Veranda pesto
May 13, 2018 4:30 AM Subscribe
Best practices (for lady with black thumb) growing basil, cherry tomatoes, and habaneros on veranda.
So I now have three cute little potted plants (bought as seedlings, with stems/leaves already) on my veranda as above, and I don't really know what they expect from me. This is my third year raising a habanero plant and in the past I've managed to end up with quite a few fruits, so not too worried about that one, but I don't know what to do with the basil and tomatoes.
The apartment faces west so they get lots of sunshine (probably too much in the summer), plus a good deal of wind, unfortunately. They have soil-for-growing-vegetables-and-herbs and a dose of plant fertilizer each. Can I just give each of them a generous splash of water every morning and see what happens?
Subsidiary questions:
a) the basil has lots of leaves, how do I actually pick them? Tear them off, cut them off at the stem with a scissors, other???
b) I'm pretty sure habanero heat is not iatrogenic, but just in case, are there any tricks for growing hotter habaneros?
Many thanks.
So I now have three cute little potted plants (bought as seedlings, with stems/leaves already) on my veranda as above, and I don't really know what they expect from me. This is my third year raising a habanero plant and in the past I've managed to end up with quite a few fruits, so not too worried about that one, but I don't know what to do with the basil and tomatoes.
The apartment faces west so they get lots of sunshine (probably too much in the summer), plus a good deal of wind, unfortunately. They have soil-for-growing-vegetables-and-herbs and a dose of plant fertilizer each. Can I just give each of them a generous splash of water every morning and see what happens?
Subsidiary questions:
a) the basil has lots of leaves, how do I actually pick them? Tear them off, cut them off at the stem with a scissors, other???
b) I'm pretty sure habanero heat is not iatrogenic, but just in case, are there any tricks for growing hotter habaneros?
Many thanks.
One thing to think about is whether the containers they are in are large enough to accommodate their roots when fully grown. This may be a particular problem with the tomatoes, especially if they aren’t a dwarf or bush cultivar. If it is a vining tomato, you may need to think about support for it down the road.
For basil, I have always just pinched off leaves at the stem to no ill effect. You do need to remove any flowers that grow, as they will take resources away from the delicious leaves you’re trying to cultivate.
Iatrogenic means something resulting from medical examination or treatment, but I think you’re asking if you can do anything to make your peppers hotter. The internet suggests that stressing the plant by watering much less frequently once the fruit starts to form causes hotter peppers. I don’t have experience with this.
Finally, fertilizer for plants in containers is typically good for about 3 months. If your plants are growing longer than that, you’ll need to re-fertilize.
posted by jeoc at 6:21 AM on May 13, 2018
For basil, I have always just pinched off leaves at the stem to no ill effect. You do need to remove any flowers that grow, as they will take resources away from the delicious leaves you’re trying to cultivate.
Iatrogenic means something resulting from medical examination or treatment, but I think you’re asking if you can do anything to make your peppers hotter. The internet suggests that stressing the plant by watering much less frequently once the fruit starts to form causes hotter peppers. I don’t have experience with this.
Finally, fertilizer for plants in containers is typically good for about 3 months. If your plants are growing longer than that, you’ll need to re-fertilize.
posted by jeoc at 6:21 AM on May 13, 2018
For basil, I just pinch the leaves off at the stem, pinching the leaves at the top if it starts getting too tall and I want a bushier plant.
Do you have squirrels and/or birds around? Because based on the experiences of other urban gardeners I know, cherry tomatoes will bring them out, and you may need to do netting.
posted by joyceanmachine at 7:03 AM on May 13, 2018
Do you have squirrels and/or birds around? Because based on the experiences of other urban gardeners I know, cherry tomatoes will bring them out, and you may need to do netting.
posted by joyceanmachine at 7:03 AM on May 13, 2018
I'll just comment on the tomatoes.
