Sweet basil in a 30cm terracotta pot on a sunny balcony. I water thoroughly first thing until it runs out the bottom, and by 3pm every day the whole plant is flat and dramatic, then recovers by evening. Compost is a peat-free multipurpose. It is not rootbound, I checked. Temperatures around 30C and the balcony faces south. Is this just a hot pot problem or am I doing something wrong?
It is a hot pot problem and terracotta is making it worse, since it is porous and evaporates through the walls as well as the surface. Three practical changes: move it so the pot itself is shaded in the afternoon even if the leaves are in sun, mulch the surface with 2cm of compost or bark, and stand the pot on a saucer with a little water in it during heatwaves only. Also, peat-free multipurpose dries much faster than the old stuff and rewets badly once it has fully dried, so if the surface is pulling away from the pot edge your morning water is running down the gap and straight out.
Almost certainly. Water in two passes ten minutes apart, or dunk the whole pot in a bucket for five minutes once a week to properly rewet the mix.
There is definitely a gap at the edge by afternoon. So some of my thorough watering has been going straight through.
How many plants are in there? Supermarket basil is often 20 seedlings in one pot, and no amount of water keeps that alive in July. If you bought it as a pot rather than growing it, split it into three.
Pinch out the growing tips and any flower spikes. A plant in flower uses more water and gets woody, and pinching gives you a bushier plant that shades its own soil.
@metronome_mel · 2mo ago · 2 replies
Basil in full afternoon sun at 30C will wilt regardless of watering, because it loses water faster than roots in a warm pot can supply it. If it recovers by evening and keeps growing, that is transpiration, not drought. Mine gets morning sun only and never wilts.
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@rabbitroomie · 2mo ago
This distinction matters because responding to afternoon wilt by watering again in the heat is how people drown container herbs.
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