Never in my life have I spent such and enjoyable 28 minutes watching the life and times of basil leaves! Seriously, I loved watching that! It gives us mere plebs hope... thanks!! 👍😁
They are also really easy to propagate by top shots! Just put them in water for a few days and they will form roots. 🙂 You can never get too much basil! 😄😋
I literally got some basil that had been already cut and was wilting in its packet in the reduced section in the supermarket, cut it just below the bottom leaf section, dipped it in root hormone then potted in some organic compost, now I have the best basil I ever grew. It just goes to show, give the little plant some space and tender loving care and it will bloom for you. 🌱😊👍
Got this mail today: "Your Charles Dowding order is now complete" so now I wait for No Dig Gardening, Course Book 1 will arrive Sweden! Think I've seen all your videos now, so much inspiration! My weed-compost 61ºC today, tried to mix after what I've learned from your videos here at TH-cam! Thank you from a norvegian living in Sweden! I'm so greatful for all wisdom you share.
Last year I took the flowers my one dying plant gave me and ended up with (I would guess) a hundred seeds that I planted this year \o/. Cutting every ~3 sets of leaves so I can get 2 more each time and I have a healthy very green bushy basil
What a lovely video. I'm very relaxed this year about the balcony garden. I have a lot of self-seeders and resurrections :-) after killer snow this winter. I haven't done basil, but I shall try this. Lovely thing is, in past years, I had to protect my basil from caterpillars. Now I have birds on my balcony that pick them off! :-) (so I am protecting seedlings from birds! :-)) But it's come full circle at last, ladybirds chomping the aphids, birds picking off caterpillars. So it takes four years for even a tiny space to become 'self-sustaining' and for me to become a somewhat decent gardener(ish!). And for all that, I remain in your debt Charles, for everything I have learned on your channel. Hope you're having a lovely summer.
It's all about building an ecosystem, isnt it? I'm on a balcony now, but when I had a garden, I gardened for the wildlife and took a crop as the reward. I cared for the soil, slightly different from Charles as I first dug a huge hole and refilled with lots of organic material mixed in with the soil, garbage, leaves, compost, bones, everything. But after that, did what Charles does, just adding fresh compost every winter. That was for the fungi. I let plants go to seed, seed themselves where possible so they could decide for themselves where they liked growing, let a fair few "weeds" grow - but every year continued to remove the more noxious ones and leave the more innocuous ones - miners lettuce, dandelions, etc, and between this and the self-sowing, I ended up with basically a wild garden that was edible, that had plenty of food for bees, butterflies, dragonflies, hoverflies, worms, lizards, I even ended up with a mole, attracted by the worms. After that, my only work was to try introducing new plants into the scheme every now and then, to add to the mix. The variety of plants growing mixed up together I think confuses the pests. Sometimes one or two things fail, but overall, it was a great success. I realize Charles cant afford to do that though, he needs to grow for the market so needs predictable and reliable yields. But as long as you're happy to eat whatever happens to be available at the time, it works great.. for me, for the wildlife, for the soil.
Charles I have found that knocking the root ball out whole laying it on the palm of the hand and cutting with a serrated knife into four works well. and potting up in a larger pot No thinning until the plants are established. Then it’s easy to remove the stragglers. I have found minimum disturbance is best as basil in my experience is a martyr to stem bruising esp when forced like supermarket plants. Thanks for your great vids so interesting and informative
I can smell the basil! I have 4 varieties growing in a raised bed. Genovese, Thai, Holy and Dark Opal. We are currently getting a soaking from Storm Elsa skimming by us but the raised beds drain well so all should be fine. 100 millimetres rainfall expected! Staying indoors this evening!
I got a pot of supermarket parsley and split 16 plants from it this year. They're more robust than basil so I was able to get individual plants. They've done amazingly in the poly tunnel. I think I might try basil now, you can never have too much basil 😁
I managed to grow 23 basil plants for four months from a single 47p pot of Lidl basil this summer. Due to negligence on my part most of the plants started to look poorly (lack of fertilizer I guess), so I have harvested and dehydrated them. Still have 3 bushier basil plants in 5 gallon containers, and keeping those well fed.
Hello Charles, I'm just jumping on here to say how much we enjoyed your talk at Hampton Court today; we were really pleased to get a seat! And thank you for your generosity too. Although I have shown my partner a couple of your videos, he hadn't really heard a lot about no-dig so your talk was of great interest to him. Thank you again, it really made my day! 😊😊😊
I see other comments that do what I do all the time with these. They ARE good plants. I always repot them in a bigger pot, it spreads itself out like crazy. We ear Margarita pizza a couple times per week and I just take what I want from the top of the plant still can’t keep up. Pesto, basil butter, basil on all Italian food. Love basil! Thanks!
Thank you Charles. Your presentation is a delight, so kind of you to think of others with different growing conditions available. I think I will start some more basil in pots. Oh dear I hope it’s not too late here in coastal Maine, USA. Zone 5, such a brief season for growing, deeply precious.
