Two years of killing basil before I figured out the drain hole trick

I have been growing basil on my balcony in Toronto for like two seasons now and it always turned yellow and limp after a few weeks. I thought I was overwatering or not giving enough sun so I kept moving pots around and cutting back on water. Last week my neighbor who has this crazy lush rooftop garden saw me struggling and asked if my pots had drainage holes. I looked at him like he was speaking another language. Turns out I was using these decorative ceramic pots with no holes at the bottom for the whole time. The roots were just sitting in water rotting away. I felt so dumb but also kinda mad nobody told me earlier. Now I drilled holes in all my pots and my new basil is actually green and bushy after three weeks. Has anyone else made a really basic mistake like this and only figured it out way later?

2 comments

2 Comments

patriciaellis1mo ago

lol oh man this is such a classic life thing where you assume you're doing something wrong when really you're missing one super basic step. I see this pattern everywhere not just with plants like how people spend months trying to fix a slow phone by clearing apps when really it's just a bad battery they need to replace. Or how someone will stress about their cooking skills for years before realizing they just need to season their pans properly. It's like we all have this instinct to blame ourselves first instead of checking if the equipment is even capable of working right. The whole time you're thinking you're a bad plant parent when really you were just using a pot that was working against you from the start.

hugow301mo ago

Drain holes are a game changer for sure but you might still run into issues if the pots are sitting on a saucer that stays wet. The water has to actually leave the pot not just drip out and sit there. I killed a second round of basil by putting saucers under my newly drilled pots because I thought it would be cleaner. The roots still sat in the runoff water and rotted. Now I keep all my pots on those little pot feet or just let them drain onto gravel trays.