or, do supermarkets deliberately poison live pots of herbs?

[counterpoint]

I love a bit of basil or some crunchy coriander chopped up in my summer salads. So I can never resist opting for a pot of live herbs when I am in the veggie section of (usually) Sainsbury's or Morrison's. But they just don't last! No sooner have I pinched a top or two, when the blooming things wilt over and die, overnight!

Am I better off getting a cut bunch of herbs and leaving them in the fridge till needed?

I used to be able to grow herbs. Usually bought them in a pot from the garden centre and they stood on my window sill. They lasted several months. Now, similar pots bought from supermarkets last just a few days at most.

AIBU to think the supermarkets deliberately plant something in the pots so that the herbs do not survive more than a few days and hence we have to keep replenishing them?

Grrr! It's like a Midsomer Murders mystery in my kitchen!

I bought some cut mint from M&S in mid June and some of it is still alive, I shoved it in a jug of water and left on the windowsill, it even survived when we were away in France for two weeks and was growing well, I planted out a few stalks, all but one died. I have no luck with basil and buy once every three weeks.

I've had a pot of mint on my windowsill for a few weeks now, still going strong.

If you're not going to eat it all in one go on the day or next day after buying it then the plant needs to go into a bigger pot. They will always grow when potted on. When we buy living herbs from supermarkets the roots are filling the pot and have used up all the nutrients in the original compost so if we want them to continue to grow then we have to give the plants what they need.

Can I repot mint in houseplant compost and keep in a sunny place rather than outside? Or foes it need to be outside?

I've found basil usually lasts ok but coriander is a right bastard to keep alive!

I bought a basil plant last week, went to use it yesterday and it was crawling with tiny little bugs, the underside of the leaves and stalks/stems were covered. It promptly got chucked in the bin and then I noticed the bugs crawling all around the window cill. A quick Google told me that they were white flies.

yuck!

Alot depends on the warmth of the kitchen but also that the plants in supermarket are forced under cover and then shocked when in cool supermarket and then back out to warm kitchens

I bought a load of potted herbs recently which were reduced at Asda (or maybe mozzas, can't remember) and planted them the same day in a big pot in the garden with some good soil in. They've all gone pretty bezerk with the exception of the coriander which is a bit listless. Definitely fared much better than on the windowsill.

I've had a basil plant from Lidl since beginning of June and it's still fine - astounding as my fingers are anything but green! I water it a bit every day.

I can't keep chives going but all the others are usually okay....make sure you buy the ones with the longest date on, they have spent the least time on the shelf...supermarket are just too hot and dry for baby herbs

I soak them as soon as I get them home and then I have a large pot for them all to stand in and I give them a little water most days

thyme and basil I can keep for aaaaaaaaaaages, mint can be floppy and often gets whitefly , curly parsley and flat leaf also can keep that going for a while, coriander can be sulky and go limp for no reason

I try to buy the bigger pots if i can, I think they cope a bit better with the trauma of supermarket life! Also the window they sit in doesn't get too much sun, so again they don't get overheated.

Basil is really easy to root in water, so if it has got leggy I pinch of longish stalks, strip off the bottom leaves and just stand them all in a glass of water and it will send out roots....it'll live like that for quite a while or you can repot it in compost.

I split and plant though with parsley I find the curly leaf better from supermarkets but buy flat leaf from garden centers as the supermarket ones are too leggy.
I don't grow on window sills mainly because of white fly.