Why does Basil keep dying on me?

Soworried

caitybabes wrote: »

The supermarket pots of basil are made by sowing lots of seeds in a small pot to ensure vigorous initial growth. This environment is unsustainable as the number of roots in the pot needing nutrition compared to the amount of soil is too high.

Next time you buy one, as soon as you get it home, try taking it out of the pot, pull apart the root system gently into a few different sections and plant these in separate pots with new compost. This way you get quite a few basil plants too!

I do this with the £1 living salads and they keep growing for weeks. It feeds us all for a lot longer

TravellingAbuela

calicocat wrote: »

I'm wondering if people are having better success with Basil from certain shops?

As thinking about it the ones I got from Aldi have been better than one I got recently but can't remember where that was from now.

Where are people getting them from that work out well?

Thanks for the splitting it out tip, I shall try that next time I get one as mine have only ever lasted a couple of months probably.

The last two I bought in Aldi have keeled over and died within days. I thought I was just unfortunate with the first, but the second did it as well! Last week I bought one in Sainsbury's hoping this would fare better. Alas no! The stems didn't keel over on this one, but the leaves wilted and died within about 7 days! The compost in all 3 was moist but the plants were not standing in water. I think they just don't like my kitchen!

Hobsons_Choice

TravellingAbuela wrote: »

The last two I bought in Aldi have keeled over and died within days. I thought I was just unfortunate with the first, but the second did it as well! Last week I bought one in Sainsbury's hoping this would fare better. Alas no! The stems didn't keel over on this one, but the leaves wilted and died within about 7 days! The compost in all 3 was moist but the plants were not standing in water. I think they just don't like my kitchen!

Amazingly, the ones I've bought in Sainsberrys have lasted the longest.
I don't water until the leaves wilt, then only a little water (Meditteranean plant) and just keep the compost moist.