Drowned Sweet Basil?

[beccababble]

About a month ago we had quite a few weeks where it did nothing but rain or stay cold and wet. My basil plant seems to have drowned from all of the rain.

Since I've never grown basil before, I really knew nothing about it other than making sure to pinch the tops to keep it bushy and preserve the flavor of the leaves.

However, I'm wondering if maybe there is something else wrong? I read in another thread that Basil does reach the end of it's growing season for a little while and can come back. Is it just a coincidence that my basil got way too much water during a time of the year when it goes dormant? Or did it drown and how can I save it?

[rainbowgardener]

I think you might have misinterpreted the other thread. It was saying basil reaches the end of its life cycle as an annual. The only coming back part was about seeds. If you let some of the flowers go on to produce seed, then it MAY reseed itself or you can help it along by planting the seed. (My basil doesn't do well at reseeding itself, even when I scatter seed on the soil in the fall; I just collect seed for planting next year.) It doesn't go dormant and then come back, perennials do that.

But it should make it through one season. I plant my basil seeds indoors in late winter and the plants keep going until frost in the fall. You have a tougher summer for the plants to get through and will need to provide some shade and frequent watering.

It sounds like yours may have drowned. If the roots rotted out, then it can't be saved. But you have plenty of time to start over and basil is cheap!

[beccababble]

I think you might have misinterpreted the other thread. It was saying basil reaches the end of its life cycle as an annual. The only coming back part was about seeds. If you let some of the flowers go on to produce seed, then it MAY reseed itself or you can help it along by planting the seed. (My basil doesn't do well at reseeding itself, even when I scatter seed on the soil in the fall; I just collect seed for planting next year.) It doesn't go dormant and then come back, perennials do that.

But it should make it through one season. I plant my basil seeds indoors in late winter and the plants keep going until frost in the fall. You have a tougher summer for the plants to get through and will need to provide some shade and frequent watering.

It sounds like yours may have drowned. If the roots rotted out, then it can't be saved. But you have plenty of time to start over and basil is cheap!

Oooh, okay. That makes sense now. It made it through the summer fantastically, surprisingly. We had some very hot days, but I kept watering it and nurturing it and it survived.

Actually, this plant was thought to have been dead and gone last April. My girlfriend had gotten it from a co-worker and completely forgot about it in the backyard. She thought it died and the pot it was in even knocked over, so she never thought about it again.

Then, last April we were cleaning up the patio and in between some of the bricks she found it thriving very well underneath the grill. We pulled it up and I found a new pot for it with some potting soil and planted it right away. And it was doing good ever since until it got way too wet.

I went and dug around the dirt yesterday and it seems to have dried out quite a bit. There are a few tiny green leaves on it. So, I'll give it another month or so when I can actually start progress on my garden to see if I'll need to replace it or not.