Also works for cultivating in direct soil actually. As far as I'm concerned, I've tried 3 or 4 time to grow basil from seeds and have never, ever manager to even get it to germinate/grow, so now I buy organic, potted basil plants from the supermarket too, they're absolutely inexpensive and once planted in the garden they grow amazingly! Cut the right stems at the right time and bam, plenty of basil bushes all around the veggie garden :) As you say, quite a good deal for the price, too!
Mr Dowding, you sir are the greatest wealth of knowledge i have happened upon in my past 3 years of gardening. I started growing indoors in a grow tent, using 3-5 gallon pots and hydroponic nutrients. I stumbled on to your youtube page in early 2020, and was immediately hooked on the no dig method. I am currently in University, and have been moving houses each year so I haven’t been able to start my no till garden. I have read through course one and two more times than I care to admit, and I move into the house I will be in for a good while at the beginning of august. The soil quality is rather iffy. Very compacted clay/sand. I cannot wait to try no till, and start putting some life back into the soil. Thank you for all of the information you make available on the no till method. One day, I hope to drive around the rural area I live in, and instead of seeing acres and acres of tilled land, I will see acres of gorgeous, organic, life filled no till beds.
The other day I bought a basil plant like this and thought, hmm who did I watch, a while ago, do an experiment with bought basil. Sure enough, I was delighted to remember it was you (hence quality and no hype)!! So now I know what to do with my plant -division it is. Just to say the session was better than an episode of Miss Marple. The scene is set, the plot thickens, tension builds and then yay - the winner is (without the murder). All done with such ease and natural communication that I feel quite restored to equanimity. Better check out some other of your spring time videos, given its spring here in NZ.
I tried using supermarket basil this year and potted each sapling on about two months ago. (There were a lot in the £1 pot I bought). I'm now getting about 80g of basil every two weeks. Thank you very much for the suggestion, it's been much easier than growing ~15 plants from seed!
This saved me from going mad. I assumed the shoots were just like branches of the same plant all this time, and couldn't figure out why my plant would kind of max out at a small size and then start to wilt and die. I now have 4 pots of 3 plants each and they are growing. Cheers!
Fantastic video. I love how you always show the results. This video was different but equally interesting and beneficial. I would love to see something similar done with coriander as I could never really make that last home grown or store bought.
Great to know. BTW Charles. The purple basil I let go to seed, dry out in it's pot outside last fall, I saved the dried stems to see if I could get seeds from them. I kept in a small paper bag. Success. 100 seeds. My spouse started 5 in the house and all came up. Exciting for me because I don't have the "green thumb" and I am not allowed to weed the garden. lol. True.
Many thanks for these videos Charles. Absolutely fantastic content. I’m just getting into growing my own fruit and veg and your channel is a massive help and inspiration.
I basically did the 2nd method with a little pot of supermarket basil a month or so ago & planted it in the ground (a small herb bed just out the back door) as my cilantro finishing for the season. I got a small harvest off the basil about a week ago & now it is almost ready for another harvest (we are having a heatwave).
🌱🌱Wow those store bought basil plants are in the best hands of sir Charles and the growth of those basil was great that too in such small pots 🌱🌱👍👌 Enjoyed watching the video 😊thanks for sharing 🙏🇮🇳
Perfect! This is what you were doing on my birthday! I do a very similar approach, perhaps not as thorough, (as getting the seeds here going with cold nights is challenging).. I pot it all up in a larger pot and harvest the top leaves so the two come out the lower node .. have it going it all summer.. keep pinching as the plants get stronger, the larger leaves and it all bushes out...
I pick the tops off my basil to encourage side shoots. I wash and dry it (with paper towels) and freeze it in small, resealable, bags. Keeps me supplied all winter for pasta sauces etc. I heard on Italian tv that basil accumulates heavy metals from compost/soils, so take care what you choose to grow it in.
This is really helpful. I split some supermarket basil this spring into single plants and repotted. It was touch and go but the majority took and I now have good looking plants. An improvement will be to bury the stems a bit as you advise.
Well done. I’m surprised that this simplified video-a look one particular plant-was so thought-provoking. Realizing that I have the freedom to experiment with different ideas and techniques as a gardener is life-changing because there is less fear of failure! Everything becomes a valuable learning experience.
Enjoyed this very much. For the first time this year we planted a pot of basil (that was a gift) into a wick watered grow bag. We could/should have divided them, but regardless it/they are really loving it! Lovely harvests, and if we had bought them in a pot, it would have costed less than a packet of seed that we would not have used up. Nice vlog, helpful.
Thank you! We use a LOT of basil in our home. Pesto is eaten almost weekly. I was just mulling how best to sow and pot up for early summer planting in my garden (southern Ontario Canada). You've given my tired brain a rest. I know what to do now. 😁
Thanks for doing the Basil plant dividing it for us to see. Your video's are amazing even though I watch them many times. I see different things each time. I started seeds in my house in a sunny window and with in a week they were 2 inches tall. I think it is to cold to put them outside so I planted them in gallon jugs, by cutting off top of jug and using poting soil, and replacing jug top and putting packing tape around the cut jug then put them outside, hopefully they keep growing.
