Herb Cuttings Smell Bad

Have you ever tried rooting herbs in a glass of water? I've tried it with a good number of herbs: sweet basil, cinnamon basil, Thai basil, Swiss mint, chocolate mint, Japanese mint, lemon mint, tarragon, rosemary, stevia, lavender, cat's whiskers and some others.

In some cases, it would work. When it does work, I would usually see roots within a week. I don't usually remove a lot of the leaves (you'd usually read something like retain only the top four leaves) so the cuttings generally wilt for a few days without perking up.

If it's been a couple of days and the leaves look fresh, those cuttings will probably root.

In some cases, the leaves start to look wilted or just dry. Chances are, that will not root.

Harvesting Cinnamon Basil Seeds

 Let me start of by saying that I don't know how to gather seeds from my basil plants.  I just basically did what was intuitive.  Two months ago, my basil plants started flowering.  I didn't really want them to go to seed since I've read that the plant dies afterward. However, a very nice person mailed me some herb seeds (Rosemary, Parsley, etc).  I figured it would be fitting if I sent her some of my seeds too since I knew that she didn't have cinnamon basil. 

Well it's been two months.  I figured the flowers would've matured already. Intuitively, I should wait for the pods to dry before harvesting.  However, I figured if it did it too late, the pods would release the seeds and I might end up harvesting nothing.  Some of the pods were drying up, but most still seemed fresh.  I have about 7-8 cinnamon basil and Thai basil plants that are flowering.  I cut them all.

I figure I should dry them for a week or so.  I put the harvested flowers / pods into a dry paper bag inside the house.  I hope I'm doing the right thing. 

---

Vermicomposting and Herb Gardening in Manila: Updates

It's been a busy week in the garden but not everything has been positive.  The Lavender that I've been tending to for months has been looking really good.  The plant size to soil ratio has increased.  From what I read, that's a good thing.  Why?  Well Lavender likes it dry.  In fact, repotting the plant can be counter productive because the bigger pot will have more soil and therefore a higher tendency to be wet.  In fact, I think that's why my Lavender got sick in the first place.  I put it in a big pot.  Now, I really just water it when the leaves are drooping.  Same thing with my Rosemary.

Sorry, I don't have out-of-focus pictures today.  My camera phone's acting up.  I'll have it fixed in a week or two.  Can you believe it though?  It costs P500 to get my keypad fixed in Circle C.  And that was just two months ago I think. 

My Peppermints are all dying!  It's amazing in an awful kind of way because I have about three different locations and they're all suffering.  There's some sort of rust I can't figure out.  Plus, the dang caterpillars love mint leaves.  I also have spiders all over and they're webbing all over my herbs.

Even my Cinnamon Basil has been struggling as of late.  In fact, in the backyard, they're almost devoid of leaves.  Man, insects must really enjoy mints and basil.  In contrast, my Cat's Whiskers have been flourishing in the damp soil in the backyard.  I think caterpillars don't find the leaves tasty.

As for my 5-gallon indoor container vermicompost experiment, things look positive.  The content level has really gone down by about half.  And since I introduced some mushrooms from my other bin about a week ago, mushrooms have sprouted all over the bin.  Great, huh? They'll help my few worms there decompose the bin contents.  In fact, I'm now thinking they can have the job done in 3 months.

I also gathered some vermicompost from my Worm Bin 1 over the weekend.  I got one and a half venti-cups worth of vermicompost which I spread all over my garden (especially to the sick ones).  Hopefully, things will improve with my sick plants.  I also observed from Worm Bin 1 that the worms are now eating faster.  I think the worms have both matured and multiplied since a few months ago.  In fact, I can feed them about a half cup of leaves and banana peels every three or four days.  Yes, that's a major improvement.  In fact, I think I can gather vermicompost over the weekend again (yeah, it's just an excuse to play with my worms).

