Herb plants from the home improvement store ...help!!

[smaxey843]

I've posted the below in the container garden, but the issue is also a herb based issue. please forgive me if i've broken some forum rule about spam, but if you could take a quick look into the information and see if you can help a new guy



I just bought two plants in the last three days, i've got a greek basil plant and an oregano plant,

the basil plant had a few leaves that obviously needed to get pruned but the overall condition stayed as it was from the store after transplanting it into a coffee can. i'lll post pictures tomorrow when the sun's up.


the oregano plant was flowering and dry and dying. so after transplanting i watered thoroughly and trimmed some stems that seemed to be worse off then others.

this just started me thinking that it might be best to trim them both down all the way to the ground and then tend to them after they start with new growths or that i just need to know what I'm doing before i go hacking up innocent herbs. any thoughts? i understand it might be hard without including a picture of the plant's conditions.

thanks!!

[smaxey843]

ok, heres the basil :



he looks ok. so I'm not so worried about him.

but the oregano,



and two more angles :





the leaves look much better today then they did yesterday, so maybe it was just neglected. still very much excited about gardening and my wife is being very patient as i tend to only talk about my current hobbies

the books I'm reading are the "for dummies" series, herb gardening for dummies and container gardening for dummies, the herb book is very interesting. let me know what you think

[rainbowgardener]

To start with basil and oregano are quite different plants. The basil is an annual. If you cut it down to the ground you have most likely just killed it. The oregano is a perennial, with much more ability to come back from its roots. However, when a plant is suffering and not well established may not be the best time to give it hard pruning, especially in the middle of a heat wave and when the plant is not dormant.

The basil looks like they stuck about 20 baby plants in one pot, to give it a nice bushy look. But they will compete with each other like crazy and some will die and some will survive but stunted. I would pull the whole thing out of the pot, pitch the ones that are already stunted. Take a few of the best looking ones (including looking at the roots, to see which have the best root system) and plant them two to a pot that size. When they are well established and getting bigger, they will grow best one to a pot that's at least 10" wide and deep (if not bigger). A happy basil plant will get at least 3' tall and almost that wide.

The oregano I would just give good basic care -- full sun (but if it was not in full sun where you bought it from, it will have to get used to that gradually), water deeply when it starts to dry out a little, but don't keep the soil moist all the time, it likes to dry out between waterings. Don't fertilize. Fertilizer is not good for plants that are struggling, and oregano is adapted to lean soil, doesn't want a lot of fertilization any way. See how it does with good basic care.

[smaxey843]

The basil is an annual. If you cut it down to the ground you have most likely just killed it.

for some reason, i found this so funny i had to walk away.

when a plant is suffering and not well established may not be the best time to give it hard pruning, especially in the middle of a heat wave and when the plant is not dormant.

i did not 'heavily' prune it.. but i did take a few of the under lying sprigs out. it looked more like an ivy then an upright growth. I'll consider this carefully.

The basil looks like they stuck about 20 baby plants in one pot, to give it a nice bushy look. But they will compete with each other like crazy and some will die and some will survive but stunted. I would pull the whole thing out of the pot, pitch the ones that are already stunted. Take a few of the best looking ones (including looking at the roots, to see which have the best root system) and plant them two to a pot that size. When they are well established and getting bigger, they will grow best one to a pot that's at least 10" wide and deep (if not bigger). A happy basil plant will get at least 3' tall and almost that wide.

That is very interesting. i was wondering why it didnt look like any of the pictures. i never considered that it could be multiple plants in the same pot. I'm a little daunted by the concept of carefully deconstructing the rootball to single out individual plants. i'll do some reading on how to do this.

