Gangly indoor herbs, please help

by Arthur
(New York City)

Sad Plant 1

Sad Plant 1

I am at a loss for what to do for my poor little herbs. I've now killed multiple generations of nearly every herb imaginable (incl basil, parsley, many kinds of mint, rosemary, sage, mustard greens, and so much more) due to over-watering, under-watering, not enough drainage, not enough light, not enough soil, and now some unknown reason that hopefully you can help with.

Nearly all of my herbs either dry out completely (despite having an appropriately damp soil) or turn into gangly tree stalks with very little leafage, basil in particular.

In the pictures you can also see a very sorry looking sage plant and a mint plant that only has leaves about 10 inches out of the soil... so clearly something is wrong. Can you point me in the right direction here?

Thank you!!!

Comments for Gangly indoor herbs, please help

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Nov 18, 2020
 I can Point...
by: Jacki Cammidge, Certified Horticulturist

I can point, but will you follow?

If you look on the seed packages for these herbs, they all need full sun when grown outside, and the light indoors, even in what seems to us to be a sunny windowsill, is just not bright enough, or long enough.

The only way to grow these kinds of plants indoors is with the aid of a grow light.

So, order your light, then give all the plants a haircut (use the pieces in your omelet) then put them under the light on a twelve hour cycle (12 hrs of light, 12 dark) and give it a bit of time. It could take a few weeks of this, but you should see improvement by then.

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