Every year I sow basil seeds everywhere outside in my pots and gardens to get all the benefits and harvests I can because I use it alot in my cooking and companion planting.
I quickly pulled apart a supermarket basil into 4 parts and repotted in 4 inch pots. They've gone mad on my conservatory window sill. No more faffing with seeds for me!
I have a really hard time keeping the original plant alive after purchase, tryed different methods and different places to put them but found that cutting them all down and letting them regrow works best for me.
super vid and subject, when I run short or early in the season I do this and am never sure which way is best :) I also do it with parsley and coriander. Thanks for the tips. I notice from the comments that you have a book out ..... will make note of that for myself!
I brought Basil from the supermarket last year and used a planting method similar to the third pot. Through taking cuttings every 2/3 weeks for propagation I was able to fill my garden full of Basil plants! I've also managed to keep one of the cuttings alive over winter and it's still sitting in my south facing window. Although admittedly it looks a little sad and seems determined to go to seed - But interesting to see it's possible to keep them alive during the colder months!
that is what I do in winter method3.... now I have 3 kinds of basils in the garden and they are 40cm high with already 3 harvests... they have all been sown 15th. of April, repoted 3rd of May and also transfered to the greenhouse...
Awesome vid Charles! Happy also because the wife and I tried the potting-on method with a somewhat dry and disheveled plant purchased from the store that likes to undercut the competition ;-) Initially intended for 1-2 meal additions (or pesto) we took a punt and put it in a bigger pot with fresh compost, then gave it prime position on the kitchen windowsill. A couple months later and several good but unweighed harvests, we have a strong and happy basil plant (10-12" tall and about as wide) that just keeps on growing!! Thanks for the tip about watering and splitting the plants in to other pots.
I did similar experiment a couple of year as ago, and transplanted them in individual pots untill they got stronger, even the little ones, all caught up with growth then planted them outside, and had massive harvest until the main frost, around mid November. Same with parsley and corriander. It's a good way to still get herbs in case of failed germination or weather related damage
On a different subject... I got some mesh for my cabbages, kale, and Swiss chard beds. OMG, I love it! I had a sheer row cover on them before, but had to lift the ends during our heatwave, which defeats the purpose of having it. Now with the mesh I can water without lifting the cover to get water where I want it... and the air flows freely. My plants are thriving! Somehow, a bee kept getting in there, not sure why it would want to be in the greens. No more grasshoppers getting inside. White cabbage butterfly went nuts trying to get under a leaf. LOL.😆
Planted a bunch of seeds last year, ended up with about 5 individual plants in the pot. Kept cutting off tops and rooting them in water, then started cloning the clones too, it was wildly successful, ran out of room for plants. Basil looks nice and leafy if you keep it out of direct sunlight, too much sun makes the leaves change and go much tougher, and of course it will bolt sooner, which also alters the flavour too.
I did a similar experiment last winter and had that smell quite a while in the air. Not by using the seedling plants on the pot like Charles but taking cuttings and made a huge amount of plants that way. Only to realize later I really don't need 40 pots of basil... but it was an experiment with an unexpected success. Only few rotted and others rooted within two weeks.
For the last two years, we have done option 4 ... taking cuttings from supermarket basil. They were rooted in water (3-5 weeks) and then potted up - you get much stronger stockier plants. They then get planted in the greenhouse under the tomatoes. We find it much more successful than growing from seed. Give it a go!
Nice video as always. I normally use your third method, splitting and repotting, with excellent results. I usually buy the basil that is on "Special" because there are some wilted leaves around the top. I normally chop the tops off and use the good parts for cooking anyway, and then repot the lower parts. You can't beat fresh herbs in the cooler months for under a dollar and often I can plant them out in the garden once it's warm enough.
The California market Basil sells for $1 to $3 but are much bigger plants and perhaps just 4 or 5 to a larger pot. Great test, thanks. I have one in the garden and it is on its way to a huge size. Now I wish I had divided it.
interesting. I eat a lot of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. I bought 3 store basil bunches about 3 months ago because my home-grown ones weren't large enough yet. I picked all the large leaves for about 6 meals until they were not worth picking anymore. Then I put all the bunches into 1 deep 12-inch diameter pot outside in June and they grew back tremendously. Now I can't keep up with eating them and my home-grown ones are ready too. I would say store-bought basil works good for early spring when the garden isn't quite ready. If they get too tall and thin, I take about 6 inches off above a side-shoot to start new plants. I like your transplanting ideas too!
That is great information can and through these fantastic comments I have learnt about rooting basil cuttings, which I just did not know before! What a plant it is.
