Can I revive my basil plant?

littlesnuggy

A couple of weeks ago I decided to make my own pesto for the first time. I bought a large basil plant in a pot from Sainsburys (for £2 :eek:), used some of the leaves and left it on my kitchen windowsill. The remaining leaves looked like they were wilting the following day so I gave it some water, but noted that the wrapping had said not to over-water. Within a couple of days it looked totally shrivelled and dry.

I've since given it a few more little drinks but it hasn't perked up at all.

Is there anything I can do?

janb5

You can try putting a cutting in water. Ihave got a plant going that way. It might be too late for this plant but try it. I would give the plant a really good soak then drain and leave. If it perks up then good if not it`s had it! HTH

JulieM

It doesn't sound very hopeful, but you could try pruning the stalks back to about 2 inches and see if new leaves will grow or maybe new shoots will sprout from the bottom.

littlesnuggy

Thanks both, I'll try both by pruning the stalks down and sticking a couple of the cuttings in a glass of water to see if they grow.

LameWolf

For future reference, why not grow your own basil from seed? A packet of seeds costs roughly what you paid for a single pot; just put a few in a pot of compost on the kitchen window-sill, keep it damp but not waterlogged, and in a surprisingly short time, you'll have useable leaves.:o

I do this successfully, and I'm not at all green-fingered. Treat it as an annual; don't expect the plants to go on from year to year; but you'll get loads of pots' worth out of one packet of seeds.:o

Reminds me - I need to plant some up, must get DH to fill a pot with compost when he's next in the shed.;) (For those who don't know me, I'm disabled, and accessing the shed is not easy for me - I'm not just being lazy):D

redfragglebiker

I've managed to revive them before with a little bit of plant food (Wilkinsons usually do a cheap liquid one) dissolved in some water. I've then watered with this mix little and often and it perked up rather a lot. This was a few months ago and now it's too big for my windowsill!

sonastin

I heard somewhere that SM pots have too many stalks in too small a pot so the plants looks really bushy. The competition means that they kill each other off really quickly. Apparently if you split them up into multiple pots, they are more likely to survive. Might be a bit late for this one but worth knowing for future reference.

Mojisola

sonastin wrote: »

I heard somewhere that SM pots have too many stalks in too small a pot so the plants looks really bushy.

It's a way of producing a saleable plant very quickly. If you put one cutting in a pot, you'd have to grow it on for a while to get something big enough to sell.

By using multiple cuttings, the plant quickly comes to a marketable size.

The usual use of these is to use the leaves and throw the remains away and buy a new one. The customer gets fresh basil and the SM keeps on selling plants.

If you want to grow a plant for regular use, split up the cuttings and repot in three or four new pots or use seed!

heretolearn_2

Yes, if it's one of those growing pots you can get by the veg in the supermarket, it isn't designed to turn into a proper plant, they only last a week or two. A large number of young plants crammed into a very small amount of not very good growth medium.

I have split these up in past and replanted in a pot of real soil with some sucess.

But best to grow from seed or buy a proper single Basil plant from elsewhere. My local market has a stall selling plants including herbs, mine from there have done well.