8
Took me 2 years to figure out why my basil kept dying
I planted basil every spring for two years. Every single time it would get yellow leaves and just stop growing. I thought it was bad soil or not enough water. I tried fancy organic fertilizer from the garden center. Nope. I even moved the pots around the deck to different spots. Finally last month I asked a guy at the local nursery and he said I was watering from above. The leaves were getting wet and fungus was eating the roots. He told me to water at the soil line only. I've done that for three weeks now and the basil is huge and green. Two years of dead plants because I was lazy with a spray nozzle. Has anyone else wasted seasons on something this simple?
4 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In4 Comments
henryp401mo ago
Yeah, I feel your pain. Did the exact same dance with my peppers for almost two summers. Sprayed them from above every day and wondered why the leaves looked like trash. Switched to soaking the base with a watering can and now they actually produce. It's crazy how one little mistake can wreck your whole season.
6
williams.sage1mo agoMost Upvoted
@phoenixw11 thats how gardening goes sometimes you gotta mess up for a few years before something clicks. My buddy used to dump soapy water on his squash plants thinking itd help with bugs and ended up with nothing but dead leaves for two straight seasons. Took him showing me his sad garden for me to realize we were both making obvious mistakes.
10
jakejones1mo ago
My neighbor did the same thing with tomatoes for like three years. Would water them every evening with a sprinkler and wonder why they all got that black rot on the bottom. He switched to drip irrigation last summer and now he's giving away bags of them.
4