Basil question...

[huntsman]

I planted seeds five weeks ago and have very few bits of green poking through.

What is the correct way to grow Basil? I fear I might have mucked it up!

[pete]

I have started basil every year for 10 years, sweet, lemon, purple and others. It usually germinates in 4-7 days and is 5" tall in 6 weeks. I do keep it warm, 80-85 day and 70 at night during the starting period.

I did start some 6 days ago on my counter top-65 room temp and they are just starting to "pop" thru the dirt. These seeds came in a chia-pet type deal and the basil was the short hair style!!

If yours are that old and you have no obvious plant, start over and heat them up if your temps are low-- basil likes it HOT. Only put 2-3 seeds per cell, when I first started I dumped a bunch in each cell and had to thin out- it took a while.


Pete

[huntsman]

HA!

I stupidly started directly in the window pot, Pete!

I'll try again with germ trays and heating pads, thanks!

[Marko]

Huntsman, basil is easy to grow and it's nothing wrong with starting seeds directly in the window pot.
It's important to not bury basil seeds, just spread them on the surface, sprinkle and cover with clear plastic or glass until they germinate. Basil seed needs light to germinate.
But be careful not to cook them on african sun

[huntsman]

Aha!

Would it be ok to cover the area with shade cloth, perhaps? It gets full sun until noon...

My grow medium is also very chunky. Shall I change it and add a really fine germ mix?

[Marko]

I didn't have good results with direct sowing, especially in hot weather, so I sow in pots and transplant in ground when basil is ~10 cm high.

[huntsman]

Back to the greenhouse for me then....Probably for the best, as I've lost at least a month due to my stupidity.

[kd3]

Huntsman,
I germinate in a jiffy mini-greenhouse with peat pellets and heat mat. Basils literally leap out of the cells :-)) But beyond heat, I think Basil seeds have somewhat short viability, as most of my recent mail order seeds germinated very quickly & with high percentage, but seeds from trades & older purchases were very hit and miss, some were almost complete failures. KD

[huntsman]

kd, mine were store bought directly from the supplier, so they should be viable, but thanks for the reminder - I'd forgotten the replant! ;-)

[mtbigfish]

Huntsman
Just sometimes you do everything right and nothing seems to go right - just roll up your sleaves and re-start -

I have a friend who grows tomato and pepper plants commericially and when his parents sold their family nursery he had to find growers to start his seeds and plants - well one of his major growers just bought a brand new greenhouse with all the heaters AC etc etc to expand business - well to make it short 1st year the new heater stuck 4 weeks into the season and burned up all his tomato plants - so he had to re-seed and start over - 4 weeks late
next year the same grower went bankrupt (after 20 yrs in business) and he had go pick up his 4 week old plants (thousands) and find more growers with room - he no longer does much in So Calif and has diverted most of that business to Central and N Cali growers and hardly ever see him or his plants anymore - just goes to show you even the "pros" have problems

Dennis

[huntsman]

Wow!

That would probably flatten me, but I guess it's a case of small grower, small problem-potential; large grower....

Fortunately we still have a lot of summer left, so I'm sure to harvest a decent crop.

Thanks, Dennis. :-)

[pinakbet]

Its been raining here like crazy again and I have a new batch of basil on the seedling tray(as seen on a few posts above). Aside from the constant attack of itchy worms making salad out of my plants, I just want to know if constant rains can cause the basil leaves to wilt or "melt".

thanks