Basil Is Not A Cold Weather Herb

Posted on Oct 26 2009 - 5:30am by Mike Lieberman

Is there a saying that a plant takes after it’s owner? Well if not, I think someone should start that saying because my basil plant definitely takes after me.

The basil plant, much like myself, has severely wilted and not sure if it’s going to be spring back to life. I’m thinking that I should’ve put the miniature greenhouse on it sooner.

I’m not totally giving up on because my pepper plants already proved me wrong when I talked smack on them.

Let me focus on the positive of the basil plant – I was at least able to harvest it once and get a meal.

Now I’ll have to wait and see if it will spring back to life. What do you think?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awn3Efd7Bz8

24 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. Alice October 26, 2009 at 7:22 am -

    It's definitely not a cold weather plant. Mine too is slowly going, most of it is yellow already. Good luck!

  2. Damon October 26, 2009 at 10:44 am -

    My basil that is still going strong is the one that I rarely picked from. I planned on letting it get big then cutting all at once while picking at the others. Definitely the way to go I think….let them get as big as we can before any real harvesting. This is my 4th year gardening so I'm still learnin'. Thanks and peace!

  3. DD October 26, 2009 at 10:49 am -

    Recently, I was thinking of buying an Earthbox to plant Habanero and Cayenne peppers. However, the price of an Earthbox is just too expensive, so I started going through youtube to find how to DIY an Earthbox and found your video. I was so happy and thanksful to see your video~ ^-^ But I have a one or two questions to ask: 1. Are there any cheap and safe way to paint a copper or organic water resistant plating in the inteior of the five galloon bucket, so that the harsh chemical from the plastic bucket would not slit through the water and into our lovely fruit and veggie? 2. I saw another way of making the global bucket by putting two five galloon buckets together on youtube, which method do you think is better? What kind of advantages and disadvantages? Anyway, thank you very very much and hope I did not overwhelm you with so much typing… ^-^

  4. Mike Lieberman October 26, 2009 at 11:55 am -

    Hoping that the greenhouse will help to revive it. If not, I know that I'll need to plant earlier next year.

  5. Mike Lieberman October 26, 2009 at 11:55 am -

    Haha. Four more years than me bro. It's continual learning. Love it.

  6. Mike Lieberman October 26, 2009 at 11:58 am -

    Thanks for the comment and questions.

    I am not sure the answer to your first question. For me, I'll take the chance of the leaching and garden organically. Otherwise I'll incur too many expenses and it won't make sense. I understand the leaching concerns though.

    To answer your second question – I thought about putting a bucket in a bucket, but then I'd need a lot more buckets. Doing it this way, I had a lot more containers to plant in. I still need to do a thorough evaluation to see if any collapsed.

  7. DD October 26, 2009 at 3:21 pm -

    Thank you for the reply~ ^-^

    I've found something to the second answer, but do you think it will work if we painted the milk paint and the clear coat from http://milkpaint.com/prod.html to the inteior of the bucket? The price is kind of cheap, since we don't need that much to paint the inteior of the bucket. And the best thing is that is in the powder form, so we can save the left over and use it for next time. But the most important question is, will it work? What do you think? ^^

  8. DD October 26, 2009 at 4:08 pm -

    oh, one more thing, one of the reason I asked the second question is because I wanted to plant Habanero peppers, and one of my friend told me that, in order to harvest good Habanero peppers the soil must be one and a half feet deep (I think many plants rooting system need that much space to grow too). However, the method you are using, the space for the root to grow are limited, and roots growth are very essential for the plant to gather nutrient and staying strong and healthy. I don't know, I just think maybe your method is better for planting plants that don't have a deep roots system, since it really save LOTS of buckets~ ^-^ But maybe the other method is better for plants that have a deeper roots system. Well, is limited too, so maybe it is better to say, yours method is better for plants that need one foot or less roots growth and their is better if the plants need between one foot to foot and a half roots growth~ ^^

    Anyway, thank you very much once again~ ^^ Sharing is always good in these kinds of days~ ^-^ Thank yoU~ ^^

  9. Mike Lieberman October 26, 2009 at 6:57 pm -

    Unfortunately I am not that familiar with the paint, so I couldn't offer you my opinion on using it.