As jeoc says, tomato plants need pretty large containers. I only have experience with indeterminate varieties, which perform best in 10+ gallon pots and should be staked/caged as early as possible (so you don't cut the roots by driving a stake through them later). Water deeply, till water runs from the drainage holes, and often enough to keep the soil from drying out -- this is not necessarily every day if the pot is large enough, but it also depends on your climate. Try to water as close to the soil as you can so as not to wet the leaves. Enjoy your delicious home-grown tomatoes!
posted by aws17576 at 9:17 AM on May 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
As jeoc says, tomato plants need pretty large containers. I only have experience with indeterminate varieties, which perform best in 10+ gallon pots and should be staked/caged as early as possible (so you don't cut the roots by driving a stake through them later). Water deeply, till water runs from the drainage holes, and often enough to keep the soil from drying out -- this is not necessarily every day if the pot is large enough, but it also depends on your climate. Try to water as close to the soil as you can so as not to wet the leaves. Enjoy your delicious home-grown tomatoes!
posted by aws17576 at 9:17 AM on May 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
OK, I guess I will also comment on the basil. Do pinch off any flowers as jeoc suggests, but you can eat them! They taste similar to the leaves, only more concentrated.
posted by aws17576 at 9:21 AM on May 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by aws17576 at 9:21 AM on May 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
Basil needs SO MUCH WATER. Put it in the largest pot you can manage and be prepared for it to wilt miserably if you miss a day, and maybe die if you miss watering it for a few days. Water well EVERY DAY when it's sunny out.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 9:46 AM on May 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by pseudostrabismus at 9:46 AM on May 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
the basil has lots of leaves, how do I actually pick them? Tear them off, cut them off at the stem with a scissors, other???
You never want to take individual leaves off a basil plant. Always cut off part of a leaf-bearing stem, preferably just above a junction between the stem and a pair of leaves where new leaves have started to form.
Basil leaves grow in pairs, either side of the stem. Just between the base of each leaf stalk and the stem, there's a spot where new stems want to form. The growing tip of the main stem releases auxin, a hormone that propagates backwards down the stem and slows the growth of all the new stems further down; when you cut a stem, you stop the supply of auxin from the main tip, and all the new stems start growing at full speed until the furthest ones out are in their turn making enough auxin to re-regulate the ones behind them.
If you take off individual leaves, you're not telling the plant to modify its growth habit in a way that adapts to your harvesting; all you're doing is depriving it of the sugars those leaves exist to manufacture.
If one of your stems has already got longer than you'd like it to be (perhaps because you have been stripping leaves off it) then you can cut it off pretty much anywhere, and just wait; as long as there are enough leaves on the rest of the plant to keep it viable, you will eventually see a pair of new stems emerging from the next leaf node back from the cut end. Give those enough time to grow three or four leaf pairs of their own before you start tip-pruning them.
This pattern is pretty much the same for any plant with distinct stems and leaves. It doesn't work for plants like parsley, whose central stem is so short as to be pretty much completely hidden by the leaf stalks. To keep parsley productive, you want to snap the outermost leaf stalk off right at its widened base, even if it's kind of yellowed and you're not actually going to cook with it; keep doing that until you've collected enough greenery for today, and never touch the growing tip. Parsley will generally let you do that for about two years before it bolts to seed, so if you just plant new parsley plants every year you will always have plenty of mature ones on the go.
Parsley is also unusual in that you can just snap leaf stalks off it at their base with your fingers, and they come off cleanly. For most other herbs including basil, it's better to use scissors to minimize the size of the wound. Tearing is never good.
Chard, spinach, celery, rocket, and lettuces with an upright growth habit like cos can also be harvested continuously in the same way as parsley, but it's better to use scissors or a sharp knife to cut off the leaf stalks at their base; trying to snap them will often leave a string of fibre attached to the plant that makes a nasty wound if you then tear it off.
Iceberg lettuce is best left to mature and make a full head before being harvested all at once.
posted by flabdablet at 11:49 PM on May 13, 2018 [5 favorites]
You never want to take individual leaves off a basil plant. Always cut off part of a leaf-bearing stem, preferably just above a junction between the stem and a pair of leaves where new leaves have started to form.
Basil leaves grow in pairs, either side of the stem. Just between the base of each leaf stalk and the stem, there's a spot where new stems want to form. The growing tip of the main stem releases auxin, a hormone that propagates backwards down the stem and slows the growth of all the new stems further down; when you cut a stem, you stop the supply of auxin from the main tip, and all the new stems start growing at full speed until the furthest ones out are in their turn making enough auxin to re-regulate the ones behind them.
If you take off individual leaves, you're not telling the plant to modify its growth habit in a way that adapts to your harvesting; all you're doing is depriving it of the sugars those leaves exist to manufacture.
If one of your stems has already got longer than you'd like it to be (perhaps because you have been stripping leaves off it) then you can cut it off pretty much anywhere, and just wait; as long as there are enough leaves on the rest of the plant to keep it viable, you will eventually see a pair of new stems emerging from the next leaf node back from the cut end. Give those enough time to grow three or four leaf pairs of their own before you start tip-pruning them.
