growing basil...how to

diywoman

help ...I LOVE basil, and each time i get a pot, and keep it on the kitchen windowsill it just dies....i dont have a green house, i have tried planting it the sunny part of the garden but it died, i have now got another pot under a cold frame ( ie a bit of windowpane leaning up against a wall)but i dont hold out much hope, has anyone else been successful ??? and what did you do ?

Ddad

Hi,

What I do and it's always worked is

1. Plant the seeds in a shallow seed tray (non modular)
2. Raise them on a west windowsill, south gets a bit hot.
3. prick them out when they get to four leaves and transplant to a large box (styrofoam fish box, window box etc)
4. Keep them in one of those €40 green house yokies
5. don't overwater, leave them almost dry out and then give em a good soaking. They don't like to be wet for long
6. enjoy

diywoman

thanks for that ....question ...can i start seeds at any time of year ...and if i did'nt have a 40€ yokie would they grow indoors ?? or outside in a bed ???(obviously in summer )...how long from seed to table, i am trying to find a way of having them all year round if possible

Ddad

diywoman wrote: »

thanks for that ....question ...can i start seeds at any time of year ...and if i did'nt have a 40€ yokie would they grow indoors ?? or outside in a bed ???(obviously in summer )...how long from seed to table, i am trying to find a way of having them all year round if possible

Hi,

You can probably get them to germinate them all year round provided they can get enough light and heat. They do like heat. I've found that they don't like being planted out in beds unless we get exceptionally lucky with the weather. I've had them on a warm windowsill in a windowbox on a southfacing sheltered wall and they did ok, not as good as the platic greenhouse though. I got a years supply of pesto (froze it) out of the plastic greenhouse and it was great for starting off seeds and prolonging the growing season. I would say I started to crop after about eight weeks in small ammounts and a full crop is available after 10-12 weeks depending on conditions.

i haven't tried growing all year round but if I had a sunroom or conservatory i'd be optimistic that I'd be able to keep late autum sowings going into the spring.

I think the most important thing to remember with basil is it's origin and the fact it likes heat and light and doesn't like cold and damp. If you can provide those conditions your on a winner.

silversurfer

I got this to grow by using one from Tesco,
used some of it and had it on the windowsill and eventually remembered my garden patch.
I'd tried this before and the plant had never survived.

I've also heard recently that they (herbs like basil) don't like peat moss, which I would normally use.
So I used a non moss peat gardening stuff I got from LIDL a few weeks ago.

I dug the ground and then made a hole, added a nice bit of the fertiliser stuff and placed the basil in, filled it up and then placed more of the stuff around the plant.
I watered it well and waited.
Well, looked like it was going to die after a week or so, but I added more of the manure around the plant and waited. and now 3 weeks later the plant is thriving.

s

joconnell

I had one in a north east facing window and it didn't get enough sun / water over the weekend and sulked. Moved it to the other side of the house (south west) and gave it a little drop of water and it's fine again. Judging by what the slugs did to my parsley this is staying inside. I've got one other north west facing window I can pop it on if it doesn't behave - does a basil plant look the same with too much sun as it does with too little?

keiran110

They do indeed like sun being a Mediterranean plant. For this reason, germination should be done around a warm period or if you have acess to a greenhouse or something similar.

1.Start them off in seed trays or some very small holding container. If the container is too large, when you water them, the water will just flow to the bottom of the container leaving your plants roots "thirsty". (This applies with any plant).

2.When your pricking them off and moving them to a larger container when they have been growing for a while, NEVER pull them off by the stem as this can damage or break the nutrient and water transport vessels found within the stem. Pull them out gentle by the "ears".

3.Dig a little pilot hole in the soil in the new container and place the small basil plants in these holes.

4.Compact the soil by pushing down on it firmly to hold the basil plant in place. This compact soil will also act as a deterant for pests to enter into your soil. Make sure not to compact too much though because you want water to penetrate through your soil.

5. Dont drown your plants, make sure the soil is well drained. Make sure the pots have holes in the end of them. If not you can make the hole yourself or add pebbles to the soil to assist with drainage.

6. A problem I have had with basil in the past is this, lack of nitrogen....If your leaves are going yellow this means your plants are lacking Nitrogen. Pull off these leaves and water your plants with some organic nitrogen based fertiliser.

On the front of every fertiliser you will see a system saying something like

N - P - K
4 - 2 - 1

The N stands for Nitrogen, P for Potassium and K for Phosphorous. The numbers are the percentage of each chemical in the fertiliser. Clearly, my example has a high nitrogen level. This will ensure the removal of yellow leaves and provide extra growth and green colour to your plants making them healthy and happy.

Good luck.

Ciaran