basil parsley and cilantro help
 

this is my first year starting them from seed. i started them just after my tomatoes expecting them to grow at similar pace and be about the same size.

i was way off in that prediction. my tomatoes are 12 inches tall and all these little herbs i have are maybe 2 inches tall.

should i be feeding them anything at this point? i gave them a very light dose of bat guano 10-3-1 but that hasnt done much.

they are still in the starting trays in jiffy starting mix. i tried to pull a basil out to put in my garden and it definitely wasnt ready to be removed.

also my cilantro has gotten leggy and fallen over/blown over.

everything is being kept outdoors in 50-60 degree weather and indoors at night and windy and rainy conditions

Bring the herbs inside they don't like the cold at all, the basil will come up and then slow down
my cilantro has gotten leggy and fallen over/blown over
Yes is will fall which wind and rain it will grow for only 45 days if it is hot, you should grow more seed ever 3 weeks if you want cilantro all summer
I love Basil, i have 5 diffident pots 2 years ago i put pots in the garden beside Tomato plants. I dd not move them all summer. They grow great and grow out of the pots in the bottom

Hi Jeff,

Just a few thoughts from my admittedly limited experience. I first started growing herbs in ernest only about 8 years ago.

For me herbs seem slow to germinate and slow to grow... initially. IME starting them twelve to fourteen weeks pre transplant would not be excessive. Cilantro being leggy.... It does that falling over act for me even when I direct seed it. It should be fine. Parsley seems to like to do that to some extent too. Just avoid over watering. The Basil on the other hand will stay nice and stout if not down right squat. As far as feeding... Did you see any response from the guano (I assume tea)? If they have been out as long as my tomatoes (say 6 weeks plus?) and I am feeding them I will feed the herbs too. I use peters house plant fert at half strenght at each watering at this point.

I have found the sooner the herbs get out in the garden bed the sooner they will take off and grow. Even though they haven't a lot of roots I would go ahead and try to get them into the garden once frost concerns are past even if it means I have to use a tea spoon to scoop them out at transplant, potting mix and all. Then keep them well watered until I see them stand up a bit. Then they will start jumping with the first good streak of 70 degree weather.

They tend to start off much slower than tomatoes. I started some basil in a pot and it took a long time to started to get any size to it then grow much more rapidly. Remember basil gets somewhere between a foot and a half tall and two foot. Tomatoes get anywhere from dwarf to 10' tall.

thanks all. just wanted to make sure everything was on the right pace. aside from the cilantro falling over everything looks green and healthy

doug good point about the height

rebel heading down to the garden this wknd so will bring the herbs and just plant them. the garden is at my parents beach house so i dont make many trips this time of year. i will leave the water on a timer for every other day and this time of year that should be fine

I will second the comment about sowing your cilantro every few weeks to a month if you want it all summer...I always let my cilantro bolt because it brings beneficial insects into your garden. In fact, I have been harvesting from the cilantro that came up in january on its own and sow seeds once a month. The ones that came up in january are bolting right now.

Basil is the only one I would start inside. Parsley grows slow at first, and does best for me if I wintersow it. It sometimes overwinters (it's biennial). Cilantro grows rapidly and should be direct seeded. Everyone's right-you'll need to plant it successively if you want to use it all summer.

My experience:

Parsley is slow to germinate but grows well once it gets going. I start mine early - mid February, generally. Much better results when I keep it inside under lights (rather than outside) until the weather warms a bit. However, it does like relatively cool weather during the summer and appreciates some shade in the afternoon. It lasts all summer if I keep it cut back. I'll let one plant flower for the swallowtail caterpillars and for seed saving.

Cilantro is relatively quick to germinate, but I have a devil of a time preventing it from bolting. Once the warm weather sets in, it'll start to flower when it's only a few inches tall. I try to stagger my sowings, but I often fail to follow through once things get busy.

Basil likes it warm. It germinates very quickly - I've had it up in as little as two days - but will just sit there if the weather is cold. I've had the best luck sowing in early May so that it's consistently warm by the time it's transplanted to the garden.