Charles you conducted that experiment very scientifically. Well done. My basil always gets some sort of fungus or blight in August every year and I need to spray with Neem and thin them out to try to get some to survive until frost. Very discouraging. May try a little diluted peroxide this year when it hits.
I bought 3 pots of basil from a food shop that was on sale, and I just hardened them and planted in the garden. I did not know there was everal plants in each pot and I needed to thin them out lol. My basil is thriving and doing well in the veg patch.
I started doing this around 5 years ago when I realised the supermarket pots didn't need to die so quickly. Plant in the ground, take cuttings and they do absolutely fine. Only issue for me now is I wanted to have organic and thus have started to grow my own from seed.
Im going to try thinning them out next time, thanks. I tend to cut the top off on day one, then pot on into a 2 ltr pot. Then get another 3 heavy harvest's before starting again. So much easier than starting from seed. Every time I've tried to feed basil even compost tea it seems to burn them. Talking of basil....Meatballs with lots tonight.
When breaking plants apart, I submerge it in a bowl of water as I dip them up and down to avoid BREAKING them apart: that not only keeps them wet, the water helps to separate the roots from the SOIL without tearing them...you just might get all the soil off without breaking any roots...then replant them in loose soil as thinly as you wish.
Fantastic video! This was really interesting and has motivated me to pot on more and I’ll try this with the shop bought Rosemary I have to. Growing it from seed last year didn’t go too well 😆
This was great, Charles, thank you! I learned a lot about basil plants in this one. I have been having trouble with basil in my raised beds, and moved some to pots as an experiment and they are doing better. After seeing this I think I need to “prune” them mores and stop babying them.
Good tips, no pun intended. It takes so long to grow them from seed, but this seems a good shortcut, no pun intended. I have tried keeping growing shop bought ones before but they just go all gangly - too many plants struggling against one another as you suggest. So I will try keeping growing my own that I have from seed, two or three to a pot, and similarly thinning out/potting on anything I buy from the supermarket the same in future.
Another method of propagating that works well... taking a cutting and rooting it in water for 1-2 weeks before repotting. I have used this to make my single greenhouse purchased plant go a LOT further.
Enjoy all of your episodes, esp. the small garden ones. But this one is 1 of my favorites lately. I live in the U. S., I'm not sure I can buy something like this, our grocery basil is already cut & put into plastic. You can buy basil plants sometimes at the grocery store but they're $4-5 for a 4"pot.
Never in my life have I spent such and enjoyable 28 minutes watching the life and times of basil leaves!
Seriously, I loved watching that! It gives us mere plebs hope... thanks!! 👍😁
Cool thanks
They are also really easy to propagate by top shots! Just put them in water for a few days and they will form roots. 🙂
You can never get too much basil! 😄😋
I literally got some basil that had been already cut and was wilting in its packet in the reduced section in the supermarket, cut it just below the bottom leaf section, dipped it in root hormone then potted in some organic compost, now I have the best basil I ever grew. It just goes to show, give the little plant some space and tender loving care and it will bloom for you. 🌱😊👍
Got this mail today: "Your Charles Dowding order is now complete" so now I wait for No Dig Gardening, Course Book 1 will arrive Sweden!
Think I've seen all your videos now, so much inspiration! My weed-compost 61ºC today, tried to mix after what I've learned from your videos here at TH-cam!
Thank you from a norvegian living in Sweden! I'm so greatful for all wisdom you share.
Wonderful! Hope the book arrives soon
I love these “experiments” you conduct! They really make me think about growing in different ways, trying new ideas. 💚🌿🌱
Last year I took the flowers my one dying plant gave me and ended up with (I would guess) a hundred seeds that I planted this year \o/. Cutting every ~3 sets of leaves so I can get 2 more each time and I have a healthy very green bushy basil
Charles picks Basil, the whole world watches, just up the road here in Brizzle, lovely vid.
What a lovely video. I'm very relaxed this year about the balcony garden. I have a lot of self-seeders and resurrections :-) after killer snow this winter. I haven't done basil, but I shall try this. Lovely thing is, in past years, I had to protect my basil from caterpillars. Now I have birds on my balcony that pick them off! :-) (so I am protecting seedlings from birds! :-)) But it's come full circle at last, ladybirds chomping the aphids, birds picking off caterpillars. So it takes four years for even a tiny space to become 'self-sustaining' and for me to become a somewhat decent gardener(ish!). And for all that, I remain in your debt Charles, for everything I have learned on your channel. Hope you're having a lovely summer.
Thanks Anita.
Impressive to read about your ecology!