The oregano I would just give good basic care -- full sun (but if it was not in full sun where you bought it from, it will have to get used to that gradually), water deeply when it starts to dry out a little, but don't keep the soil moist all the time, it likes to dry out between waterings. Don't fertilize. Fertilizer is not good for plants that are struggling, and oregano is adapted to lean soil, doesn't want a lot of fertilization any way. See how it does with good basic care.

hmm.. the soil i used was marked for seed starting... so i may not have done this correctly. i did walk into a store the other day with six dollars and an interest in gardening. i'll keep this updated

[smaxey843]

something i just noticed is this discoloring in the stem of one or two of the aparently individual and overcrowded plants. is this rot or some other disease?




and a close up with a finger behind it for contrast.



the frog is still in an air pocket near the rim. hes my buddy and i call him hopper

[Marlingardener]

Seed starting soil is sterile, which won't hurt your plants but won't feed them much, either. When you re-pot the basil, mix some compost with a good potting soil (NOT the kind that contains fertilizers).
The discoloration on the basil stems is not a disease,nor rot. Just get those poor babies separated and give them some breathing room! I find it's easiest to separate seedlings if the soil is dry--the rootlets don't cling together and get ripped off as much as when the soil is moist. Alternately, you can really sog up the soil and simply cut blocks of wet soil, although you will lose more seedlings this way.
Greek oregano ( or Sicilian oregano, too) naturally sprawls. Your oregano will improve with your TLC. Big box stores are not known for hiring horticulturists to care for their plants.

[smaxey843]

honeslty when i bought what i bought i got it because it was four dollars for two gallons of miracle grow. so if you have any recommendations that i can purchase from a store or give me a lead on how to find proper materials that will get me there, i am relieved to hear that its not a diseased plant. at least not yet i'll keep it going and post updates when I'm not gardening my other seed, my four month old

he gets excited and bewildered almost on demand.



thanks for all ya'lls info

[Susan W]

I'll chime in FWIW! The pot of basil you got had many seeds that sprouted and never thinned. You can pull out by hand, tweezers, or snip with little scissors the puniest.
On your improvised pot, I do trust you put holes in the bottom for drainage. That is essential! Next the soil mix. I have used, and still use Miracle grow potting mix for the tropicals, houseplants or the ones that come in for the winter. I have also used it for basil. It is easy, especially when potting up just a few things.

Keep us up-to-date on your babies -basil, oregano and the little cuty pie.

[smaxey843]

ok, so i went out when i could take a break, and gently pulled the one stalk out. and looked at the roots.




the black stringy thing was the middle root for that basil sprout. the black root was also much less flexible and felt more woody then herby, heres another pic a little closer :



i don't really have any new questions. just documenting on my learning process, feel free to point any details out or any thoughts you may have.

[rainbowgardener]

"i did not 'heavily' prune it."

I was responding to your suggestion of just cutting them back to the ground. That would be hard pruning.

[smaxey843]

"i did not 'heavily' prune it."

I was responding to your suggestion of just cutting them back to the ground. That would be hard pruning.

Ohh i understand now, thank you. i thought you were referring to the few clippings i did take i don't have a frame of reference for what heavy pruning would be.

susan, W

thanks!! i was in such a hurry to post those pictures i missed your post entirely. thank you for your chime! and no. i failed to put holes in the pot. i may get this coffee pot holy and then keep the situation as is after thinning. do you have anything i can reference for thining? just ... cut it at the ground in some places?

and im sorry but what does FWIW stand for??

[cynthia_h]

FWIW = For what it's worth

Tons more Internet abbreviations available here.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[smaxey843]

oh one more question, i bought my oregano after it had started to flower, if i keep the flowers pinched off, will it keep a pre flowering flavor or a post flower bitterness regardless of how pinched i keep it??

[smaxey843]

I have an update for my basil plants, as well as my general goal for gardening.


I've been won over by both the seedling crowd, and the vegetable crowd, i have four types of herbs, oregano, basil, rosemary and dill.

i have a hand full of vegetables, raddishes, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, pictures below. most of it is kinda boring, just the basil is the star today


Basil pictures :





and the fallen :



oregano update :



and some of the seedlings.




let me know what you thinka bout the basil. i'll try to get home early and post some better pictures of the whole project

[smaxey843]

Basil update : i've split the rootball up and have looked into individual plants and have transplanted according to rainbow's directions. the following pictures are the result Day of :





two days later(date of this post)









they are definitely a little soft looking. but i think i've come a little over attached to a dollar worth in basil, which i may have to let go after seeing this as is. the puny one in the bucket was the best looking root system after it had been removed from the ground. please tell me what you think,