parsley, sage, sweet basil and red basil - do they look ok?

Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:54 pm

Hi folks

I've managed to keep my parsley, sage, sweet basil and red basil alive for 3 weeks already. Quite exciting for me!

Like a nervous first parent, I want to check I'm doing everything right. I'm wondering if I should be thinning some more, or should I be plucking any leaves to encourage bushier growth, or should I be repotting?

Here's how my babies look:

parsley:

sweet basil:

red basil:

sage:

parsley:

I don't really know what the next steps should be - can I just leave them all alone now, and wait for them to grow?

Thanks for any input!

Yonnie

Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:20 pm

They are also so very small. I would not touch them at all. Once the basil gets about 6 inches you can prune like one set of leaves and then wait for it to get a little bigger. For the Sage do not prune at all. It should not be pruned at all its 1st year of life. And Parsley, I am not sure about it. I am growing it the first time myself and it is really small still like yours.

Sun Sep 18, 2011 10:54 pm

ha ha - they seem so big to me. That's what you get when you hover over them every day. OK - I'll leave them alone. Thanks for the advice.

Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:40 pm

Agree, way too small to touch any leaves. That's for when you have a nice sturdy little plant at least 4" high, with multiple leaves. These teeny babies need every bit of leaf surface they can get.

The sage and sweet basil I would definitely be thinning or separating out at this point. They will start suffering from crowding. If you are thinning, you can just snip the extras at ground level, to avoid disturbing the roots of the ones you are keeping.

The red basil especially looks like it is growing towards the light. Be sure these all have plenty of light, directly overhead if you can.

Congratulations on a great start on a herb garden!

Mon Sep 19, 2011 2:35 pm

oh dear... more thinning.. I was hoping it wasn't going to be this... It's so heartbreaking and I'm such a wimp.

Thanks RG. Helpful advice once again.

Mon Sep 19, 2011 2:39 pm

Then plant fewer seeds next time

You could separate these out into their own little pots, but then the question would be what will you do with all those plants once they get big; you'd need a giant garden space. Do you have friends that would like to be gifted with little herb plants in pots?

I understand hating to kill baby plants you started from seed. I do too. Every spring I have a plant sale at my church, sell off all the extras and donate the proceeds to the church. But even to do that, I have to have quite a bit of room under the grow lights, to get them all to a sellable size.

Tue Sep 20, 2011 3:58 am

Honestly I didn't know what I was doing planting so many seeds. I guess I figured that lots of them wouldn't germinate. And some would just die off by themselves, leaving me with about a dozen plants. I never expected that they'd ALL germinate, and they'd all continue growing as they have!

In Beijing, people who eat basil are pretty much all westerners who all have to pay crazy amounts of money for fresh basil. I suspect my friends will be very happy to receive these little pots - if they grow big enough that is.

Many thanks again. Such a delight to be on this forum. I look forward to it every day now.

Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:11 am

I do the same thing. I plant several seeds in one hole to increase my chances at germination. But all or almost all always sprout. I let them go up a little and pick the healthiest and cut the others at ground level.

Today I planted some cucumbers and remembered how all my seeds mostly sprout so I only put 2 seeds per hole this time. I ended up with tons of mammoth basil plants. I put so much seeds in 1 pot they all sprouted. So I thinned a few and then the others grew more and I decided to find places all over my house to plant them. They are still growing good and getting tall.

Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:46 am

Glad I'm not alone Punk Rotten