It's a sad but true fact of life that not all nurserymen are honest. A common and unscrupulous practice is for them to wait until potted plants are beyond the stage where they should have been potted-on, very pot-bound, so they spend a couple of weeks spraying those 'old' plants with quick-acting fertiliser (high in nitrogen) to green up the top bits and make them look lush and healthy.

In fact, with pot-bound plants, it's the roots which are beyond saving. They're all curled up and squashed, and they can't feed from the soil - a bit like trying to drink through a crushed or bent straw.

Once those roots have grown all curled up and squashed, it's impossible to get them to straighten out, so the plant is handicapped from a very young age. They'll never grow to optimum size or condition, IF they grow at all!

It's vital, when buying plants, to tip them out of their pots and inspect the roots. If it's all roots and no dirt, and especially if those roots go round and round, don't buy it.

The other problem of course, is that there will be many plants in one tiny pot - you might have to discard all the weaklings and keep one or two of the stronger ones, with the straightest roots.

Am I correct in guessing that these plants were bought at a bargain-basement price? Something else to watch for when buying plants! It's a lurk, not unlike the supermarkets who sell packaged goods at half price or less - sure as eggs, they're close to or past theire Use By Date. Caveat emptor!

I sort of thought they were grown from seed. Did you buy 200 basil plants? :O

they were grown from seed in a 288 cell tray. I bought the tray from a local grower that hapen to have some extra stock. the only reason i bought them was because it was a herb that we havent tryed. I didnt break the bank buying them it was only $20.00 for tray. then they were put into 4" pots for retail and whole sale.

also there not pot bond at all. in fact the root system is very small for being in 4" pots for abought 5 weeks now in a heated greenhouse.i need to post some pics because some do look good but most of them have real week steems.
i will try to post some pics tonight..

Could it be damping off? Possibly the medium holds too much moisture or needs more aeration. Just brainstorming. Hope you figure it out!

[IMG]http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae56/boston3381/DSCN1776.jpg[/IMG]

sry trying to post pics hope this is working??

{{gwi:892884}}

ok i think i got it...
so here it is first pic, the basil looks good but still real week in the stem, second pic..well as you can see not very good....

post more in a sec need to cook dinner

P.S. 3rd pic is basil we grow every year with little problem. also the purple basil is in a square pot because i had extra pots that were laying around.. trying to get rid of old stock...