf harvested 2 timesCrop cycle
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 catnip, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 4°C and a shortest growing cycle of 150 days at its best temperature, about 1350 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 catnip 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.
How members grow catnip
Sunniness
Planted from
Harvested for
Plant catnip with
Photos
Photos
Catnip crops
Catnip plantings
Video
Where catnip grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about catnip
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Who's planted catnip
- Skud Thornbury side garden · Ballarat, Victoria,...
- shiny indoor plants · Wellington, NZ
- cas3y flower garden · Whanganui a tara
- wrdnrd Canterbury — Deck · UDistrict, Seattle,...
- elfin Sun Room · Emporia, Kansas
Catnip harvests
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shiny harvested not specified.
almost 7 years ago
-
shiny harvested not specified.
almost 7 years ago
shiny harvested not specified.
Find catnip seeds
View all catnip seeds
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 150 to 210 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Nepeta cataria L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Lamiales Labiatae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 0 °C, rest: -5 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | prostrate/procumbent/semi-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 | long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about catnip
Resources outside Growstuff.
