Basil experiment

[ina]

Just to announce the beginning of the experiment: Yesterday I sowed two pots of basil; identical pots, same growing medium, seeds from the same packet; one pot with seed on top, one with seed covered by about 1cm of soil. They are in my sunniest window (east facing), and if I forget to water one, then the other gets forgotten, too... So it's assured they get the same treatment.

I'll keep you posted as to the results, but on the herb and veggie forum. I'm quite curious myself now!

That was what I wrote on the welcome forum, here it is now where it really belongs:

First results: 5 days after sowing the seeds that were not covered with soil have germinated. The others might have germinated, too - but I don't want to go digging them up to check... The important bit comes when they both reach a certain hight, so I'll let you know as soon as anything else happens.

Ina

[Millymollymandy]

I'll add to your experiment in that 2 days ago I sowed some lime basil direct into the soil and just barely covered it (packet said 1/16" soil) - it's hard to judge that so undoubtedly it's got a lot more than that over it! So I'll report here if anything happens. Current weather conditions are v. favourable.

[IrishAbroad]

This year I rolled 50% of my tomato seeds in rooting hormone before planting to see what would happen. The plants are nearly double the size of the others. I'd love to dig one up to look at the roots but they're cover in flowers now.

[Millymollymandy]

Forgot to post yesterday that two teeny basil seedlings have emerged. That's only 4 days which is quite incredible, especially seeing as the weather has been cool and damp for a couple of days now.

[Guest]

Well, MMM, what you call damp and cool in France is probably still better than the "weather" on my windowsill...

Anyway: Yesterday morning the first of the "covered" lot emerged. That's ten days after sowing, and 5 days after the "uncovered" seeds. Those are now about 1cm high.

Ina

[Millymollymandy]

Well I've only got about 4 so far and they are only tiny, could only be measured in mm! So your window sill is winning!!!

[ina]

Yes, but yours were all covered with soil, weren't they? It would be interesting to find out whether the ones that have taken longer to germinate (in my pots, I mean), i.e. the ones covered, turn out stronger for it, sort of having gathered strength while having to push their way through the cover. But I'll only be able to assess that visually, don't really feel like going about it the full scientific way, i.e. measuring and weighing etc.

Anyway, so far we have proven that they don't need to have light to germinate (as my seed packet states!), but they are quite happy to germinate in light, which is unusual for seeds. I suppose they are better off covered by soil in hot climates, otherwise they might dry out too quickly under the sun.

Ina

[Millymollymandy]

How's the basil now Ina? Mine aren't doing a lot and not much bigger than when I last posted although I think some more are germinating but they are very tiny. It's a bit hard to tell as weeds are germinating there now too!

[ina]

It's strange - the ones that were covered have continued to germinate and are on average smaller than the first uncovered ones, but in that pot there are massive differences between the plants... The very first ones have grown quite well (although still only a couple of cm at the most), the later ones are tiny. I shall keep watching!

Ina

(I just pricked out quite a lot of the basil I first sowed, before the experiment. If they all grow to nice, big plants, I shall be swamped in basil this year! Lovely! And all my friends will have basil, too... Whether they like it or not! And next year I shall start on all that much earlier, seeing that I have to grow it indoors, anyway. Definitely need a propagator...)

[Millymollymandy]

Had a good close up look at my basil and the first ones to germinate have 4 leaves now, whilst there are still tiny weeny ones appearing. So it seems that they germinate at different times - it may be that they had more soil over them than the ones which germinated first.

What I ought to do is sow some more of the same basil without covering, straight onto the soil. The problem would be the watering - my soil surface dries out in about half an hour! My veg patch is a giant dust bath. So I can't do that experiment at the moment.

[ina]

I heard on the news that large parts of France are affected by a serious drought - are you one of the sufferers? We had about three and a half drops of rain yesterday, but apart from that it's been unusually dry here, too. (Much to the delight of my friends who are making hay!)

Fortunately we have our "own" water (i.e. spring), so there's no problem about watering the garden - after all, it's going back onto the land it came from. But without watering nothing much would be growing by now. I heard from relatives in northern Germany that they are having the same problem - whereas in the south they've had heavy rainfalls again. Crazy weather.

Ina

[IrishAbroad]

Our department has been hit so we're spending a lot of time bringing water from the local river. (Don't let the river police read this!!!)

Worst hit however is our hay. I don't think we'll have enough for the horses this winter and as most areas have been hit the same hay prices will shoot up

The problem here is that it rains hard for a day then 35 degrees the next day so all the water evaporates

[Millymollymandy]

It's really serious here as my soil is so free draining. Luckily my department has no water restrictions (yet). Yesterday I spent about 4 hours watering and mulching all my shrubs that have not put on any new growth this year whatsoever. HOWEVER we are paying a fortune for very expensive water on a meter so I'm now facing the fact that it will be costing me several hundred euros to water my veg patch - to get free??? veg. Yes we have water butts but it needs to rain to fill them and even if they are full they only last 2 -3 days. I use about 200 - 400 litres to water the veg patch though it should be a bit better now as things are maturing and getting deeper roots.

My lake has gone down by about 2 foot and just keeps dropping every day. I found a peach tree by the pond yesterday drooping and the peaches were wrinkled. Stuck in a plastic pop bottle and watered it deep that way and thankfully it has perked up this morning.

In the month of June the countryside went from lush and green full of wild foxgloves and ox-eye daisies to a scene that could have been late August. All the wheat ripened over night!

It's a lot worse down the south west.

Anyway the lime basil is enjoying it (as long as I keep the soil moist) and I even had to thin it out because typically the bigger ones are all in one clump. It smells very nice. I've never heard of lime basil before but this was a freebie seed packet.

But yeah I'm really tired of watering every night and I don't even get to eat dinner till about 9.30/10pm and then I fall asleep.

[ina]

The worst about the watering here (which I generally do at night) is that the midges come out and keep me company... And they absolutely love my blood!

I believe there are water restrictions in the south of England, too (anybody out there who can confirm that?). It's one thing I've never understood in this country - how can you get people to save on water when it's not compulsory to have it metered? I grew up with a mother who was very good on saving just about everything. The water from the washing machine went either for flushing the loo or watering the garden (we always had buckets of water standing around, and our old budgie actually drowned in one of them... ). As soon as it started raining, we'd rush out with all available buckets, pots and bowls to catch rain water - but we didn't have a waterbutt in the garden. The veg-washing water also went back into the garden. I think visitors often thought us a bit weird...

And the council enquired several times why our water bill was so low! Apart from all these saving methods we hardly ever had a bath, because we went swimming almost daily (great pool nearby), and had our shower there.

Ina

[wulf]

I'm not aware of any restrictions yet but it has been pretty dry. I've got one water butt but could probably do with a couple more. I'm also starting to try to be better at not wasting water in the house - for example, water that's been used to cook rice, pasta or vegetables, etc, is fine on the garden once it's cooled down.

Wulf