Best known these days as the "menopause plant," black cohosh is a hardy perennial that grows from southern Canada south to Georgia, over to Arkansas and up to Wisconsin. Most black cohosh is harvested in the wild. Follow these steps to grow and cultivate black cohosh.
Instructions
1. Find a shady area with damp soil for your black cohosh seeds. This plant prefers humus rich soil, the kind you find in the mossy beds of a forest.
2. Plant seeds ? inch below the soil in a flat in late summer, spaced about 2 feet apart. Black cohosh needs the room because it can self sow its seed and will quickly grow to over 4 feet. Leaves are large and the white flowers, which bloom May through July, are plentiful and grow to over 6 feet tall. Once you've planted the seeds, cover the soil with mulch to keep in moisture.
3. Be patient. Seeds will need 2-4 weeks of warm temperatures, around 70F, followed by at least 3 months of cold, about 40F. In many locations, the ripe seeds can be planted in a shady bed in late summer or early fall and left for 18 months or so.
4. Transplant the seedlings into individual pots once they pop up with their second set of true leaves, the ones that come up after the "seed leaves" appear. Leave them in a shady area for another 6 months and in late summer or early fall, when the plants are about two years old, you can plant them in a shady garden. Black cohosh has a rather unpleasant smell to humans, but bees and birds love it.
5. Get ready for harvest as you watch the seedlings develop in little capsules from August to October. The capsules will rattle when shaken.
6. Harvest black cohosh sometime in October. The rhizome will be dark brown to black in color, thick and gnarled. The roots attached to the rhizome are used for medicinal purposes.
7. Wash the roots, blot with a paper towel and dry on a wire rack in a clean, well-ventilated area at 80F to 95F for one week. Once they are dry, store them in a burlap bag or cardboard drum in a cool, dark, dry location. Use within a year.
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