Full transcript of “Why EVERY Basil Plant You Buy Dies In 1 Week”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 You've just picked up a little pot of fresh basil from the store and it's full of promise. It smells amazing. It looks like it might actually turn you into someone who cooks. The problem is it's probably dead by Thursday. We've seen it all before, haven't we? Doesn't matter how careful you are. You water it, you sing to it, and still every time it dies. Why? Why are you doing this to me? Excuse me. Well, my plan friend, it's not your fault. Supermarket basil is basically set up to fail. And in this video, I'm going to show you exactly why it keeps dying, what you can do about it, and how to actually grow basil that thrives. Let's start with the dirty secret. Well, it's not really a dirty secret, more just a fact of life. The basil you buy from the supermarket isn't one plant. I
0:45 know it looks like one plant, but it's actually loads. Have a butchers the next time you get one. They're all in there, crammed together like a tin of sardines, all suffocating and fighting for space, light, and nutrients. That one little pot usually contains as many as 20 or 30 basil seedlings. It looks lush and beautiful, but it should only be considered a short-term showpiece and not a long-term plant. This is why it never lasts more than a week. The poor little thing is overpop populated and exhausted. Now, you might be wondering, well, why would they sell it like that? Basically, it looks better. This isn't all some big conspiracy or anything, but a full leafy pot is far more tempting to buy than a skinny seedling in a big nursery pot. Supermarkets aren't thinking about your long-term basil
1:31 journey. They're thinking about that nice dinner, and in that context, it works like a charm. You snip a few leaves for a salad or a pizza topping, and when it starts looking a bit sad, you lob it in the bin. Job done. You were never meant to keep it alive. You're meant to cook with it, bin it, and maybe buy another one next week. It's a revolving door of convenience herbs. But since you're here, I'm guessing you don't want a revolving door. You want a plant, right? Something you could keep alive, harvest from on a regular basis, and keep growing on the window sill like a smug little urban gardener. And you most definitely can. You just need to know what you're dealing with, and how to undo the damage before it's too late. So, the first job is to rip the whole thing apart and start again. And this is
2:18 what you get when you pop it out of the pot. And straight away, you can see what I'm talking about. One solid block of roots. No space to swing a cat. Just a matted mass of seedlings tangled together like a clump of spaghetti. This isn't one plant. It's about 30 and none of them are thriving. So, let's fix that. Start by gently teasing the seedlings apart. Don't panic if you tear a few roots or a bunch of them break apart. plants are far more resilient than we give them credit for. I find it easiest and least messy to just go in with my ape-like hands like this and break it all apart. The alternative is to dunk the whole thing in a bowl of water and let it soak for a couple of minutes. And that should make loosening everything up a bit easier, but it's also hella messy. You want to end up with individual seedlings, just one per
3:04 part, not three together because they look cozy. One plant, one pot. Now, you might be thinking, well, that won't grow a very big basil plant, will it? But to that, may I present exhibit A big and bushy, isn't he? Cast your eye to the bottom. And look what we have. A single stem. This is one of the stragglers I rescued from a sad supermarket pot, just like the one we've just dismantled. So, it works, my plant friend. Pot each seedling up into something small, but decent. Not massive like a bucket, but big enough for the roots to stretch out into. Actually, a pot the size the basil already came in should do the trick. Do make sure any pot you use has drainage holes or all of this will be for now. Next, soil. If
3:49 you're planning on growing outside or in a greenhouse, then a decent compost will be fine. For indoors, use something that will keep the nats at arms length, like coconut core and perlite. And I'm using Cypotanica's universal mix. Once the seedlings are nicely potted up, give them a further drink so the soil is evenly moist and water's coming out of the bottom. Then pop it somewhere bright and warm. A sunny windowill is gray or outdoors if it's warm enough. Once the little fella is all settled in, that's when the fun really starts. We can start to train our basil to bush out and keep going for months and months. And I'll show you how to get yours to do exactly that. So your basil's in its new pot and it's got everything that was missing before. The main one being some room to breathe. We now need to talk about how you use it
4:36 because this bit matters. Most people wait until the plant looks full and then start picking off the biggest leaves one by one. A few from the bottom here, a few from the top there, just whatever looks tasty at a time, right? And that's exactly how you end up with a leggy, weird looking stem with no chance of any regrowth. If you want your basil to stay bushy and productive, then you can't just pick the leaves. You've actually got to prune it. Now, this might sound like a bit of a faf, but I promise it makes a huge difference. Basil doesn't grow from the bottom up like some plants. It grows from the tips. Every time you cut the growing tip, two new stems will grow from just below where you made the cut. That's how you turn one tall, spindly stem into a big, beautiful, bushy basil plant. Wait until
5:21 your basil seedlings is at least two sets of leaves on the stem. You're looking for a strong, healthy stem with obvious leaf pairs coming out opposite each other. Then cut the stem just above a pair of leaves. Cutting above a leaf node encourages two new shoots to grow from that point. Basically, those little leaves that are in the nooks of the stem will turn into the new stems. That's your basil branching out. The trick is to keep doing this every time the plant grows another two set of leaves, and you'll end up with a dense, compact basil plant that produces far more than one you just pick up randomly. This big boy all started from one stem and I've been pruning it like this since it was about 10 cm tall. Now, when you prune basil like this, you got two options of what to do with the bits that you snip off, eat, or make more basil plants.