  10. Mike Lieberman October 26, 2009 at 7:02 pm -

    I see what you are saying. It depends on the height of the reservoir because if you use a smaller container, thus a smaller reservoir, you'll have room for deeper roots. Does that make sense?

  11. DD October 26, 2009 at 9:02 pm -

    Is okay~ ^-^ Thank you anyway. ^^ I think I have to do some research on it then~ ^^

  12. DD October 26, 2009 at 9:05 pm -

    Yes, I understand. Thank you.^-^Oh, then do you know of any free container that we can get that is bigger/deeper than the five galloon bucket? Thank you~ ^^

  13. Mike Lieberman October 27, 2009 at 1:37 pm -

    Let me know what you come up with.

  14. DD October 27, 2009 at 3:07 pm -

    Okidoki~ ^-^

  15. Jacque November 5, 2009 at 8:42 am -

    I had 3 basil plants growing on the outside deck in planters. Fall Experiment #1) Two were harvested, and the leaves immediately frozen in zip lock bags (they look sad) Experiment #2) I brought the 3rd into the house and put it near a window (I had been harvesting it Aug/Sept, and it developed a hearty stem.) The indoor plant is still going strong and the leaves follow the sun. I rotate each day, and water as needed. Will let you know if it starts to die back in the winter months. I'm anxious to harvest it, but have no need to do so yet… need to cook with test #1 first.

  16. Mike Lieberman November 5, 2009 at 10:23 am -

    That's awesome. Good stuff. Keep me updated.

  17. Jacque November 5, 2009 at 4:42 pm -

    I had 3 basil plants growing on the outside deck in planters. Fall Experiment #1) Two were harvested, and the leaves immediately frozen in zip lock bags (they look sad) Experiment #2) I brought the 3rd into the house and put it near a window (I had been harvesting it Aug/Sept, and it developed a hearty stem.) The indoor plant is still going strong and the leaves follow the sun. I rotate each day, and water as needed. Will let you know if it starts to die back in the winter months. I'm anxious to harvest it, but have no need to do so yet… need to cook with test #1 first.

  18. Mike Lieberman November 5, 2009 at 6:23 pm -

    That's awesome. Good stuff. Keep me updated.

  19. Jacque April 23, 2010 at 4:36 pm -

    The basil struggled and survived the entire winter inside, and I kept cutting off the flowers. It looks like heck and is all stringy! This little fighter provided me with fresh basil all winter. Now that it's starting to get warm again (in the North East) I will bring it back outside. This weekend I will start to harden it off by putting it on the patio in the day and taking it in at night. Maybe next weekend I will build a little tent for it out of some thick plastic, and leave it. I'm nervous that it will go into shock. Of course I can always but a replacement plant, but we've been through so much.

  20. Mike Lieberman April 24, 2010 at 1:21 am -

    Hahaha. I hear ya. After this long why give up on it now? Good luck. Lemme know how it turns out.

  21. Manure Tea Gardening January 27, 2011 at 11:42 pm -

    I enjoy your real time garden shares, makes growing easy for others knowing things happen in the garden : ) Annie

  22. Jennifer January 27, 2011 at 11:58 pm -

    Mmm basil! If you can’t bring it back to health (which I’ll be surprised cause once it’s gone, it’s usually gone) just start a few from seeds. They’re so easy to get going and you can a couple varieties. You probably already know that though. I dig your miniature greenhouse, shows your passion!

  23. Mike Lieberman January 28, 2011 at 12:07 am -

    This post is from last year. It is definitely timely though.

  24. Mike Lieberman January 28, 2011 at 12:07 am -

    The min-greenhouse worked for a lil bit. But once that cold weather hit…all went dead.

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