basil - wk 4

I'm thinking in another week or two, I'll be able to make a nice big batch of pesto! This particular plant is my favorite. We'll call him Guiseppe since he's Genovese. Guiseppe was sown at the same time as his siblings but he's leaps and bounds bigger than his siblings. He's actually made up of four plants, one of which will soon be - in Sicilian terms - sleeping with the fishies. There's not enough room in the pot for four plants. Three's pushing it. I'd love to have bigger pots so that the basil can really spread their roots, but I don't want to spend any more. G's lovely blue pot was found on the street with a "free" sign on it.

Two of G's siblings have found new homes. I brought one over to Berit's place on Saturday. We'll call that one Umberto. I'm sure Umberto will grow to be a big bushy basil! The second basil plant I'll call Cristo since I strapped him to a fence in the alley behind my building. Since he's at the top of a fence, Cristo gets oodles more sunlight than all the other plants. I consider it a small scientific experiment to see how much the sun will help basil growth.

Things I've learned about basil farming this week: though lots of nitrogen can make big beautiful leaves, it can compromise the basil flavor. So G and his siblings are going to get balanced fertilizer from now on. Root damage from transplanting can really stunt the growth of the plant but not really kill it.