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I went on vacation and left a generous amount of water in my supermarket bought basil pot that I keep outside of the window. But it is very sunny in that spot as it's high up and facing South, and the last couple of days have been hot I think, so the water was far from enough.

Most of the leaves are yellow or brown and the plant looks very thin and dry. But there are also some very tiny green new leaves and the blossoms it had are still there.

the basil is very yellow

Is it worth trying to revive that thing or should I discard it? If I try to get it back up, how should I best go about it? I already added water yesterday night, but that disappeared completely, so I added more this morning.

Stephie
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simbabque
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4 Answers4

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"Worth it" is often personal taste. Of these plants (in those store-bought pots are many young plants, not one), the smaller ones with the large leaves on top will probably bounce back and grow a bit more.

The large ones with blooms possibly not really - those will focus on producing seeds, then die.

I have in the past seen those pots as "disposable". For an all-season growth it helps to take them apart in bigger or multiple pots so that the individual plants have more space. But at around 2€ per pot.... Also, those are in a pretty bad shape, and the dark stems near the soil could indicate some fungus, very likely from before the drying out incident.

If you really want ro revive it, you need to be constant with watering and start fertilizing, but not at the full dose as long as the plants are this weak. As I said, I'm not sure the blooming plants will bounce back, but if you snip the blooms, there is nothing left for photosynthesis.

For future pots, make sure to always harvest by pinching the tops, this significantly stretches the time until flowering - flowering means less leaf mass and often a change in taste. And pinching encourages branching out, giving you more leaf mass in total.

Stephie
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4

Yes. It is very interesting to see a dry basilicum to improve within few minutes (so you see it in real time).

Basilicum is a plant who originates in dry places, so it will not die, and at first rain it will restore. I also don't remember changes in flavour.

Giacomo Catenazzi
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Yes. That one still has green leaves so it still has chlorophyll to make energy from the sun.

If you are planning on travelling put an inch of water in that blue container and it will self-water for a while, depending on ambient temperatures. I normally try to find white containers for the water to lower the evaporation rate a bit. You can also cover the water container, and base of the plant, with a white towel to further conserve water, depending on how long you will be gone.

Bulrush
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If it's got green, it might still make it. Basil's fairly hardy, so I'd wager all of those will survive.

If you're growing for leaves, pinch the blossoms off as soon as you can do so safely (without taking part of the stem with it).

Be careful of over-watering, because it won't be aspirating nearly as much. Go back to "if it's dry 1/2" down, flood it".

I think those will be just fine. They'll look a little weird, but who cares when you've got fresh Basil.

Paul Nardini
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