Herb to Know: Flax

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The life of a flax flower is transitory: a flower lasts less than one day. But each plant makes dozens of flowers for three to four weeks, and a plot of flax in bloom looks like a reflection of the sky. Then seedpods swell to the size of a pea and turn from green to gold as the seeds inside ripen, and the plants dry out and die.

The species of flax grown for fiber and seed production is an annual called Linum usitatissimum; that’s Latin for “the most useful kind of flax.” Flax is almost always grown like a grain crop, in plots of many plants crowded close together. Each individual plant makes one or more slender, erect stems about 3 feet tall, scattered with narrow, pale green leaves about 1 inch long. The stems branch near the top to bear blue or white round, 1/2-inch-wide flowers with five petals.

Different cultivars of flax have been selected for maximum yield and quality of either fiber or oil. Farmers specialize in one product or the other, choose cultivars accordingly, and take slightly different approaches to growing and harvesting their crops. On a backyard scale, it isn’t necessary to specialize. From a flax patch about 4 feet square, you can harvest enough fiber to make a basket and enough seeds for a batch of bread or crackers.

Grow and Harvest Flax

Flax tolerates a range of soils and climates and can be grown in almost any part of the United States. Choose a site in full sun, with deep, fertile, well-drained soil, and prepare it as you would for growing vegetables or flowers. Flax grows best in cool weather, so sow it outdoors as soon as you can work the soil in spring, at the same time that you would sow peas, lettuce or other cool-weather crops. This can be as early as January or as late as May, depending on where you live. 

Rake the surface of the soil to prepare a smooth, fine-textured seedbed. Measure your planned flax plot to determine its area, and plan to sow about one tablespoon of flax seeds per 10 square feet. Dust the small brown seeds with flour before sowing so that you can scatter them evenly across the surface of the plot. Then use a rake to draw the seeds down into the soil, covering them 1/4- to 1/2-inch-deep. Water gently if the soil starts to dry out before germination, which takes about 10 days.

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