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My basil plants wont grow. Please help!

7 years ago

Hi I live in south eastern MA and my basil plants have not grown since I planted them outside. They get ~6hrs of sun, I water every 2-3 days and fertilize with a nitrogen rich organic fertilizer every 2 weeks. They are not dying either they just wont grow any bigger since I bought them from the store which was about a month ago. Any suggestions?

Comments (4)

callirhoe123
7 years ago
How warm have your temperatures been? Basil likes heat.

Where did you get the plants and did they look root-bound?
James Arrico thanked callirhoe123
aniajs
7 years ago
What kind of fertilizer? Liquid? Organic fertilizers and containers are problematic unless you have a kind specifically formulated as a quick release for potted plants. Also, that fiber around the edges will tend to wick water away faster, which isn't a bad thing except it might also be keeping the soil a bit cooler through evaporative cooling, which basil doesn't like. You might try pinching off the top couple of sets of leaves and see if that doesn't encourage the plants to bush out. Finally, if the plants do take off, they're going to be awfully crowded in that small pot, so be prepared to water them once, maybe even twice a day in the heat of the summer.
James Arrico thanked aniajs
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SW (Sydney, USDA 10b)
7 years ago
I reckon you need a proper pot. The soil is going to dry up really fast in those husk pots.
James Arrico thanked SW (Sydney, USDA 10b)
James Arrico
Original Author
7 years ago
So the plants were a little root bound when i transferred them in but nothing big. As far as temp its been mainly getting up to mid-low 70's during the day and low-mid 50's at night. For fertilizer this is what I am using. I am using the pump one. I cannot using a proper window box because they will not hang from the iron bar fence surrounding my balcony. You can see me using zip ties to hold it up now. I will try watering it more often but it just all seems to come out the bottom.

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