My babies! White sage and Amethyst basil

[gardencook]

I just started these seeds a week ago. I so far have 8 baby amethyst basil plants going strong, and one baby white sage. I have sage in 7 other pods, and I've heard its a slow grower. Did I just get lucky with this one seedling (as it sprouted after only a few days) or should I write the remaining seeds off as losses?

I currently have these, as well as a few other things, in a 72-pod tray of little peat pods with a greenhouse lid, a heating pad, and a 4' full-spectrum T5 growing light. They get between 12 - 16 hours of heat/light a day.

I'm thinking about grabbing a second tray and heat mat. Most of the stuff in my 25-pod tray without a heat mat has dampened off. Boo. But everything in the tray on the heat mat is going strong! Almost everything "REQUIRING" light to germinate has done so - and I've snagged out "fuzzy" seeds as soon as I've spotted them. Hoping that'll do the trick of keeping these healthy enough it won't happen to them, too.

I'll post a list of what else I've got going there with pictures once they have some decent growth to be seen. On that note - I have pictures, but seem to be having issues getting them to show up in my post. I'm thinking its because of where I have them stored at. Suggestions?

[rainbowgardener]

Re the pics, where do you have them stored? I use photobucket.com and have never had any problems. People that use picasaweb seem not to be able to get their photos to show up here, just links to them. Image shack the photos show up here, but only small size, not enlargeable. My pictures on photobucket when they are here, you can click on them and view full size.



[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/4024%20Paddock%20garden/Fallgarden2011-2.jpg[/img]

(just so you can try it and see what I mean).

I've never grown white sage. When I grow regular culinary sage, it usually sprouts within a week on a heat mat. The bottom heat does make a big difference. I haven't grown the amethyst basil, but every year I start green basil and red rubin or purple opal basil (I prefer the purple opal, but can't always find it). I find that the red and purple basils are much slower to sprout and grow than the greens. I've gotten so I give the red/ purple ones a two week head start on the green ones.

[lily51]

Tell me about the amethyst basil....I've grown many different ones, and some seem to go by more than one common name, depending on the seed company. Basil is a favorite of mine, and am always looking for a new one.

[gardencook]

It's "technically" Amethyst Improved Basil. It's supposed to be the darkest purple basil on the market - though in terms of flavor, I couldn't tell you. This is my first time growing it, but it's supposed to be pretty tasty

Okay, lets try this for the pictures. Clickable thumbnails, supposedly lol

[url=https://s1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd518/gardencook/?action=view&current=2011-11-14191507.jpg][img]https://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd518/gardencook/th_2011-11-14191507.jpg[/img][/url]
My indoor set up.

[url=https://s1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd518/gardencook/?action=view&current=2011-11-23212615.jpg][img]https://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd518/gardencook/th_2011-11-23212615.jpg[/img][/url]
My single sage sprout

[url=https://s1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd518/gardencook/?action=view&current=2011-11-23212626.jpg][img]https://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd518/gardencook/th_2011-11-23212626.jpg[/img][/url]
Basil!

[PunkRotten]

So are these gonna be planted in Spring? Do you have a greenhouse?

[gardencook]

Yes, they will be planted in the spring - though with the general lack of frost down here, I'm not 100% sure yet when that will be. I'm more than likely going to keep them indoors (transplant to actual pots once big enough) until at least late January - in general, late December/January is when we're most likely to hit freezing temps overnight, though it's pretty rare from what I know.

The sage I will definitely be planting in the ground. Not sure on the basil yet - it depends on how good it grows in pots without the extra heat and lamp once the weather starts warming back up.

As for the greenhouse... still deciding if that's what my Christmas present from my hubby is going to be. I'm thinking more of just letting him build something suitable, as he loves doing things like that but... that wouldn't be of much use until I'm ready to move things outdoors anyway.

[PunkRotten]

I have 2 Basil plants still growing strong now outdoors. But these are full grown plants. One is has tons of flower spikes the other I have been pruning a lot to keep the flowers away. I'd think with you being in San Diego you'd be warmer than me. I am more closer to Los Angeles.

I am gonna leave the Basil out there and see if it ever gets affected by the cold.

[lily51]

Thanks for the photos. How soon can you set these out in Cali?
I've grown dark purple opal, purple ruffle as far as this color goes. Purple ruffle is my favorite, almost licorice tasting. Also have grown cardinal basil, has beautiful red flowers if you let them go for appearance, leaves are tasty.
Let us know how your amethyst turns out.

[rainbowgardener]

I think you will get better results if you move the lights a LOT closer to the plants, like 2-3 inches above them...

[gardencook]

Oh, when the light's on, it's a lot closer to the plants. That picture was taken before I even had anything in the larger case.

[rainbowgardener]

OK, then tip 2 is as soon as anything sprouts take the dome tops off. Otherwise under those domes is a perfect environment for damping off.