It's all about building an ecosystem, isnt it? I'm on a balcony now, but when I had a garden, I gardened for the wildlife and took a crop as the reward. I cared for the soil, slightly different from Charles as I first dug a huge hole and refilled with lots of organic material mixed in with the soil, garbage, leaves, compost, bones, everything. But after that, did what Charles does, just adding fresh compost every winter. That was for the fungi. I let plants go to seed, seed themselves where possible so they could decide for themselves where they liked growing, let a fair few "weeds" grow - but every year continued to remove the more noxious ones and leave the more innocuous ones - miners lettuce, dandelions, etc, and between this and the self-sowing, I ended up with basically a wild garden that was edible, that had plenty of food for bees, butterflies, dragonflies, hoverflies, worms, lizards, I even ended up with a mole, attracted by the worms. After that, my only work was to try introducing new plants into the scheme every now and then, to add to the mix. The variety of plants growing mixed up together I think confuses the pests. Sometimes one or two things fail, but overall, it was a great success. I realize Charles cant afford to do that though, he needs to grow for the market so needs predictable and reliable yields. But as long as you're happy to eat whatever happens to be available at the time, it works great.. for me, for the wildlife, for the soil.
30 minutes of Charles, spoiling me!
Mr Dowding, I Love how you find ways to show and help us grow something green.👍🏼 Thank you!💗😉
This is great, I've had such mixed results with supermarket basil over the years.
I've had consistent results for about a decade. They've died every time, but at least they're consistent.
@@koomber777 I love this response 😂😂😂
@@koomber777 same here 😀
Charles I have found that knocking the root ball out whole laying it on the palm of the hand and cutting with a serrated knife into four works well. and potting up in a larger pot No thinning until the plants are established. Then it’s easy to remove the stragglers. I have found minimum disturbance is best as basil in my experience is a martyr to stem bruising esp when forced like supermarket plants. Thanks for your great vids so interesting and informative
It's such a pleasure just watching and listening to you, Charles. Your videos are so relaxing and therapeutic.
I can smell the basil! I have 4 varieties growing in a raised bed. Genovese, Thai, Holy and Dark Opal. We are currently getting a soaking from Storm Elsa skimming by us but the raised beds drain well so all should be fine. 100 millimetres rainfall expected! Staying indoors this evening!
I BET THE QUEEN HAS NEVER DUG A DAY IN HER LIFE!!!!! HER GARDEN MUST BE AMAZING!!!!!!
I got a pot of supermarket parsley and split 16 plants from it this year. They're more robust than basil so I was able to get individual plants. They've done amazingly in the poly tunnel. I think I might try basil now, you can never have too much basil 😁
I managed to grow 23 basil plants for four months from a single 47p pot of Lidl basil this summer. Due to negligence on my part most of the plants started to look poorly (lack of fertilizer I guess), so I have harvested and dehydrated them. Still have 3 bushier basil plants in 5 gallon containers, and keeping those well fed.
I really enjoyed this video "well blow me down " ,I love that phrase 😀😄.
'Blow me down with a feather' is also used
Another interesting experiment with conclusive results from Professor Dowding 😉
😁
Beautiful to see the growing power from organic compost and the harvest results. 👍
Hello Charles, I'm just jumping on here to say how much we enjoyed your talk at Hampton Court today; we were really pleased to get a seat! And thank you for your generosity too. Although I have shown my partner a couple of your videos, he hadn't really heard a lot about no-dig so your talk was of great interest to him. Thank you again, it really made my day! 😊😊😊
Lovely to hear, nice to meet you!
I see other comments that do what I do all the time with these. They ARE good plants. I always repot them in a bigger pot, it spreads itself out like crazy. We ear Margarita pizza a couple times per week and I just take what I want from the top of the plant still can’t keep up. Pesto, basil butter, basil on all Italian food. Love basil! Thanks!
Nice to hear and yes there are so many ways to keep them growing!
Thank you Charles. Your presentation is a delight, so kind of you to think of others with different growing conditions available. I think I will start some more basil in pots. Oh dear I hope it’s not too late here in coastal Maine, USA. Zone 5, such a brief season for growing, deeply precious.
I am in zone 5a and it's not too late here!
Also works for cultivating in direct soil actually. As far as I'm concerned, I've tried 3 or 4 time to grow basil from seeds and have never, ever manager to even get it to germinate/grow, so now I buy organic, potted basil plants from the supermarket too, they're absolutely inexpensive and once planted in the garden they grow amazingly! Cut the right stems at the right time and bam, plenty of basil bushes all around the veggie garden :) As you say, quite a good deal for the price, too!
Very interesting to see how our actions impact what is happening next with the plants! Thanks for sharing these observations
I've been splitting supermarket basil for several years and planting it direct in the green house always good results
Mr Dowding, you sir are the greatest wealth of knowledge i have happened upon in my past 3 years of gardening. I started growing indoors in a grow tent, using 3-5 gallon pots and hydroponic nutrients. I stumbled on to your youtube page in early 2020, and was immediately hooked on the no dig method. I am currently in University, and have been moving houses each year so I haven’t been able to start my no till garden. I have read through course one and two more times than I care to admit, and I move into the house I will be in for a good while at the beginning of august. The soil quality is rather iffy. Very compacted clay/sand. I cannot wait to try no till, and start putting some life back into the soil. Thank you for all of the information you make available on the no till method. One day, I hope to drive around the rural area I live in, and instead of seeing acres and acres of tilled land, I will see acres of gorgeous, organic, life filled no till beds.
