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Herb Growing Kit

10 years ago

Hello!
I recently purchased a herb growing kit from Canadian Tire (I am a beginner). It came with 3 different types of seeds - coriander, sweet basil, and chives. The instructions fail to mention whether I can plant all 3 herbs at once in the same pot, or one at a time. The planter is 10.5” Long, 5.3” deep and 6.5” high. Thank you for any response!

Comments (3)

  • 10 years ago

    The planter is less than a piece of A4 paper. It will hold at most 2 or 3 basil plants (one plant is better). I would plant chives and coriander in that pot. Chives are perennial, it will take them some time to get to harvesting size. At that time you can harvest cilantro, it is annual and grows faster than chives, at least in my experience. Good luck!

  • 10 years ago

    The container will suffice for any of those herbs.....but only for a very short time. If you want to consider the plantings as temporary, then plant them together and have fun.

    In the longer term, I'd not consider the container suitable for even one of those plants.

    I'd be tempted to grow the chives in a separate pot so that you can plant it outside in the garden in the spring....or maybe even now. It's a very cold hardy plant.

    I would grow the other herbs in the container until they outgrew it, replacing with others on a rotation basis.

    Herbs grown inside need lots of excellent light, probably supplemented by special lighting. Remember, most are full sun plants in a garden setting. Hopefully, this kit includes decent a potting medium and a container that has a sufficient number of drainage holes.

  • 10 years ago

    For many years I have given programs to groups interested in learning how to grow and use herbs. One of the first things I tell them is to avoid commercial herb kits - a terrible joke foisted upon an unsuspecting newcomer to gardening as they are almost invariably doomed to failure.

    First let me note that this is NOT the best time of year for starting your herb seeds, with the exception of the cilantro - but as rhizo_1 noted, none of the herbs you list should be planted together in that box. Scatter your cilantro outdoors if possible, but if not, just put that into the planter you have and fine other containers for the other herbs.

    Your kit contains coriander, sweet basil, and chives. The first is a fast-maturing annual that easily may grow to 3' or more in good soil. In my garden, it gets planted every few weeks throughout the summer from early spring through late fall in order to ensure a steady supply of young plants with usable leaves - though I always let a few go for the seed, which is coriander (making cilantro a plant that is both an herb and a spice). Once the seeds mature and turn brown & hard, they will self-sow or you may harvest them for culinary use. Seed sown in late fall in my central Ohio garden will sprout and the young plants will go dormant but survive the winter for an early crop the following spring.

    It frustrates me that nurseries sell small 3-4" pots for $3- 4 sown with a dozen or more cilantro plants - none of which will amount to anything useful left in the pot and which may or may not successfully transplant into the garden, but gullible inexperienced growers do not know this. Usually upon transplanting, if they survive at all, the plants will bolt to seed within a very short time and without yielding enough cilantro to garnish an enchilada. I have seen these pots of small plants offered for sale in produce sections in the grocery store only a few feet from generous bunches of freshly-cut cilantro selling for 50-89 cents - far and away the better bargain! I broadcast seed thinly in the garden; leave at least 6-8" between seeds and then use every other one as they grow to give the remaining plants more room.

    Basil (Genovese being the choice of most chefs for pesto) is an annual that, properly pruned, will yield a lot of fresh flavor the whole summer. Just one plant deserves a gallon pot of its own; a plant in open ground easily can reach 30" or more. For best yield, as soon as there are several sets of leaves start pinching out the topmost leaves just above the next pair - even if you have no use for the leaves at the moment. Continue as all the side shoots develop, a pleasant task that needs to be done every 4-5 days in full summer, perhaps even more often if watered regularly. Note that your kit most likely came with a packet of basil seed; only sow a few and save the rest for next spring. All the seeds you have will remain viable for at least 3-5 years if properly stored (in paper packets, in a cool, dark, dry place).

    A better candidate for container-grown basil is a cultivar such as Spicy Globe or Greek Columnar basil. I have had excellent results with each, and the columnar basil can winter over indoors. Other basils have a finite life span and will not survive long indoors.

    One should plant a number of chive seeds, whether in open ground or in a container. Chives are perennial and winter-hardy so may go into open ground where they will return each spring or into a generously-sized pot (a quart, at least). I never have brought any indoors, but they may well survive on a windowsill, though I suspect they would become yellowed and thin. They undoubtedly need a period of dormancy in order to produce edible pink balls of flower clusters in spring (followed by enough seeds to start your own chive business!) Clumps of chives will grow to about 15-24" depending on soil and variety.

    For growing in containers, I like to use Pro-Mix organic soil mix to which I have added 1/3 measure of good leaf compost since I do not use chemical fertilizers.

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