Yes, I agree. In consistent moisture (or being wet all the time) can cause yellowing leaves. The base may be browning because it might be rotting because too much water. Let the soil dry out before watering again.

Good luck trying to keep him going all winter :-) Basil is an annual and one that likes a lot of sun and hot weather. IME, it is very difficult to keep a basil plant healthy indoors for any length of time - indoors just doesn't offer the conditions this plant needs to thrive.

The subject line had the reason, "indoor." :)

Agree with fatamorgana. Basil are full sun plants; no matter how sunny the window, your plants are still shaded overhead and at the back. They don't do so well inside near a sunny window.

Plus, the potting medium looks mucky, too dense and fine textured. That makes for a very bad container environment, no matter what the plant.

Agree - basil likes heat and sun, and good drainage. None of which you have going for you. Especially if you're using anything besides potting soil or potting mix (the key word here is potting). Garden soil, organic or not, does not work in pots.

Thanks, everyone! I guess I'll have to deal with the reality of it and buy basil at the store until next summer.

But if I can ask further... is "proper drainage" ever possible in pots? Are there plants that *don't* like good drainage? Also, I used organic potting soil from a well respected nursery, but haven't used the seaweed (or some sea matter) fertilizer yet. Maybe that would extend the growth period?

" is "proper drainage" ever possible in pots?"

Certainly it's possible!! And preferred by most plants :-) However, it is seldom a characteristic to be found in most commercial prepackaged potting soils, which tend to be very heavily peat based. These tend to be overly water retentive. Suggest you visit the Container Gardening forum and read over the threads that pertain to the 5-1-1 and gritty mixes discussed there endlessly. And particularly, this thread.

"Are there plants that *don't* like good drainage?" A few.........mostly bog and water plants.

Limeandlemon5 mentioned possible rot at the base of stems. If other conditions are optimal, can a basil plant recover from rot?

By now, it might be to late. Root rot has to be treated quickly, or it may be to late and it will then rot. Overwatering leads to root rot, which is when the basil roots don't have enough oxygen and then some of the roots start to die back, leading the roots to rot. Infected roots can spread to healthier roots fast, even if soil conditions are corrected.

You might have to buy a new plant. Next time I recommend adding perlite to the potting mix and planting it in that. Make sure to add a little fertilizer to that too.

It's decided, then. Will cut ny losses (haha) and start with a new plant. Thanks, everyone! Learned a lot

Hope your new plant is healthy!

I grow basil indoors and have some fresh basil available year round for cooking. It's not the easiest to grow indoors, especially in the winter.

For growing media/"potting mix", you can refer to the link(s) above and mix your own container mix. I've also had reasonably good luck for herbs (rosemary, sage, basil, cilantro and parsley) in either "Bonsai mix" or "Cactus, Palm and Citrus" mix. Sometimes, if the mix seems to retain too much water, I'll add some perlite to the mix to enhance drainage.

I use clay (terracotta) pots with saucers. I don't put anything in the bottom of the pots for drainage. I actually use a single paper coffee filter to keep the mix from falling out the drainage hole. I fill the saucer with marbles (or stones) to keep the pot from sitting in any water that drains from the pot at watering time. The water won't wick up the marbles or stones and back into the pot, it will just sit and evaporate from the saucer.

Temperature needs to be warm. My hanging planters are in the kitchen, not far from the wood stove which is supplemental (often primary) heating for the kitchen and bedroom "apartment" part of our home. Heat usually isn't an issue. It's 75F or warmer most of the time, with occasional nightly dips to the mid 60's.

Light is also critical. In my kitchen, lighting generally is extremely bright. I've got a 4 tube fixture with T8 bulbs in it for general lighting. I mix 2 "Warm white" (2700K), 1 "cool white" (4100K) and 1 "daylight" (6500K). The kitchen was bright enough with just a two tube fixture, so it's very bright, even a bit harsh with that lighting. But that's not enough for "full sun" plants. It's not even close.

Beyond that, there's a light fixture with an LED "spot" light built into my hanging planter. Those lights are fairly intense and look quite harsh. For basil and other leafy herbs, use an LED "aquarium" bulb with blue (~460nm) and white (15000K) LED's. Most "blurple" LED grow lights are heavy on the red end of the spectrum to promote blooming. That's probably desirable for "medicinal flowers," but that's not really what you want for culinary herbs. If I hang my planter/light setup in a sunny window with the light off, and put my hand where the shadow is in the pot, when I turn on the light, the shadow basically disappears completely. That's how bright your lighting needs to be for basil (or other "full sun" herbs) to thrive. Look for a bulb with a 30° beam angle (or tighter), and place it where the bright part of the beam fills the pot, but very little light goes beyond the edge of the pot. Usually, that position is a bit less than twice the diameter of the pot above the surface of the potting mix.

Yellowing and dropping leaves indicates either too much water or insufficient light (or both).