The basil that I planted indoors, under the grow light, seems to be growing ridiculously slowly. What is going on? I planted it on February 12. This picture was take on May 1. That's over two months, and only two pairs of leaves.I had a look under the tray yesterday for the first time, and quite a lot of roots had grown through. Are the plants putting all their energy into root growth for some reason?
I might have been too stingy with the grow light. Because I'm cheap I only bought one tube, and put two trays under it. I went and bought another light yesterday, repotted the basil, and put them back under the light.
In other news the carrots, lettuce, spinach, beets and snap peas are all up and looking good. The potatoes are growing quickly. I nearly put some tomatoes outside yesterday but told myself to just calm down and be patient. Another few weeks. I'm going to look into some way of covering them to give them a little greenhouse when they do go outside, but am not really sure how to rig that up. More to come!
4 comments:
I dunno about egg cartons - I'm not sure if they're soft enough for plants to push roots through easily. Maybe your basil plants are root-bound, with a few roots making it through to the other side...?
Yeah, the egg cartons do leave a pretty small space for the roots. Maybe I should have transplanted them to bigger pots sooner. I'm hoping they get a burst of growth now with their new pots and new grow light. Thanks for commenting!
Cool! You are keeping a blog! :)
I grew basil from seed once, and I remember it did take time to sprout. When it really started to grow was when it was put out in the hot sunshine, it really likes the heat. Never having grown anything under a lamp, maybe it is too cold for it?
(Yay! I just found you here a couple of days ago!)
I'm with Matt: the cartons are probably too stiff. I used newspaper this year; very easy for roots to permeate. Maybe that would make a difference in the future?
I've done basil in the past and always did it right into the pot outdoors. Granted, we have more heat overall, but maybe that is one you can skip planting early in the future?
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