Sunday, August 16, 2009

Basil

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Basil
What: Seed (Yates Sweet Basil).
Where: 2L ice cream container.
When: May 2009.

Sown in: Top 100mm of Yates Premium Seed Raising Potting Mix, rest Yates Regular Potting Mix.
Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.

Advertised Germination: 10-12 days.
Actual Germination: 12 days.

Advertised Maturity: 6 weeks.
Actual Maturity:

Seedling leaves starting to curl due to infested with Aphids.

Sprayed with MULTICROP: Pyrethrum + Garlic Insect Spray on 20th June 2009.


27 June 2009

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Basil
What: Seed (Yates Sweet Basil).
Where: Medium black pot.
When: 20 June 2009.

Sown in: Top 100mm of Yates Premium Seed Raising Potting Mix, rest Yates Regular Potting Mix.
Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.

Advertised Germination: 10-12 days.
Actual Germination: 10 days.

Advertised Maturity: 6 weeks.
Actual Maturity: 6 weeks.


3 July 2009

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4 August 2009

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15 August 2009




We are having 5 people around for dinner tomorrow night so I though I had better get an updated photo of this before I harvest the bejebus out of it to feed everyone.

10 November 2009

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27 December 2009

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12 comments:

  1. Hello there! Just checking out other sweet basil entries. I just kinda started taking care of one myself.

    Did I compute it right? Did it just take you five months to make it grow to that size?

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  2. Hi,
    Yeah 5 months to get to that size but that's with a significant harvest once a week to make pesto from about 2 months and in a very small pot.
    Good luck!

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  3. I was looking at the basil seedlings. It looks like you placed a lot in one pot. Did you notice any overcrowding issues? I tend to just put one seedling in one pot.

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  4. No I didn't notice any major problems.
    All of those pictures were taken right before a major harvest to make up a fresh batch of pesto. Just one seedling in a pot would take too long for me to get enough leaves to be worth my while.

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  5. I see. I keep reading that basil has an extensive root system so I figured I'd leave one per pot. But since you managed to grow them like that, I might just try multiple plants in one pot.

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  6. What you’ve read is true. I recently retired this pot and when I pulled the root ball out of the pot it was exactly that, just a massive ball of roots. For the last 3 months I had to give this plant a heavy soaking daily to keep it in good condition and have planted a new pot out with a lot of water crystals and a Rechargeable Solid Water bag as outlined here: http://veggie-might-sp8.blogspot.com/2009/08/water-management.html which should help address the problem this time around.

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  7. Oops! I just put two of my new plants in a small bedding. I wonder how the roots will look like in a couple of months.

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  8. Two plants will be fine, there is over 20 plants in the pot above as you can see when they germinated on the 3 July 2009.

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  9. Hey, ever tried growing basil in water?

    I can just imagine how much water 20 big plants drink.

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  10. No, but they did go through a lot of water although they didn't get 'big' as I savaged them every other week to make up some fresh pesto.

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  11. Hello there! I can't get over how huge your basil plants are. I'm finding that mine are a bit "delicate". My sweet basil mortality rate is quite high unlike my cinnamon basil which is thriving (and yet can't be used for pesto).

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  12. wow, i really do hope that my basil plants grow to the size of yours. i just recently started mine about a month ago but they still look nothing like yours. check them out at my site:

    http://agardengrowsinlosangeles.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete