GardenDill variety
Hercules Dill
✓ In your garden
Hercules is a bunching dill, ready in about 42–56 days. Snip the feathery leaves (“dill weed”) fresh all season, and let some plants flower to harvest the seed heads for pickling. Dill grows fast from directly-sown seed, self-sows freely once it’s in the garden, and doesn’t like being transplanted.
“A feathery herb grown for both its leaves and its seed.”
Growing basics — shared by every dill
Hercules grows like any other dill. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Dill page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 3–12 in
- Row spacing
- 12–24 in
- Planting depth
- 0.25 in
- Soil pH
- 5.5–6.5
- Water
- Moderate
What is Hercules good for?
- PicklingLeaves and seed heads both. Great
- Fresh (fish, potatoes)Snip the feathery leaves. Great
- SeedLet a few plants flower and set seed. Great
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
What Hercules is known for
University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension records this as:
- slow to run to seed in heat
That is a research or extension body rather than a seller.
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Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Hercules in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around mid May, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Plant seeds outside
- early Apr – mid Apr
- Growing
- mid Apr – mid May
- Picking
- mid May until frost (~late Oct)
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
What to plant near Hercules — and what to keep away
-
Cabbage familyTrialed
Dill flowers feed the tiny parasitoid wasps that hunt cabbage worms. Let some of it bloom near the bed.
-
CarrotsTraditional
Same family, same pests, and mature dill is said to stunt carrots. 'Said' is doing some work there — but why risk it.
The badge is the honesty. Trialed = a published field trial · Practical = a real mechanism · Traditional = companion-chart lore. These pairings hold for every dill.
Pairings compiled from University of Minnesota Extension, West Virginia University Extension.
Growing Hercules — the things that trip people up
- Sow dill straight where it’s to grow — it has a taproot and resents transplanting. Sow a little every few weeks for a steady supply of leaves.
- Let a few plants “bolt” and flower if you want dill seed for pickling — and once dill flowers in your garden, it usually self-sows and comes back on its own.
Hercules dill at a glance
| Type | Bunching |
|---|---|
| Days to ripe | 42–56 days after you plant it outside |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
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Common questions about Hercules
How long does Hercules take to grow?
About 42–56 days to start cutting leaves; let some plants flower a bit later for seed.
Can I start Hercules indoors?
Better not — dill has a taproot and resents transplanting. Sow it directly where it’s to grow, and it’ll often self-sow for next year.
Browse more dill varieties →