6:10 To stretch your basil even further, you can take those cutings and easily propagate them. It's dead simple. It will mean you have an endless supply of basil. It's honestly one of the easiest plants to propagate. All you need to do is take the bit you pruned off, ideally a stem with a couple of sets of leaves, and pop it in a glass of water. That's it. No rooting hormone, no fancy gear, just good old tap water. Just make sure you strip off any leaves that would sit below the water line, otherwise they'll just rot. Then place the glass somewhere bright but outer direct sunlight. Cutting die quickly in the sun. North facing window is perfect. After about a week, you'll start to see little white roots forming along the stem, and you're away at the races. Once they're a few centimeters long, pop the cutting up just like you did before. Now you got a whole bunch of new basil plants. And you
6:55 can do that over and over again. Now that you're a basil growing machine, there's a few basics in care to get right so you don't undo all your hard work. Basil is a sun lover. Think Mediterranean courtyard and not gloomy corner of your kitchen. One of the main reasons basil plants die indoors is a lack of proper light. We stick it on a window sill and hope for the best. But unless that window gets direct sun for most of the day, it's just not enough. Basil wants at least 6 hours of proper sunlight a day. Without it, the plant starts stretching and we end up with tall, leggy stems with tiny leaves. It's basically reaching for something that isn't there. If you got a sunny southacing window, then you're off to a good start. East or west can work too, but north facing will be a struggle. To help with that, as well as to help in
7:42 the darker months of winter, I recommend getting yourself a Sansancy growite. It doesn't have to be expensive. A small clipon one will do the job, and you can run it for 12 hours a day. Use my code in the description for a juicy 25% discount. Not only does Basil love delight, but it's also a heat lover. It really doesn't do cold, and it definitely doesn't do the classic British summer where it's 24° one day and then 9 the next. Ideally, you want to keep it above 12° C at all times. Dry much lower than that, especially at night, and it'll start to sulk. Go under 10 and it'll just stop drying altogether. I've been keeping mine in the greenhouse this summer, and honestly, the difference is massive. The leaves are bigger and glossier, and they even taste a lot better. If you're growing basil indoors,
8:28 then try and keep it away from cold spots, especially window sills at night, which can dip way lower than you'd expect. And definitely avoid putting it right next to a radiator that blasts on and off all day. Basil is a thirsty boy, too, especially when it's getting plenty of light and warmth. The more it grows, the more water it wants, and if it dries out too much, it throws a full-on tantrum. I'm watering the ones in my greenhouse every other day. Sometimes more if it's been really hot, which is quite rare, admittedly. Indoors, it's a bit more forgiving. You'll probably get away with watering every few days, but kind of depends on how much light it's getting and how big the pot is. The key thing is to check the soil, not just water on a schedule. And for that, I use my trusty moisture meter. And if it's starting to
9:14 go dry, I give it a good drink. Nautical, I give it a proper soak so the roots can take up what they need. Just don't let it sit in soggy soil. Basil doesn't like being water logged. Now, fast growers like this tend to use up nutrients in the soil quite quickly, especially if you're watering often and snipping regularly. Sazzle needs feeding, especially if you want big flavorpacked leaves that keep coming back. I use a generalpurpose liquid fertilizer. And the world is your oyster when it comes to fertilizers. Something balanced like house plant focus is fine. If you've only got some tomato feed in the greenhouse, then that'll work too. If your basil starts looking a bit pale or growth slows down, chances are it's hungry. Yellowing leaves in particular are usually a sign that it's time to
9:59 feed. But don't go overboard. Too much fertilizer can make the leaves bitter or cause soft, weak growth that hungry aphids just love. Just give it a regular boost and it'll keep producing for months. Now, you're probably wondering if this is the same with all other herbs you can buy at the store. And the answer is pretty much yes. If you buy coriander or cilantro regularly, then click on this video next and I'll show you how to keep supermarket coriander alive without it collapsing into a soggy heat by day three. [Music]
