When to plant tarragon?
- Botanical name
- Artemisia dracunculus
- Family
- Asteraceae
Tarragon is planted from April to June. It is harvested from April to October. It is cut back from March to April.
Tarragon is a perennial plant. The edible parts are the leaves and seeds.
French tarragon is not raised from seed. It is propagated by division and from cuttings, and the first plant is bought ready grown or comes as a piece from somebody who already has it.
In winter tarragon is harmed by water standing in the soil. The dead stems stand over the crown through the winter and shield it from the wet, so they are cut only in spring. Mulch laid over the crown for winter does the same job.
Estragole, methyleugenol and thujone are in every part of tarragon, including the leaves and seeds used in the kitchen. In kitchen quantities they are held to be safe for people.
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Tarragon through the year
- planting
- harvest
- cutting back
In short
Growing conditions
Is tarragon toxic to cats and dogs?
In larger amounts, toxic to cats and dogs, toxic parts: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds.
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
- Signs
- A white, floury coating spreads over the leaves, first on the lower and older ones. The leaf under it yellows and dries up. The fruit stays small, because the plant loses leaf surface.
- Prevention
- Plant resistant varieties, leave an airy spacing and sun, and clear the debris at the end of the season. Unlike most fungi it is not helped by wet foliage, since it spreads in heat and high air humidity, in a dry summer too.
- What to do
- Oil products meant for powdery mildew on the squash family work on contact. They do not cure a leaf that is already affected, but they stop the spread to healthy ones. On herbs cut the affected shoots back instead, since the new growth comes clean. On ornamental perennials what is left is spacing and moisture.
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Related plants
The plants below are in the same botanical family (Asteraceae).
Sources about the plant: ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants, Colorado State University Extension, GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Penn State Extension, Royal Horticultural Society, Utah State University Extension, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: Clemson Cooperative Extension, KGZS, UF/IFAS Extension, University of Maryland Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.