Thyme & Basil Dead!!

[Gemüse]

^^^ As above, both dead.

The Basil lasted a bit longer, but I have a confession...

I bought both from the supermarket and transplanted them into a nice big trough, in the hope that they would have plenty of room to spread out. They both withered really badly and as suggested in another thread, I brought them inside as it was a bit too early to have them outside.

Unfortunately, they didn't make it.

But, when removing them from their pot, it was very obvious that the roots hadn't even attempted to spread! I would have thought that after around 3 weeks, they would have grown a bit. No. I could have put them straight back into the pots they came in!

So, I am assuming that A) they can't be transplanted [despite reading elsewhere they could], or B) something is done to them in the process that stops them from expanding??

Any thoughts??

[DavidT]

I would say they should never have been put outside so early. By the time you brought them in it was too late.

[Lisa MTT]

Sorry you've had a rotten start to your herb garden.

Supermarket thyme is skinny wimpy stuff that will rarely cope outside. Basil wouldn't last outside in anything other than summer heat in the UK.

You can pick up small thymes in garden centres that have been raised outdoors for barely more than the supermarket stuff and they are far sturdier. Supermarket basil needs a bright windowsill or greenhouse to keep going.

Better luck next time.

[paulsherwin]

You can pot on supermarket herbs, but they have been grown rapidly in a specialist environment so aren't hardy at all. You should transfer them to a larger pot but keep them indoors or in a greenhouse, and water them well.

I have a supermarket coriander pot repotted into a 4" pot growing vigorously on a sunny windowsill right now.

Paul

[wafflycat]

As others have said, supermarket herb aren't bred to be grown on outside, and tend to be leggy, fragile things. That said, I've successfully grown on chives this way (my current stock of chives comprises one lot of supermarket chives from last year that survived the winter outside and a pot from this Spring now thriving outside).

Basil - in the past when using a lot of fresh basil, I've cut back *most* of the growth from a supermarket plant and then kept the remainder in its pot on a sunny window and it has sprouted again, sort of like a cut-and-come-again lettuce. But even down here in East Anglia, I doubt a basil would have lasted outside last summer.

Thyme plants are cheaply bought from a garden centre and they will thrive outside. Mine from last year are doing fine this having spent all the winter outside in their pots. Which is good, as I use a lot of thyme in my cooking! Thyme and garlic are the two herbs I would hate to be without.

[Gemüse]

Thanks for the replies!

I agree that I attempted to put them out too soon. I'm new to veggy gardening, but not that 'green' enough to know that it was too soon.

I was dissapointed to find the roots on both of them never moved from their original positions. I guess the cold held them back; even when 'rescued' from the cold, the basil made a bit of a comeback, but it was obviously damaged.

Ok, point taken RE: the supermarket variety. I need a more robust plant!!

[DavidT]

Go to your local garden centre, the plants there will have been grown for growing on outside, though still a bit early for putting basil out.

[Kabij]

I was given a couple of pots of supermarket herbs by my mother in law who bought them reduced, (ie; half dead but it's the thought that counts).

Anyway, I'd only just mentioned I wanted to grow my own herbs and then she appeared with them, I hadn't had time to sort out a place to put them and had no choice but to leave them outside.

The basil is on it's last legs, probably because it was too early for it to go outside. The parsley made a full recovery and has grown quite bushy. The thyme I thought was going to die it was so limp. It's still very droopy at the base but it's still growing and the new growth is much healthier.

[ljmckeever1]

Sorry to read about your thyme and basil!

If you have a wilkinsons near you buy the pot sets from there that come with the little bags of soil and packs of side, mine have done amazingly well so far.

[Kabij]

Oh yes, I highly recommend Wilkinsons. I got at least 3 quarters of my garden stuff from there including fencing, canes, netting, tools, mini greenhouses, seeds, plant food, slug pellets, pots, seed trays etc. I got quite a few of those herb pots and they've all been really successful.

[Gemüse]

I eventually got round to replacing the Basil. This one seems to be doing a lot better: in that it hasn't died, but it hasn't made much growing progress!

[paulsherwin]

Basil is very easy to grow in a pot from seed. Just fill a small pot with compost, firm it down, water it, and push about 10 seeds into the surface. Cover the whole pot with a plastic sandwich bag and put it on a sunny windowsill or in a warm greenhouse. The plants should emerge after about a week and you will be able to harvest leaves after about a month. The seeds I'm using at the moment were in a 19p packet from Netto; there are hundreds of them and most of them germinate.

Paul

[Gemüse]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Basil is very easy to grow in a pot from seed. Just fill a small pot with compost, firm it down, water it, and push about 10 seeds into the surface. Cover the whole pot with a plastic sandwich bag and put it on a sunny windowsill or in a warm greenhouse. The plants should emerge after about a week and you will be able to harvest leaves after about a month. The seeds I'm using at the moment were in a 19p packet from Netto; there are hundreds of them and most of them germinate.

Paul

Thank you Paul. I'll give this a try as we use a lot of Basil and it won't go amiss.