Basil keeps dying

[Mydreamlife]

Thankyou all soooo much for all your kind advice!! My Basil is positivly smiling!!! I can smell pesto already!!!

Any advice on chives?!!!

Claire

[possum]

Any advice on chives?!!!

put them in the ground outside, ignore them and abuse them, it really has to be impossible to kill chives

[Hawthorn]

Not when you got a bull terrier Possum. Its surprisingly easy

[possum]

eh? does it eat them?

[Mydreamlife]

My whippet, border terrier and two younger children eat everything I plant within reach!!!!!!!!!

Inside is the only option unless at the patch which is surounded by fence to ward off little mouths!!!

[Hawthorn]

eh? does it eat them?

OH yes. We have a rosemary bush as well. It was a big un, now it's tiny

[Peggy Sue]

Basil - I used to work for a herb company, even basil farmers can only get a crop in August in the UK so it really does need warmth to get anything from it. Also they told me the supermarket pots of herbs are designed to die, I ahve amnaged to plant some of them out to grow but do bear that in mind and don't beat yourself up if they win!

Dogs that eat herbs...mine eats almost anything but really not Rosemary, are you sure you feed it enough
Seriously, my chives failed in a very dark spot (strangles by over enthusiastic raspberries) but have thrived all winter in a bright spot of nasty clay that nothing else will tolerate, the rosemary too actually. They are at risk of dog bone burying activities there and we did lose the asparagus on that score, but you can't help but smile when she come in covered in mud all over her face!

[Hawthorn]

Positive I feed her enough. She a fattie hattie

Mind you, this is the dog that likes curry, sweet and sour, pasta dishes.......in fact she'll eat anything but processed dog food strangely

And on the occasions we get a chinese takeaway, she ADORES prawn crackers. We have to save her some or she sulks

[Peggy Sue]

I thought it was normal for dogs to eat curry & chinese, mine will eat anything except lettuce and herbs that are still growing... I hope she won't like the chili's I am growing this year....a thought!

[Hawthorn]

Rolo likes chillis too! Leastways she snaffled one that I dropped on the floor. She didn't chew it I don't think though. Down in one. Have you ever fed your dog peanut butter off a spoon? Highly amusing

Dogs are great aren't they? Pain in the backside like, but fun nonetheless.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=V4IFOD1eeuM

I about howled when I saw this. Rolo does the same!

[marieariel]

I'm having the same problems with basil! I buy lovely bushy green plants from the store, and the leaves turn black and wither one by one. I know it is winter but the kitchen stays quite warm and it's getting as much sunlight as possible in wintertime London. I didn't have a problem in the winter in Italy - and I lived pretty far north in Genoa - it was quite cold and rainy. The few healthy leaves left at the moment are growing tenuously in some new soil in a coke bottle with holes punched in the side for aeration. Keeping my fingers crossed - if this one dies, I will wait until spring to try again. I've given up on coriander for now. Any advice appreciated!

[ElizabethBinary]

Oh MAN you need to come to MY house. My fiancee and I started a little basil plot of 6 seedlings and then I grabbed 4 variety pack types (red, sweet green, spicy red and lemon)....

well I didn't go back to his house (this was before we moved in together) for a few weeks and when I came back they were WAIST HEIGHT and there were BABIES and mutations! I had spicy red lemon! After 3 months, we had a continuous Freecycle list going "Want basil.. come and grab seedlings and some clippings and go"... we were the neighbourhood basil farmers.

I moved here with ONE basil. ONE. And it bred and made a baby... what THE.

I wish I knew what I was doing. When I lived in my apartment I had the WORST luck with plants. Now? Now I can grow anything just by looking at it. it's bizarre. I have NO idea what I'm doing. I don't plant for seasons. I don't check if I'm over or under watering anything. I guess I'm super lucky....

..but say that to the 200 plants that died when I was younger.

Edit: I do use organic soil and water with organic fertilizers.. maybe that helps?

[Millymollymandy]

I'm having the same problems with basil! I buy lovely bushy green plants from the store, and the leaves turn black and wither one by one. I know it is winter but the kitchen stays quite warm and it's getting as much sunlight as possible in wintertime London. I didn't have a problem in the winter in Italy - and I lived pretty far north in Genoa - it was quite cold and rainy. The few healthy leaves left at the moment are growing tenuously in some new soil in a coke bottle with holes punched in the side for aeration. Keeping my fingers crossed - if this one dies, I will wait until spring to try again. I've given up on coriander for now. Any advice appreciated!

Hi and welcome! What kind of basil is it? My holy basil is doing that on my kitchen windowsill although it is fine elsewhere, and the regular basil is coping in the kitchen. I imagine the temp is too cold in the area by the window for holy basil which obviously needs a warmer minimum temp than regular basil! Some of it went black overnight when we had the cold weather before Xmas.

I guess the only thing you can do is move it away from the window, or at least at nighttime or on very cold days.

[Keaniebean]

I had quite a good crop of basil last year, I put it in a teracotta wall hanging pot in a sheltered but sunny spot, watered it every now and again and managed a couple of salads and a couple of jars of pesto out of it .

Not too bad for a little pot, hope fully I'll get the same again this year, I just sewed my first indoor batch yesterday so I'm hoping for some in the not too distant future.

I do loves a bit of basil

[Jessiebean]

I am feeling kind of hopeful for my new little basil seedlings. My last batch were planted out in a tyre garden around the hills hoist (do people outside Australia have rotary clotheslines plonked in the middle of the back garden?). I also planted borage and nasturtium, a tomato volunteered itself and I am afraid everything else just got swamped with thriving borage and nasturtium!
Well at least they bought the bees. I love bees. especially Bumble bees. I don't think they have them on the mainland. I wonder who bought them to Tasmania?
Goodness I can digress.
My point is I have had the same results as others from supermarket basil and I have to keep myself in check because if it was up to me I would be buying seedlings all the times when I "have perfectly good seeds at home" to borrow a saying from my mother in law- BUT still no great crops of basil.
I guess living in this climate I will take a leaf out of the British approach rather than try to emulate ElisabethBinary subtropical results.(envious of these results BTW I never managed to grow too much up that way except when living up the side of a hill in a rainforest)