As for Worm Bin 2a, I've received an inquiry from Naga.  I just realized I don't know how to ship African Nightcrawlers from Manila to other locations in the Philippines.  I asked Air 21.  They're not into shipping live cargo.  I wonder if LBC will do it.  Hmmmm...In any case, I'm really excited that someone wants to buy it, not so much because I'll earn something, but because it gives me an excuse to create another new bin!  In fact, whenever I'm in Landmark, I get captivated by the different plastic containers and I wonder which one will be my next worm bin project.

Well this is a bit long already. Hopefully, my upcoming updates will come with out-of-focus pictures again.

---

Herb Trading

Did you ever think there was a market for herb bartering?  Until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know.  As I've often talked about, my Cinnamon Basil plants are thriving in my garden.  From one original pot, I now have about 40-50 (including the ones I've given away).  Is that amazing or what?  Not wanting too much of a good thing, I posted an offer to swap herbs in a local gardening mailing list.  For my cinnamon, I'd want Rosemary, Lavender, Dill, Sage, and some others.  Amazingly enough, I received two responses within the week.  The first one mailed me Rosemary seeds (and Sage I think...I'll look at her pack again).  She didn't even ask for anything in return. But since my Cinnamon Basil plants are flowering, I figure I'll give her a couple of seed pods (if I ever find out how to harvest the seeds). 

The other one traded Dill and some type of Oregano for six cinnamon basil plants.  In fact, I even threw in about a dozen rooted cuttings (not planted yet).  I was running out of pots anyway.   If you look at the Dill above, you'll see that it's really big already.  I haven't figured out how to use it, but my initial readings tell me it's good with butter.  The amazing thing about Dill that I've observed is that t really follows the sun.  Like, it will bend towards the sun within a day.

As for the Oregano, well it smells like my Cuban Oregano, but the leaves are a little different.  They're outlined in white.  The other one on the very left, I'm not even sure what that is.  Maybe it's an Oregano too.   I'll do my research in the coming weeks.

In the meanwhile, if anyone else wants to trade, buzz me.  I still have lots of Cinnamon Basil and Cat's Whiskers.

---

Herbs Are Flowering

About a month ago, I successfully propagated my Stevia.  It was fairly simple.  I just cut a couple of long branches, placed the cuttings in water, put the cup in an area with some sun and waited for about a week and a half.  Voila!  They all rooted.    The first time I tried rooting Stevia cuttings, it didn't work.  I think it's because my mother plant wasn't healthy enough when I did it.  Anyway, after the cuttings rooted, I planted them in a grande plastic cup using grade A organic soil (excellent drainage!)  Guess what?  Within a month, the new plants have grown so much and have started to flower.  They're even healthier than the mother plants.  What's the difference?  The healthier ones are in the front yard where sunlight is abundant.   That said, I'm officially shooting down the advice I found that should be in partial shade.   Anyway, I've pinched off the Stevia flowers because I read that flowering takes away from the plant's sweetness.

As for my other herbs, a couple of my Thai Basil plants and Cinnamon Basil plants have also started flowering.  I was tempted not to pinch them off because I just wanted to experience letting an herb go to seed.  A day later, I pinched them off anyway.  I just won't let them die.  I've read that once an herb goes to seed, it generally dies.   Oh man, I have a lot of Cinnamon Basil plants now.  On another note, I'm looking to trade a couple of my Cinnamon Basil plants for other herbs.  I'm looking for Parsley, Rosemary, Lavender, Dill and Sage.   Oh, I'm also looking for a Purple Basil.   Let's meet up in Quezon City!

---

Three Basil Plants in a Row - Update

A couple of months ago, I posted about my three basil plants in a row (sweet basil, cinnamon basil and Thai basil).  Well, these plants have already matured and I've taken several cuttings from them.  One of my favorites is what I call the triple basil pot.  In this picture, I've combined the three cuttings in one pot.  And look how lush it has become after a few months.  So how do you tell which is which?  Start at the bottom of the picture.  The ones with the relatively crumpled leaves is Sweet Basil.  Don't ask me why but they tend to be more crumpled in appearance.  On the left side is the Thai basil; on the right is the Cinnamon Basil.   Here's the coolest thing though.  So it looks like they've outgrown the pot, right?  Indeed they have.  When I moved this pot a couple of days ago, I found that roots have already penetrated the bottom holes.  The plants have actually rooted to the ground!  Cool huh?  I guess that means the plants will survive even if I get sick for another week and fail to water them since they'll be getting moisture from the ground too.