Lovely to hear, and glad you like the courses. Thanks for the comment.
The other day I bought a basil plant like this and thought, hmm who did I watch, a while ago, do an experiment with bought basil. Sure enough, I was delighted to remember it was you (hence quality and no hype)!! So now I know what to do with my plant -division it is. Just to say the session was better than an episode of Miss Marple. The scene is set, the plot thickens, tension builds and then yay - the winner is (without the murder). All done with such ease and natural communication that I feel quite restored to equanimity. Better check out some other of your spring time videos, given its spring here in NZ.
Thanks Annie, I like the no hype but and good luck with your basil.
You could also try rooting the tops in water, I should have said that.
I tried using supermarket basil this year and potted each sapling on about two months ago. (There were a lot in the £1 pot I bought). I'm now getting about 80g of basil every two weeks. Thank you very much for the suggestion, it's been much easier than growing ~15 plants from seed!
Thanks for sharing, lovely result!
basil is my favorite thing to grow, and charles is my favorite gardening educator. loved this video!
Lol! I do this every year! I buy basil plants & just put in bigger pots. When it starts to think about flowering I hack it back & it bushes out again.
yeah i started to keep a few plants around i let flower, they look quite nice and the bees really love them in my area
This saved me from going mad. I assumed the shoots were just like branches of the same plant all this time, and couldn't figure out why my plant would kind of max out at a small size and then start to wilt and die. I now have 4 pots of 3 plants each and they are growing. Cheers!
Glad to help!
a little different than the usual video, great idea!
A great idea! Thank you. As someone who always kills supermarket basil and coriander, this is a great help :)
The Empirical Gardener! I love Genevese because of the small leaves. Saves chopping time.
Fantastic video. I love how you always show the results. This video was different but equally interesting and beneficial. I would love to see something similar done with coriander as I could never really make that last home grown or store bought.
Great to know. BTW Charles. The purple basil I let go to seed, dry out in it's pot outside last fall, I saved the dried stems to see if I could get seeds from them. I kept in a small paper bag. Success. 100 seeds. My spouse started 5 in the house and all came up. Exciting for me because I don't have the "green thumb" and I am not allowed to weed the garden. lol. True.
That is so exciting!
Many thanks for these videos Charles. Absolutely fantastic content. I’m just getting into growing my own fruit and veg and your channel is a massive help and inspiration.
I'm so so glad that I'm not the only one who does this!! Thanks for the video Charles 😊
What fun - thank you, my kitchen windowsil will be brighter now
I basically did the 2nd method with a little pot of supermarket basil a month or so ago & planted it in the ground (a small herb bed just out the back door) as my cilantro finishing for the season. I got a small harvest off the basil about a week ago & now it is almost ready for another harvest (we are having a heatwave).
Thank you for taking the time to show us, explain and do the trial! So interesting and helpful.
💚
🌱🌱Wow those store bought basil plants are in the best hands of sir Charles and the growth of those basil was great that too in such small pots 🌱🌱👍👌 Enjoyed watching the video 😊thanks for sharing 🙏🇮🇳
Perfect! This is what you were doing on my birthday! I do a very similar approach, perhaps not as thorough, (as getting the seeds here going with cold nights is challenging).. I pot it all up in a larger pot and harvest the top leaves so the two come out the lower node .. have it going it all summer.. keep pinching as the plants get stronger, the larger leaves and it all bushes out...
I pick the tops off my basil to encourage side shoots. I wash and dry it (with paper towels) and freeze it in small, resealable, bags. Keeps me supplied all winter for pasta sauces etc.
I heard on Italian tv that basil accumulates heavy metals from compost/soils, so take care what you choose to grow it in.
Great idea thanks! ☺
This is really helpful. I split some supermarket basil this spring into single plants and repotted. It was touch and go but the majority took and I now have good looking plants. An improvement will be to bury the stems a bit as you advise.
Thanks for reasuring the level of harvness :) I often hesitate to leave such a few leaves
I find this easier and more efficient than growing from seed !!
Well done. I’m surprised that this simplified video-a look one particular plant-was so thought-provoking. Realizing that I have the freedom to experiment with different ideas and techniques as a gardener is life-changing because there is less fear of failure! Everything becomes a valuable learning experience.
Glad you enjoyed it and yes that’s a powerful realisation
Enjoyed this very much. For the first time this year we planted a pot of basil (that was a gift) into a wick watered grow bag. We could/should have divided them, but regardless it/they are really loving it! Lovely harvests, and if we had bought them in a pot, it would have costed less than a packet of seed that we would not have used up. Nice vlog, helpful.
Just off to do this Charles - brilliant thank you!
Still smiling at this lovely video. Been trying to do this for years with basil. Must try harder 😄😍
Best of luck!
Cracking up while you grumble about the basil. So much pleasure watching this one. When you said damnit, I laughed so loud.
