Am new to growing herbs. I just love the smell of this basil. Bought a plant a month or so ago and it is growing well. Have a cutting in my windowsill which has rooted & flowered. Will try to harvest a few seeds. Will it winter over indoors if I bring it in? It's still quite warm & sunny during the day but can get a little chilly at night now. Should I let the main plant flower now? At what point should I just freeze what's left? Next year I want to grow more of this basil & maybe some Thai basil & some dill. Starts might be easier for me, but if I can get some seeds out of this plant that would be satisfying too. Thanks!

I know this is an old post, but just in case someone comes across it later I'd like to add my 2 cents. Currently not many pl do hydro gardening- at least not for vegetables. I think you could make it profitable- but remember growing is only half the equation selling it is the other half. It doesn't matter if you 10 tons of tomatoes but no one buys them, so before you even begin make sure you have a market for it. Now getting back to hydro vs soil. Doing hydro indoors I doubt would be profitable bc you have to pay for the electricity, but if you do it outside the sunlight is free and your only cost is the nutrients, and initial set up cost (trays, pumps, reservoirs, "plumbing", ect). the cost of nutrients will be your main cost vs soil, but many farmers use a lot of fertilizers in their soil, so the price bt fertilizers and nutrients may be comparable. I personally grew vegetables, herbs, strawberries, peppers, carrots, ect on a 4X8 table outside with min care and had good results. At the same time I grew a soil garden with the same care and had ok results. Hydro took a little more time bc I was always mixing nutrients, adjusting the ph, cleaning the table/reservoir, but it was manageable, were as with soil I just turned the hose on to the sprinkler. Both soil and hydro will require some type of pesticide, so no cost saving there. All in all I think some of the biggest reasons pl aren't growing hydro commercially is 1) farmers don't know how- why learn a new way when the old tried n true method is still working. 2) hydro is mainly associated with growing weed- thus has a negative connection with it. Most pl just think it is good for illegal activity so they don't learn it. 3) It does take a little more time/effort and is less forgiving than soil, but easier to fix/make corrections too than soil- your always checking ph/tds, drip lines get clogged, keeping the trays/tables clean, ect. The biggest advantage of hydro that I found was speed of growth. Compared to soil my hydro garden blew it away- it was like a donkey racing a sports car. However, when it came time for "fruits" I didn't see much diff. Soil and hydro produce relatively the same amt. Hydro may have done a little better as the plants were much bigger, but to be honest I didn't see the huge difference I was looking for. It could be the min care I gave them or using a "generic"/standard nutrient formula with a target ph of 5.8. I was growing several types of plants on the same table just to see what would work, so maybe if I worked with just 1 plant and tailored the ph/nutrientss for that specific plant rather than a avg/broad approach they may have produced more. As far as taste goes I didn't notice much diff. I will say (maybe it was just in my head) that I thought the hydro tastes juicer, I got compliments on taste from both hydro and soil. Maybe next time I'll do a blind taste test. Anyway if you have the market for it hydro can make money I think, but it will have to be outside with free sunlight, and lots of space- squash & zucchini did amazing before V.S.B. killed them but they did take up a ton of space, strawberries grew great but I couldn't get them to taste good (thinking it had to do with ph or nutrient strength) if you tuned it in right I think strawberries could make money, and of course tomatoes- the problem with them is they grow so big that every storm or hard wind would knock the over and brake branches- I'd recommend setting up a trellis if you do tomatoes. Any way to end this post I absolutely believe hydro is profitable if you know what your doing, do it outside, AND have a market to sell it- plants rot after picking them, so it's not like you can grow them and then sit on them till they sell like you could with the illegal stuff.

I bought my seeds from Johnny's and was not expecting seed contamination. But if it is in the seed, it doesn't matter how many I plant or not, they will all get it. I have no choice but to hope for the best regarding this. If I plant in different places, and some are sheltered from the wind, which AFAIK is the primary means of transmission, they may last longer. Also, the more you plant, the more you will have to harvest, BDM or no. It is not like the BDM completely annihilates the plants overnight. Once you start seeing it, you can harvest what you can.

I just went out today and bought a 7-3-5 fertilizer which also contains some miner elements. Further, I bought molasses - just maybe the wrong one, i'll check that in a separate thread! Rhizo, with regard to leaf cupping, I can rule out lack of sunlight and air circulation. At our current shadow temperatures of 27 degrees, that takes a little less than 48 hours. Is there a way to check upon excess moisture in the pots? Would a picture of a root ball help? Normally, I water them when their soil is bone dry and their leaves feel week 3 hours after the sun went down. And could you recommend me a potting mix ration from the materials I have at hand - commercial potting soil, perlite - please? I also have some coconut choir and vermiculite at hand but that might be counterproductive ;). Now, I just need to see what I can do against those mites, couldn't find fish oil or f.oil. fertilizer in any store today. @floral_uk Visual appealing is nice to have but I am more after the taste. They lost strongly smell since the symptoms emerged, now I hold back from plucking them as I don't want to weaken them further :(. So, not even caprese..