Basil plants from supermarket

Sunshine12

Been making my own pesto but finding that its quite costly - now using cashew nuts instead of pine nuts to keep costs a bit lower but basil is a problem. Is there any way to keep basil plants (the ones you buy in a pot from s/market) alive if you live in a top floor flat!! I cant put anything outside or on window sill and not sure if there is a way to stop it from dying (ive tried but just wilts). Help???!!

voiceofreason

Plenty of sunshine, enough water to keep the leaves nice and plump - that and remembering to keep them warm enough in winter (windowsills and the like can get much too cold for basil in winter - bring them into the warmth of the room itself), and you should be fine.

That said, supermarket basil's often a potful of spindly, cramped twigs; you're better off growing from seed if you want a good supply going to make pesto and sauces - and it's really not that much more difficult than keeping the supermarket stuff alive, often cheaper too

Will happily send you some basil seed for a SAE if you're interested - just PM me!

(as for the pine nut/cashew nut substitution, I once knew someone who made a very good pasta dressing from oil, walnuts, parsley, parmesan and a little stale bread - hmmm, will have a look and see if I can dig the recipe out.....)

CCP

I had one of my kitchen windowsill for about six months - a record for me as, like you, I've always previously found that they wilt quite quickly. My kitchen is quite cool and doesn't get direct sunlight, and I only watered it when the compost started to feel dry - basil definitely doesn't like being overwatered. (It eventually died because I went on holiday and forgot to ask the friend who was looking after my flat to water it. Oops!)

One thought that does occur to me, to make basil cheaper still, is to buy a couple of pots and a small bag of compost (Wilkinsons do really small bags, if you've got one anywhere near), and grow your own from seed: packets of seeds are usually less than £1 and you'll get lots of plants, so that might cut your costs a bit.


Edit - cross-posted with voiceofreason - I got interrupted mid-post!

ALWAYS_POOR

I've tried lots of times.

A few hints to possibly help:

make sure it's out of draughts but in the light, preferably sunny but not too hot

I always thought that if you pinch out the top leaves of each spring for use it encourages growth, but apparently it is best with Basil to take a whole sprig, this should make it nice and bushy.

Best of luck - it should get a little bit easier in summer.

Sunshine12

Thanks everyone. You are all so helpful on this forum!! I never even considered buying seeds and trying myself. Maybe I will give it a go. VoiceofReason - will PM you if I cant find any if that ok. Sure my local Dobbies has some so will try there first rather than bother you with it.

Our kitchen only has a recessed skylight rather than a window which is a bit of a pain as no direct sunlight but shall perceivere!! I absolutely love pesto and really getting into cooking but was just finding that its really costly - hopefully this will help if I can get it to work!! Thanks so much again everyone. x

floss2

Try making pesto with hazlenuts or walnuts, they may be cheaper than cashews.

We've also made very good coriander "pesto" when we had a glut!

xx_Jo_xx

Hi Sunshine.

Ive found if you repot the supermarket ones in a bigger pot as well as everything voiceofreason has said helps. Mine have grown really big and lasted much longer.

HTH xx

JillS_2

I've been growing basil indoors for years. I do keep it on my kitchen windowsill (indoors) but the reasons for that are to give it the light it needs and because it's a convenient place. Could you have a table or shelf near a window (you must at least have a window, right?) Or otherwise you could experiment with a leaving a very bright light bulb over the plant for, i dunno-say 12 hours a day, though that would cost you.

I've never had much success with the supermarket living :rolleyes: herbs. I don't know whether that's because they put too many seeds in a pot or whether they're grown to point-of-sale under conditions that it's difficult to replicate at home (especially when you don't know what those conditions are!). Because of this and also because of the expense I grow basil from seeds.

However, you might find it difficult to get hold of seeds at this time of year so you could try what another poster suggested -- take cuttings and let them root in a jar of water and then plant (or perhaps even try continuing to grow them on just in water though I think eventually they would fail through lack of nutrients.

I find that basil needs a lot of water even in winter. Also once your plants are about 6 inches high nip out the growing point to encourage the plant to branch.

redsquirrel80

xx_Jo_xx wrote: »

Hi Sunshine.

Ive found if you repot the supermarket ones in a bigger pot as well as everything voiceofreason has said helps. Mine have grown really big and lasted much longer.

HTH xx

A bigger pot or splitting them into several plants in seperate pots can help them survive - the supermarket ones are crammed together too tightly. Have had some success with this but sometimes they just won't last. Growing from seed is definitely a good idea - B&Q had lots of herb seeds (including a pack of 12 different plants for about £2.50!) when I was in a few weeks ago.

Seakay

A sort of in between stage would be to get some pots and compost and divide the supermarket plant between several pots. If you take the plant out of the pot and gently squeeze the pot shaped mass of roots and compost, gradually pulling it apart, you will find that there are (usually) three or four plants squeezed together which are overcrowded and not getting enough nutrient from the small amount of compost.
Just putting them into individual pots can often make a big difference.
You will need to have a good source of daylight for them.

BitterAndTwisted

JillS wrote: »

However, you might find it difficult to get hold of seeds at this time of year

But maybe not next week! Lidl will be having herb, veg and flower seeds on special offer as of next Monday. I think they were going to price them at 49p per packet. If not next week, then they definitely start stocking basil seeds in Spring along with a lot of other lovely herbs