Thank you 😊 I actually went straight outside to harvest dill and basil today to freeze for winter. Time to pop in more seeds too.
Thank you! We use a LOT of basil in our home. Pesto is eaten almost weekly. I was just mulling how best to sow and pot up for early summer planting in my garden (southern Ontario Canada). You've given my tired brain a rest. I know what to do now. 😁
nice video i always do it this way also with mint and parsley
Well that was fascinating! Something else to try. Thanks Charles.
. Thank you for showing us this method . I always trust what you do .
Thanks for doing the Basil plant dividing it for us to see. Your video's are amazing even though I watch them many times. I see different things each time. I started seeds in my house in a sunny window and with in a week they were 2 inches tall. I think it is to cold to put them outside so I planted them in gallon jugs, by cutting off top of jug and using poting soil, and replacing jug top and putting packing tape around the cut jug then put them outside, hopefully they keep growing.
You are so welcome Joann and that sounds fine!
Every year I sow basil seeds everywhere outside in my pots and gardens to get all the benefits and harvests I can because I use it alot in my cooking and companion planting.
I love this idea ! I hope sometime you will also do a video on propagating lavender and hydrangeas from cuttings !
I quickly pulled apart a supermarket basil into 4 parts and repotted in 4 inch pots. They've gone mad on my conservatory window sill. No more faffing with seeds for me!
I have a really hard time keeping the original plant alive after purchase, tryed different methods and different places to put them but found that cutting them all down and letting them regrow works best for me.
Nice you found your method!
super vid and subject, when I run short or early in the season I do this and am never sure which way is best :) I also do it with parsley and coriander. Thanks for the tips. I notice from the comments that you have a book out ..... will make note of that for myself!
I love your experiments! What a satisfying watch and has given me lots of useful info as my little basil plants grow. Thanks as ever Charles!!
I brought Basil from the supermarket last year and used a planting method similar to the third pot. Through taking cuttings every 2/3 weeks for propagation I was able to fill my garden full of Basil plants!
I've also managed to keep one of the cuttings alive over winter and it's still sitting in my south facing window. Although admittedly it looks a little sad and seems determined to go to seed - But interesting to see it's possible to keep them alive during the colder months!
Thanks for sharing Steven, impressive!
that is what I do in winter method3.... now I have 3 kinds of basils in the garden and they are 40cm high with already 3 harvests... they have all been sown 15th. of April, repoted 3rd of May and also transfered to the greenhouse...
Awesome vid Charles! Happy also because the wife and I tried the potting-on method with a somewhat dry and disheveled plant purchased from the store that likes to undercut the competition ;-) Initially intended for 1-2 meal additions (or pesto) we took a punt and put it in a bigger pot with fresh compost, then gave it prime position on the kitchen windowsill. A couple months later and several good but unweighed harvests, we have a strong and happy basil plant (10-12" tall and about as wide) that just keeps on growing!! Thanks for the tip about watering and splitting the plants in to other pots.
Nice work Phil!
I did similar experiment a couple of year as ago, and transplanted them in individual pots untill they got stronger, even the little ones, all caught up with growth then planted them outside, and had massive harvest until the main frost, around mid November. Same with parsley and corriander. It's a good way to still get herbs in case of failed germination or weather related damage
Will try this. Thanks so much
Greetings from freezing New Zealand
On a different subject... I got some mesh for my cabbages, kale, and Swiss chard beds. OMG, I love it! I had a sheer row cover on them before, but had to lift the ends during our heatwave, which defeats the purpose of having it. Now with the mesh I can water without lifting the cover to get water where I want it... and the air flows freely. My plants are thriving! Somehow, a bee kept getting in there, not sure why it would want to be in the greens. No more grasshoppers getting inside. White cabbage butterfly went nuts trying to get under a leaf. LOL.😆
Planted a bunch of seeds last year, ended up with about 5 individual plants in the pot. Kept cutting off tops and rooting them in water, then started cloning the clones too, it was wildly successful, ran out of room for plants. Basil looks nice and leafy if you keep it out of direct sunlight, too much sun makes the leaves change and go much tougher, and of course it will bolt sooner, which also alters the flavour too.
Good skill!
Oops ! You answered that watering question in your video ! Thank you 😊
For decades "smell-o-vision" has been joked about, but I really could smell this video.
I know, when I grew basil I used to walk by and just brush the leaves because I loved the smell so much!
@@marymcandrew7667 nice to know im not the only one who does that 😁
I did a similar experiment last winter and had that smell quite a while in the air. Not by using the seedling plants on the pot like Charles but taking cuttings and made a huge amount of plants that way. Only to realize later I really don't need 40 pots of basil... but it was an experiment with an unexpected success. Only few rotted and others rooted within two weeks.
For the last two years, we have done option 4 ... taking cuttings from supermarket basil. They were rooted in water (3-5 weeks) and then potted up - you get much stronger stockier plants. They then get planted in the greenhouse under the tomatoes. We find it much more successful than growing from seed. Give it a go!
