I went to Home Depot and purchased some of their little pots of herbs for my kitchen windowsill, to start an herb garden. These are small yellow plastic pots, and they only cost about $1.50 each. I got sweet basil, cilantro, Greek oregano, and hot peppers. The kitchen windowsill gets plenty of sunlight during the day, and I water them all daily, usually when I get home from work.
But the damn things are hard to keep alive. I’ve had the basil the longest, and while it has branched out and grown tall, the beautiful green leaves keep turning yellow. Some of the smaller, lower leaves turn white and just fall off. I know enough to pinch off dead leaves and stalks, but I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
I have even worse luck with the cilantro. No matter what I do, it keeps turning brown, shriveling, and dying. I pull out the dead stalks and keep watering, but to no avail. I didn’t think I’d have to deal with fertilizer by keeping small indoor herb pots, but I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, or what I could do different. Could they be getting TOO MUCH sunlight and baking in the heat?
You may be watering too much! My wife and I have a thriving herb garden in our kitchen. The secret to our success??? We do not use the little pre-packed herb gardens purchased from Home Depot and the like they tend to not let the root base go deep enough into soil. . But we buy the seeds, get larger decorative pots and plant the seeds 1/2 inch to 1 full inch lower than they suggest. Somehow makes for sturdier stalks. Plus we only water them once every two weeks.
If you’ve got room for a little oscillating fan, this definitely give you some fat stalks. And only water when they need water. You should be able to tell how moist the soil is with your finger. If it’s damp, give it another day. My personal preference would be to leave the starter leaves on, even if they’re yellow and dying. The theory with this is that even though they’re dying, the nutrients in them are still feeding the rest of the plant.
Yep, I think you’re watering too much. I’ve found with my other plants, a Mother In Law’s tongue and an aloe plant, they get all pissy when I give them attention. I’ve neglected them for a few months just to let the extra moisture dry out, and they’re even better than when I got them. I’m almost afraid to start watering them now.
But then, neither of my thumbs are green… So don’t take my word as gospel. Good luck with the herbs. I wish I could have one in my kitchen, but it doesn’t get enough sunlight.
Most of the culinary herbs people grow in their homes are Mediterranean in origin. Mediterranean plants tend to like sharp, sandy, well-draining soils that are allowed to tend toward dryness. Also a lot of sun, which you’re providing. Just lay off the watering for a while (maybe start watering once a week or when the soil actually feels dry (soil is notorious for being visually deceptive as to moisture)). Also, if the soil seems to retain water for a long time or takes forever to dry out, you might want to repot in a cactus mix (mostly because it’s the most appropriate commercial mix that’s readily available).
I’ve always been told that yellow leaves usually mean over-watering. Basil likes to be pinched back a bit and that can encourage new growth lower on the plant.
It might also be pretty darned warm in your windowsill, you’re right. I managed to bake a cactus on one window sill, what with the heat outdoors and reflected light and such off the blinds.
In small pots, especially if a lot of watering is going on, they could need a touch of fertilizer. Many herbs don’t need much fertilizer, so tread lightly.
Rosemary loves sun and tolerates heat pretty well, so that may be an option if the softer plants can’t hack it in the windowsill. Just don’t ever let it dry out completely. Rosemary hates to be bone dry for too long. Sage is fairly tough, and some thymes as well.
Sometimes, the only way you get a green thumb is by being willing to endure a black-thumb learning phase.
Well, I haven’t watered them since Friday, and one of the pale yellow peppers is slowly turning orange, and a few nice-looking green leaves are growing from where the cilantro was withered, brown, and dry. I guess I was overwatering them, so I’ll give them a few more dry days to recover.
