I get a good start going, put it outside with all my other herbs and it dies every time. I have tried 4 varieties of basil and 2 broad leaf parsley and the same effect. Am I doing something wrong? I treat it the same as my other herbs, tarragon, organo, thyme, and the rest which are fine, not growing fast but they don't die. My fine leaf extra curly type parsely is doing fine in the exact same soil and pot type. No real signs of anything, just 3 days later and dead plants. Any suggestions?
Hi Fish. I don't know if this will help or not, but i once followed all the rules to planting herbs and found that none of them applied to where i live. When i lived above the arctic circle, i planted my basil in full sun, and did not let it have lots of water, since it says it does not like wet feet. Died every time. So i started to plant mine under a tree in partial shade and since the arctic can be very wet at times, the tree roots that showed sort of made little wells to hold more water in. It worked. I had the greenest and tastiest basil. Down here south of the arctic circle i keep mine in pots now and move it when i feel it has enough of direct sun. Last year i planted some in the dirt in dirct sun light and it never grew good. The leaves were supposed to be big and green, mine were small and yellow/green. Also the plant never got bushy or larger than a womans hand. The plants i kept in pots out grew the pots and were huge and lush green and very fragrent. The parsley is another i kept very wet. I have not grown none south of the circle but up north i planted almost the same way as i did the basil. in partial shade and kept wet. Not soggy, just a good dose of water ever couple days, or more if it was a dry spell. In the arctic we had sun 24 hours a day for almost 3 months straight. No shade unless someting fell in the path of shade. The night sun was weak but it was still daylight. Down here we get a few hours of real night, around 2-3 but it is still not enough to give the plant a break. That is the only thing i have been able to come up with in my own experience with those 2 plants and so far it has worked for me. Also i found that parsley did not like heat that well, and actually did rather well in the chill of the evenings than during the day. Go figure,,,lol. Good luck, i am sure there are someone on here who can help you better than i. Someone will help.
Fish... not sure my input will help you either since I don't start my basil or parsley from seed. I buy the plants as seedlings, as many different basil as I find. Parsley is coming back from last year. Like Biita, mine grows happily in large pots in partial shade. However, the sun that they do get is strong afternoon sun and pretty hot once summer gets here. I water in small amounts about every day or every other day or when the basil looks like it's a little wilty. I have found that the parsley is a little more tempermental sometimes -- likes it a little cooler than the other stuff so it's in a slightly shadier spot. By the way, the soil in the pots is nothing special -- just garden soil and I think I've added compost from time to time... and maybe some foliar or fish fertilizer if I get around to it. Wish I had more to say...
Cooler could be a major problem as I have it in my greenhouse and that thing can get rather warm. I will try taking both of my parsley out of the greenhouse and see how they do. As for basil, I don't know what it's problem is. the pot I have it in is actually half shaded and half full sun and both sides died. I did let it get a little dry so for the next batch I will see about keeping it a little wetter and maybe it will do better for me. Biita, if you can grow it outdoors all the way up there I should be able to grow it here. Thank you for being so thurough. Daisybeans, thank you for giving me some added information so I can see if I can take it all and make something work for me.
One thing someone told me once has stuck in my head about herbs !! "An herb is essentially a weed !! Treat it like one and it will grow anywhere" !! And that is what I do !! Perhaps you are loving them to death !! Try putting the seeds in the dirt and forgetting about them !! Parsley can take the cold weather !! Mine has come back 4 years straight even after our teen temps last year !! It is flat leaf italian but still its parsley !! Curly has done the same !! Even though basil likes hot weather and moist feet it also does fine in cooler weather !! Just remember to keep pinching back and picking the leaves !!
I've always found my Basil grew best when ignored...full sun little water. Last year we had a cool, wet summer and it did terribly. The Parsley did fantastic!
Maybe it is best for me to just start them outdoors. I started all of them inside and everything I did has done really poorly. Maybe I will just start some buckets of all of them outside and see how they do. Couldn't hurt.
My curly parsley is starting to grow now, slowly but it is growing. I think just enough of them survived to fill the 2.5 gallon bucket. I started an Italian parsley bucket outside so hopefully it will do well. I started a new batch of basil outside and it seems to be doing a lot better than it did when I started it inside. It is growing rather slowly but it looks so much healthier starting it outside. I also started a lemon basil so hopefully they will both grow now and not do so pourly as my inside starts did.
