This year as part of the window ledge growing plan, I appear to have accidentally set up a weird experiment with my basil plants.
I potted them on in clumps, into three pots – two of my self-watering ones, and one that I used with great success last year. I didn’t pot them on very carefully, and a few seem to end up with squished stems. The pot with the most at-risk plants got moved directly upstairs onto the South-facing window ledge, where I see it regularly during my working day and could try to help it as best I could.
The other two were left in the conservatory, until I properly cleaned up the South-facing window ledge and got it all set up with four of the self-watering pots (two tomato, two basil). I’ve left the third pot in the conservatory, in the slight shade of the lemon tree (which has lost an awful lot of leaves but flowered well and seems to be maintaining quite a few lemons so fingers crossed).
This year hasn’t been the warmest May on record. We’ve been stuck with an easterly wind, which is dry and cold. The dry was quite welcome after the wet of April, but the temperature has been a bit low. I think that’s why the conservatory plant just haven’t grown very much. It’s getting hot during the day, but still pretty chilly overnight.
The ones that got an extra couple of weeks in the conservatory are working on it. I think I could probably pinch them out now, but their first leaves aren’t quite as big as I’d expect.
The ‘at risk’ ones, that I thought might not make it? Yeah. Best of the bunch. I pinched these out long enough ago that they have already started branching off, and have those big, beautiful basil leaves that I’d expect. The weak, squished stems have repaired themselves and they’ve grown into robust little plants. (Please ignore the fungus gnats. They seem to like the basil, so that’s where I’m trying to get rid of them)
An accidental experiment, which appears to show that the nice warm South-facing office is a better growing environment than the brighter but wider temperature range of the conservatory. I guess I could have predicted that, but good confirmation! Next year I’ll keep everything growing upstairs for longer.
Speaking of experiments:
The top of the water butt next to the conservatory has tomatoes. I’m hoping (in the long term) that the walls and the water beneath them will hold the warmth and let the tomatoes grow for longer, and perhaps the slight lack of direct sunlight will be ok. Guess we’ll find out!
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