Hello
My daughter has started a 4-H project consisting of a container herb garden. In it she has basil, lemon basil, sage, dill, parsley and a marigold. Everything but the basil seems to be doing awesome.
The basil leaves have started to turn black and curl and finally fall off dead. Just wondering what the problem could be. She has put so much work into starting this from seed that I don't want her to loose it. She is only 10 years old.
Any info on what might be causing this would be great
Thankyou
-
LikeMarigold
- Full Member
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Sat May 03, 2008 9:10 pm
- Location: Newark, NJ
Poor baby! What a disappointment!
Are her pots outside? I know that in my zone, basil plants don't like to start too early, and I'm sure it's the same in Canada.
Basil plants need heat, heat, heat, just like tomatoes and peppers. I started pots of thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, bay, and chives right around Mother's Day, and I've gotten mixed results: the rosemary and bay are still tiny, but the rest are growing like crazy (anybody need some thyme??).
This weekend we'll have our first 90 degree days, and I'll be moving some basil, mint, and cilantro seedlings outside. It's finally hot enough.
Perhaps if your daughter starts some basil indoors and then moves it outside once the warmer weather comes, she'll have better luck.
Are her pots outside? I know that in my zone, basil plants don't like to start too early, and I'm sure it's the same in Canada.
Basil plants need heat, heat, heat, just like tomatoes and peppers. I started pots of thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, bay, and chives right around Mother's Day, and I've gotten mixed results: the rosemary and bay are still tiny, but the rest are growing like crazy (anybody need some thyme??).
This weekend we'll have our first 90 degree days, and I'll be moving some basil, mint, and cilantro seedlings outside. It's finally hot enough.
Perhaps if your daughter starts some basil indoors and then moves it outside once the warmer weather comes, she'll have better luck.
That sounds like it could possibly be the problem. She started them in the house but has moved them into a bigger container and left them outside. It still dips to about 6 degrees celcius at night. We will move it into the greenhouse and see if that helps improve its health. She has also started some more in case this plant bites the dust.
Thanks for the reply
Thanks for the reply
-
cheshirekat
- Senior Member
- Posts: 264
- Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 11:13 pm
- Location: Denver, CO (zone 5)
This happened to me with a couple of my basil plants. What I discovered is that since I bought these plants early in the year, they had been raised in a greenhouse and didn't do well moving them into direct sun outside. I immediately bought more basil and put those in dappled shade outside. The new ones adjusted immediately and I was able to get them into full sun after a week.
With the shriveled remains of my two basil plants, I removed all the pathetic leaves and left them in dappled shade to heal. They looked so sad with only two leaves remaining on each stem. I put the new basil next to them to give them some emotional support of their compadres. To look at them today, you wouldn't know they went through that rough patch. I didn't think they would pull through but I am so glad they did.
Since I am in a higher altitude, that might account for the difficulty adjusting to direct sun. I now watch new herbs carefully under dappled sun for a couple days or more before moving them out to full sun. My parsley also looked like it had been touched by death, so I moved it into deeper shade for a couple days. I try to look at each plant as an individual instead of strictly what the instructions or books suggest.
With the shriveled remains of my two basil plants, I removed all the pathetic leaves and left them in dappled shade to heal. They looked so sad with only two leaves remaining on each stem. I put the new basil next to them to give them some emotional support of their compadres. To look at them today, you wouldn't know they went through that rough patch. I didn't think they would pull through but I am so glad they did.
Since I am in a higher altitude, that might account for the difficulty adjusting to direct sun. I now watch new herbs carefully under dappled sun for a couple days or more before moving them out to full sun. My parsley also looked like it had been touched by death, so I moved it into deeper shade for a couple days. I try to look at each plant as an individual instead of strictly what the instructions or books suggest.
-
praying mantis
- Cool Member
- Posts: 68
- Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 6:33 pm
- Location: Northern California
I, too, have a intermediary location. Those plants get plenty of ambient light and dappled shade. I check their moisture, insect population and new growth twice a day. I suppose this is my intensive care area. From there, they go to varying degrees of sun exposure before I decide where they will prosper. Using whatever pots you have can be confusing. Some dryout faster than others and some plants need to dryout or must never dryout. I am beginning to think that gardening is less about mysterious knowledge and more about regular, careful observation with documented experimentation, research and knowing your environment. *sigh* I've been a scientist for 20 years. Anything is going to turn into experimentation. heh
Also in the pot were lemon basil, citrus mint, spearmint, dill, sage and parsley.
Have pictures but don't know how to post them on here, she had to complete two container gardens but could only sell one. The other had marigolds, allysum, cosmos, dracenea spike and creeping charlie.
Everything was started from seed except the dracenea spike and creeping charlie.
She decided to sell the herb pot because it was a 4-H auction and people were buying animals and she figured that they could use the herbs on the meat they get from the animals.[/img]
Have pictures but don't know how to post them on here, she had to complete two container gardens but could only sell one. The other had marigolds, allysum, cosmos, dracenea spike and creeping charlie.
Everything was started from seed except the dracenea spike and creeping charlie.
She decided to sell the herb pot because it was a 4-H auction and people were buying animals and she figured that they could use the herbs on the meat they get from the animals.[/img]
Cool, I'm growing some lemon basil as well...stuff tastes a little too lemony for me, reminiscent of Pine-sol. Maybe I'll find a recipe that suits it, because the straight chomping is a bit overwhelming.
To post a picture here, you'd need to upload it somewhere else first (Photobucket, picassa, etc), and then take the URL of the picture (including the https:// part, and place it between the image tags (which you seem to have found). So you'd click the image (Img) button, then paste the link, then click on 'close tags'.
To post a picture here, you'd need to upload it somewhere else first (Photobucket, picassa, etc), and then take the URL of the picture (including the https:// part, and place it between the image tags (which you seem to have found). So you'd click the image (Img) button, then paste the link, then click on 'close tags'.