Gissela
Full Member
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:31 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Basil: More water, not enough water. What do you think?

I am NEW to gardening and got a Sweet Basil plant. It is struggling. I read somewhere that it needs lots of sun and water, but I found some other site with the opposite info about the water. Also, something is chewing on it. Here is a picture, hope you can help
[url=https://img44.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0285.jpg][img]https://img44.imageshack.us/img44/2513/img0285.th.jpg[/img][/url]

frangypangy
Full Member
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:55 pm
Location: South Florida

Hi there!
I am relatively new to gardening myself, but I fortunately have had much success w/ my basil. I live in South Florida, and I have all of my basil plants in full sun. As far as the watering goes, my rule of thumb has been that I water whenever my soil looks like its starting to lose moisture (which, since its very warm in South Florida and they are in full sun, pretty much amounts to every morning). I don't wait for the soil to dry out completely, I just base it pretty much on if the surface soil looks pretty dry, I usually stick a toothpick in about an inch to be sure the underneath soil is still slightly damp, but not completely saturated.

Another piece of advice that I would like to share is you might want to cut your plant down a bit. My dad taught me that if you want to avoid your plant looking too branchy with not a lot of leaves, the trick is to keep trimming it down bit by bit, which has worked famously for my plants. Plus, u can take the clippings and put them in water and they will eventually grow their own roots and "voila" you have another basil plant! I started w/ 1 one basil plant, and w/ clippings alone I now have 8 plants, all doing great! The only problem I have is exactly what u were saying about a critter eating holes in them... I saw a little beetle like creature on it, so I am thinking its either that or snails.
The only other thing I do for my plants (herb and veggie) is I usually will fertilize them every 14 days. I've been using the Miracle Gro one that is a liquid that you can mix with 2 gallons of water, and its for veggies and plants.
hope this info helps! :)

Gissela
Full Member
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:31 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Thank you very much for your advice. I just have a last question. How do I trim them down. I am completely ignorant about it.
Thanks again.

frangypangy
Full Member
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:55 pm
Location: South Florida

From what I've been reading I am hearing conflicting reports about that, but I will tell you how I go about it, since so far its worked for me:

one thing I have read (which I agree with) is not to clip off too much of the plant at once... I'm seeing no more than one-third of the plant as the standard suggestion.

What I basically do is look at the tallest stems and trim off of those, since from my understanding and experience is you want more of a short stubby plant than a tall lanky one. Where I clip is I usually will look for the first cluster of leaves from the top of the plant and I clip about 1/4 to a 1/2 inch below the cluster... that gives me enough room for the stem to sit in the water to grow the roots without the leaves sitting in the water keeping the leaves from rotting. Then I'll take something like a shot glass and fill it with water and place the stem in it. Check the water every day b/c surprisingly those suckers will drink more water than you realize :lol: . Also, try and change the water every other day or so to make sure the water stays clean and fresh. When you see the roots starting to form, you at that point can put it in a planter with soil, but be sure the soil is nice and moist. If it would make you feel better, you can leave the plants in the water for longer to allow the roots to become more established. You might have an experience where the first couple of days the new plants might look stressed or dying.... just continue to make sure the soil is nice and moist and give them sun and you'll see after that initial few days, the plant will improve. That happened to me with almost all of my clippings and I thought they were dying on me, then they started to bounce back. Now they are great (with the exception of those dang critters that are getting them!).
Good luck!

frangypangy
Full Member
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:55 pm
Location: South Florida

also I just wanted to clarify one more thing.... when I say short and stubby, I don't mean super short or anything like that. But from what I am seeing from your pic, if it were mine, I would take about a third of the height off of it, and maintain that height. :)

frangypangy
Full Member
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:55 pm
Location: South Florida

sorry, just looked at the pic again, my height perception was a little off :) . maybe more like a 1/4 of it.



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