This pattern is pretty much the same for any plant with distinct stems and leaves. It doesn't work for plants like parsley, whose central stem is so short as to be pretty much completely hidden by the leaf stalks. To keep parsley productive, you want to snap the outermost leaf stalk off right at its widened base, even if it's kind of yellowed and you're not actually going to cook with it; keep doing that until you've collected enough greenery for today, and never touch the growing tip. Parsley will generally let you do that for about two years before it bolts to seed, so if you just plant new parsley plants every year you will always have plenty of mature ones on the go.
Parsley is also unusual in that you can just snap leaf stalks off it at their base with your fingers, and they come off cleanly. For most other herbs including basil, it's better to use scissors to minimize the size of the wound. Tearing is never good.
Chard, spinach, celery, rocket, and lettuces with an upright growth habit like cos can also be harvested continuously in the same way as parsley, but it's better to use scissors or a sharp knife to cut off the leaf stalks at their base; trying to snap them will often leave a string of fibre attached to the plant that makes a nasty wound if you then tear it off.
Iceberg lettuce is best left to mature and make a full head before being harvested all at once.
posted by flabdablet at 11:49 PM on May 13, 2018 [5 favorites]
are there any tricks for growing hotter habaneros?
Chili seeds sprout readily, so just keep a few seeds from each chili you cut up to cook with, and selectively propagate only those from the hottest.
posted by flabdablet at 11:52 PM on May 13, 2018
Chili seeds sprout readily, so just keep a few seeds from each chili you cut up to cook with, and selectively propagate only those from the hottest.
posted by flabdablet at 11:52 PM on May 13, 2018
Response by poster: Thank you all very much! Super helpful. I will go to the home center place and lay in a few larger pots, I think. (Sorry about "iatrogenic," I used it vaguely in the wrong context, thinking of Miles Vorkosigan.) The basil has already made its debut as additional flavoring in a pot of pretty good chicken soup, and the tomatoes are waiting in the wings.
posted by huimangm at 8:02 AM on May 15, 2018
posted by huimangm at 8:02 AM on May 15, 2018
The way you manage your cherry tomato plant will depend on what kind of cherry tomatoes you like. If you just let it grow wild, it will throw out lots of lateral stems and make lots of trusses of quite small cherry tomatoes; the inner parts of the plant will also end up quite well shaded and relatively poorly ventilated, and might become more susceptible to aphids or mildews than they need to be.
If you clip the lower laterals off right near the main stem before they get more than a few inches long, the remainder of the plant will make about the same total mass of fruit but each tomato will be bigger. Don't mistake a leaf for a lateral stem; just like on your basil plant, the lateral stems grow from the junction between the leaf stalk and the main stem.
You can go too far with this - take off too many laterals and you will see a reduction in total yield mass. I like to take off just enough to keep the bottom parts of the plant stem well lit and ventilated, and tie some of the stronger stems to stakes to help with that as well as to stop them flopping everywhere and ending up with tomatoes sitting on the soil.
Another way is to plant them in a large and elevated pot and let a heap of laterals droop down over the sides.
Everybody who grows tomatoes ends up with very strong opinions about the right amount of pruning to do; the most important thing to know about those is that your own opinions, based on your own experience with your own plants in your own setting, are as good as anybody else's.
posted by flabdablet at 11:12 AM on May 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
If you clip the lower laterals off right near the main stem before they get more than a few inches long, the remainder of the plant will make about the same total mass of fruit but each tomato will be bigger. Don't mistake a leaf for a lateral stem; just like on your basil plant, the lateral stems grow from the junction between the leaf stalk and the main stem.
You can go too far with this - take off too many laterals and you will see a reduction in total yield mass. I like to take off just enough to keep the bottom parts of the plant stem well lit and ventilated, and tie some of the stronger stems to stakes to help with that as well as to stop them flopping everywhere and ending up with tomatoes sitting on the soil.
Another way is to plant them in a large and elevated pot and let a heap of laterals droop down over the sides.
Everybody who grows tomatoes ends up with very strong opinions about the right amount of pruning to do; the most important thing to know about those is that your own opinions, based on your own experience with your own plants in your own setting, are as good as anybody else's.
posted by flabdablet at 11:12 AM on May 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Here's a video about basil-cutting.
posted by mumimor at 5:30 AM on May 13, 2018