Is Bert the Basil plant past it?

[lucysmam]

I know he's very thirsty 🙈 But he's also looking a bit twiggy in places, flowering, and has roots coming out the bottom of his pot. Google says they're not good for cooking with once they flower but I have not got a scooby when it comes to plants 🤷‍♀️

If I re-pot Bert, will he be happier? How big a pot if so?

Thanks for any advice 🪴

Bump 🙂

Not a gardener, but I'd definitely say repot.

I thought so - I'll find one in town today. Poor Bert 😢

He needs a good prune and a much bigger pot with fresh compost.

stick the pot in water for half an hour until it's soaked up plenty of water first off.
then personally I'd cut the majority of the plant off, down to just a couple of leaves per stem. Either use up or take cuttings from the bits you've cut off.
separate the plants out, you've got a load in one pot there so you could gently split into 4 different pots.

Did Bert come from a supermarket? If so, there’ll be far too many plants in the pot.

Snip off the tops so you have about three sets of leaves. Remove the bottom set, and place into a glass of water on a sunny windowsill.

After a few weeks, you should have roots and you’ll be able to plant these new baby plants. Pinch off the top sets of leave regularly to encourage bushy baby Berts.

This is a dimwit question but I have a thriving basil plant at the minute. How do I pick it? Do I just rip off the leaves I want or do I snip the top so many inches off?

@PinkPrincessPhilo Bert did indeed come from a supermarket! I thought he was all one plant but clearly not.

Would he be ok outside? I have some large pots out there that currently have no purpose - they're too large for Bert to be an indoor plant in them though.

I'll get some scissors and cut him down too, we'll freeze the leaves for future use.

@SquirrelSoShiny we usually just pull leaves off to use - no idea if this is correct or not 🤷‍♀️

Unless you live in a particularly warm part of the country, basil doesn’t love being outdoors. Also very susceptible to pests so easier to mange inside.

Snip. You don't want it gettin leggy, nor do you want it to flower.

Basil is really eady to root from cuttings this time of year. Once you have hydrated it, snip a few stems off, remove most of the leaves and put in a jam jar with some water. They will have roots in a couple of days and you can pot on. I'm on my 3rd generation plant from a supermarket plant bought in April.

The leaves don't freeze well whole but if you make a batch of pesto you can freeze it in ice cube trays and use as needed for pasta sauce and flavouring soup etc.

@PinkPrincessPhilo thank you - I've re-potted half of Bert in a bigger pot I picked up yesterday - will see if my dad wants the other half maybe.

Thanks! It's a novelty for me to have kept one alive this long so I've never needed to know before 😂

My Italian friend lets them die and uses the dried leaves. I spent a few days nurturing his plants when I stayed to be told this!

Do they not just curl up and go all brown?