I did much the same, except I just stuck the cuttings straight into some potting mix. Almost half way through winter and they are still going.
nice tip thanks!
Thank you very much Charles. Very good and nice demonstration. It helps us a lot. See you. Greetings from the south of Chile
Glad you enjoyed it 💚
yep, ive done this too. i got one plant through to seed! it's a good challenge.
I also buy them in the beginning of season and plant them out in my green house they become enormous
That was great fun! Thank you.
Nice video as always. I normally use your third method, splitting and repotting, with excellent results.
I usually buy the basil that is on "Special" because there are some wilted leaves around the top.
I normally chop the tops off and use the good parts for cooking anyway, and then repot the lower parts.
You can't beat fresh herbs in the cooler months for under a dollar and often I can plant them out in the garden
once it's warm enough.
Thanks for sharing!
Very informative and interesting, I'm going to try method 3 I think.
The California market Basil sells for $1 to $3 but are much bigger plants and perhaps just 4 or 5 to a larger pot. Great test, thanks. I have one in the garden and it is on its way to a huge size. Now I wish I had divided it.
Fantastic video, thank you Charles for sharing everything you do with us, you really are a treasure 👩🏼🌾
That was amazing As I learned something new once again Charles.
Love these comparisons…. Here in Aus we pay anywhere from $3-5 for one of those!
interesting. I eat a lot of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. I bought 3 store basil bunches about 3 months ago because my home-grown ones weren't large enough yet. I picked all the large leaves for about 6 meals until they were not worth picking anymore. Then I put all the bunches into 1 deep 12-inch diameter pot outside in June and they grew back tremendously. Now I can't keep up with eating them and my home-grown ones are ready too. I would say store-bought basil works good for early spring when the garden isn't quite ready. If they get too tall and thin, I take about 6 inches off above a side-shoot to start new plants. I like your transplanting ideas too!
That is great information can and through these fantastic comments I have learnt about rooting basil cuttings, which I just did not know before!
What a plant it is.
I grew lots of basil from a cheap seed packet of 6 different herbs and lettuce. It's smells so nice!!
Charles you conducted that experiment very scientifically. Well done. My basil always gets some sort of fungus or blight in August every year and I need to spray with Neem and thin them out to try to get some to survive until frost. Very discouraging. May try a little diluted peroxide this year when it hits.
I bought 3 pots of basil from a food shop that was on sale, and I just hardened them and planted in the garden. I did not know there was everal plants in each pot and I needed to thin them out lol. My basil is thriving and doing well in the veg patch.
Great job!
I started doing this around 5 years ago when I realised the supermarket pots didn't need to die so quickly. Plant in the ground, take cuttings and they do absolutely fine. Only issue for me now is I wanted to have organic and thus have started to grow my own from seed.
Im going to try thinning them out next time, thanks. I tend to cut the top off on day one, then pot on into a 2 ltr pot. Then get another 3 heavy harvest's before starting again. So much easier than starting from seed. Every time I've tried to feed basil even compost tea it seems to burn them. Talking of basil....Meatballs with lots tonight.
When breaking plants apart, I submerge it in a bowl of water as I dip them up and down to avoid BREAKING them apart: that not only keeps them wet, the water helps to separate the roots from the SOIL without tearing them...you just might get all the soil off without breaking any roots...then replant them in loose soil as thinly as you wish.
Great tip, thanks!
Fantastic video! This was really interesting and has motivated me to pot on more and I’ll try this with the shop bought Rosemary I have to. Growing it from seed last year didn’t go too well 😆
This was great, Charles, thank you! I learned a lot about basil plants in this one. I have been having trouble with basil in my raised beds, and moved some to pots as an experiment and they are doing better. After seeing this I think I need to “prune” them mores and stop babying them.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you Charles
hello, charles, very good video, I learn a lot, thank you for sharing greetings.
Good tips, no pun intended. It takes so long to grow them from seed, but this seems a good shortcut, no pun intended. I have tried keeping growing shop bought ones before but they just go all gangly - too many plants struggling against one another as you suggest. So I will try keeping growing my own that I have from seed, two or three to a pot, and similarly thinning out/potting on anything I buy from the supermarket the same in future.
Glad it was helpful Reggie
Another method of propagating that works well... taking a cutting and rooting it in water for 1-2 weeks before repotting. I have used this to make my single greenhouse purchased plant go a LOT further.
Great tip!
Hampton Court flower show, well done, another feather in your cap.
thanks :)
thanks for posting.
Enjoy all of your episodes, esp. the small garden ones. But this one is 1 of my favorites lately. I live in the U. S., I'm not sure I can buy something like this, our grocery basil is already cut & put into plastic. You can buy basil plants sometimes at the grocery store but they're $4-5 for a 4"pot.
Oh wow! Pricey.
Really useful information. I'll try method three with my own basil that is sewn too thickly.