Basil loves heat and sun. 50°F-60°F is cool weather for Basil and they'll just sulk. Once the weather warms up, they'll take off. I just seeded mine 3 days ago and some have popped already. I pot them up like tomatoes after they get true leaves and keep them under lights inside unless there are some warm days where they can get some real sunlight. They'll grow some, but the growth really won't explode until the days and nights are nice and warm. Cold weather and frost will kill them, so it's not a good idea to plant them out too early.

Parsley is the same way, but they are cold hardy, the curly types are more so than the Italian flat leaf types. The curly parsley is a biennial up north and readily self seeds, the flat leaf parsley rarely survives the winter up here.

Cilantro needs a good amount of light and like the temps on the cool side, they'll bolt in hot temps. I had some Cilantro seeded in late summer survive the winter this year which has never happened before, which shows how mild the winter was. Don't transplant Cilantro, they don't like their roots disturbed, it will make them bolt much earlier.

I always plant basil and parsley, last year I did cilantro in pots and noticed, it did not really thrive and kick in until it got warmer...it's too early and it doesn't seem to like being potted indoors too much. Basil I will start maybe next week, it needs real heat. The parsley surprised me. All of them overwintered, which i expected, but what I did not expect was to find baby parsley plants all over the place in the same bed! I just saw them today and they are the cutest little things, so tiny, and only 1st set of true leaves, but yep, they sure are baby parsley plants so I'm pretty stoked!

Has anyone tried or think this would help after true leaves develop-
Saltwater Farms [FONT=verdana][COLOR=#000000]- SeaCom-PGR is a liquid plant growth regulator formulated to provide a high concentration (400 ppm) of the natural plant growth hormone, cytokinin. Cytokinin, combined with the diverse micronutrients in seaweed, leads to enhanced crop growth, increased yields, and healthier, more productive plants.
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Cilantro will jump up and then you will see it fall over and reroot at that point.We grow it real tight together so it holds each other and it does not get stuck to ground.To slow the bolting down we give it a good across the board butch type hair cut.Just do not cut the new growth that you will see in the sides of stems.The basils we cut tops off to slow down bolting and pick individual leaves only for harvest.If you cut the tops off 4-5 nodes down they will split into twos.The tops we then put into glasses and water then they will root and you have a new plant all over again this also slows down the bolting.The parsleys we give the same haircut this slows down the boltingParsley cuts are put in water to keep green but they will not root.We have gotten basils parsleys to live up to 8 months.Some basils up to two foot.Stagger plantings and you can have these herbs all year long.Basils and cilantros will require shade so put them in a spot where they get early and late sun but shade during the hotter part of the day.Parsleys can take direct sun since they are more woody than the succulent cilantros and basils.

[QUOTE=John3;267645]Has anyone tried or think this would help after true leaves develop-
Saltwater Farms [FONT=verdana][COLOR=#000000]- SeaCom-PGR is a liquid plant growth regulator formulated to provide a high concentration (400 ppm) of the natural plant growth hormone, cytokinin. Cytokinin, combined with the diverse micronutrients in seaweed, leads to enhanced crop growth, increased yields, and healthier, more productive plants.
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SeaCom-PGR is great stuff, i started using it last year. It does make a great starter fertilizer for young seedlings. It's a very concentrated seaweed fert, so a little goes a long long way. Excellent as a foliar fertilizer for mature plants too.

You know, I've never read anywhere about spacing for basil. When you plant from seed, the seedlings of course are pretty close together, and I usually put them in the ground haphazardly. What is the best spacing when you have a bunch growing close together in a pot, whether you want to grow in a pot or not? When you buy from a store, they come pretty much bunched together too.

Thanks.

My basil, depending on variety, can get huge here in AZ. It likes heat, sun, water and organic fertilizer. Parsley and cilantro, I direct sow in the fall. Cilantro hates warm weather. Parsley does pretty well in part-shade with enough water until it gets pretty hot. It's biennial so I try to have several patches going of different ages. I use a lot of herbs.
I'll use a pile of leaf celery and flat leaf parsley in a spaghetti sauce or chicken soup, at least 2-4 cups (chopped). Today, I used half a cup of chopped chocolate mint in my brownies.
Herbs are a great way to boost nutrition and flavor. Most herbs are also beautiful additions to the garden and great attractors of butterflies and good bugs.
I tuck herbs in every little garden, all around my yard.