---

Three Basils in a Row

I've loved sweet basil ever since I discovered that it's the main component of pesto.  But here's a revelation.  I'm pretty old and I just found that out since I started gardening again.  How crazy is that?  Anyway, you'll always read that basil loves full sun.  Since I've had all sorts of basil fatalities in the past, I just decided to put them all in the front yard where the sun is strongest.  Guess what?  I now have three different basil plants lined up (left to right, sweet basil, Thai basil, cinnamon basil) and they're all doing fine.  Combine the sun with the raised platform that keeps the pots from being flooded and it's all good.

---

BASIL UPDATE

The rainy season is upon us so sunlight has become a little more valuable.  For my cinnamon basil, it looks like business as usual.  It's still big and bushy although I prune it at least once a week.  Even the ones grown in bottles of water (i.e. hydroponic basil)  have grown enough to be pruned.  I think it's because the front yard has fairly consistent sunlight and the pot is small enough for the water to get drained regularly.  Why is that relevant?  Well, it's been raining buckets so soil has been soggy all over the yard.  Unfortunately, it's not the same story as my sweet basil.

Since I pruned my upside down tomato (well decapitated is the word), it died a few weeks later. So I figured I'd try an upside down basil (picture 1).  Well it's been a couple of days since I planted it.  It looks like it doesn't turn towards the sun as fast as tomatoes do (a day!).  But, it certainly looks like it's bending towards the sun.  The other pots show my other sweet basil plants. I put them beside the wall to avoid the rain.  I need them to dry off a bit since I don't want root rot.  The pots are so heavy since the soil's really wet.  Never mind that they're a little stunted due to lack of sunlight.   I'll just have to move them around everyday to maximize the sunlight exposure.

---

Tomatoes and Mulching; Companion Planting; RIP: Upside Down Tomato

I've gone around the various gardening blogs.  There are two things you would typically find that I have not yet talked about: composting and mulching.  Today, I'll talk about mulching.  Basically, that's adding stuff on your top soil either for aesthetics (like when you landscape and add colored pebbles) or for additional nutrients (like when you mulch with wood bark or fallen leaves).    Since I don't have an aesthetic bone in my body, it'll be for pure soil nutrition.  My example today will be my potted tomatoes.

If you look closely, you will not see the soil in either pot.  Instead you would find half decomposed leaves (dark brown to black) and grass cuttings that are still green.  You would also observe that the "soil" level in the pots are very low.  Why so?  Well, I read that it's good to bury the stem of tomato plants because the stem will then grow roots.  That means you'd want to plant your tomato as low as possible in the pot.  Then you can just gradually add soil as your plant grows.  In my case, I figured I'd top of the pot with mulch.  They'll turn into soil at some point anyway and it makes my soil rich too.   Besides, we have more than enough grass growing in our yard to provide an unlimited supply of mulch.   Will it work?  Only time will tell.

How to Prune Your Basil

Yesterday, I wrote about how pruning encouraged my Swiss Mint to branch out. That showed the impact of one cut.  Is there a particular science to pruning?   Is pruning good for Cinnamon Basil as well?   I try to be scientific, but not too scientific.  That means I adhere to some general principles but I don't follow the book each time.

I try to prune at the lowest possible stem, probably just a few nodes above the soil.  Why?  So that the plant branches out at that level.  Then you'll have secondary stems growing (or branching out).  When they're 4-5 nodes tall, I cut above the lowest possible node then.   So on and so forth.  But honestly, I don't follow that to the letter.  I look around for stems that look "ready" for cutting and I prune away.  If I remember right, I must have pruned my month-old (since purchase) Cinnamon Basil around nine times!  Yes, I have a certain addiction to pruning.