Shorts #1: The basil

This is the first short-form post in the series of Shorts. Sometimes, I feel like sharing something exciting or something I consider helpful. The actual usefulness and helpfulness might be dubious at best, but nonetheless, during these moments, I usually start a short Twitter thread.

The issue is that Twitter posts can’t be read without an account, and for understandable reasons, I respect people’s choice not to engage with the network. The solution would be to cross-post on another network, for example, BlueSky or Mastodon, but that creates fragmentation. In the case of BlueSky, it is not better than Twitter due to some recent events. Thus, here is the Shorts series—posts heavily based on Twitter threads but compiled into short, neatly focused posts. So, let’s dive in.

the question

People around me regularly ask the same question: Why is my basil from the grocery store dying? You know, the fresh basil in a pot with soil. The story is always the same: You buy fresh basil, use a few leaves for a meal, and then take care of the plant. Regular watering, a sunny spot—everything the plant should need, right? You did everything right, yet the plant just died.

These plants are meant for direct consumption. They are grown in dense packs in nutrient-rich soil full of artificial fertilizers in the most bioavailable form, so they grow extremely fast and can be sold extremely fast. But that’s the root cause of all your problems here—pun intended. There are not enough nutrients in the overcrowded pot. The obvious solution is to plant the whole pack in a larger pot, but here comes yet another catch: it still dies in 50% of cases. But why? Because of the nutrients. These plants get dissolved nutrients straight from the water; the soil is usually low-quality. Repotting them into some quality soil can stress them enough to die. It doesn’t help that people typically assume the plant needs more water and accelerate the process by overwatering.

It’s fair to mention that exceptions can exist, and you can buy a fresh basil plant that will live a long and happy life, but that’s out of the scope here. Check your local farmer’s market for these. Here, we are fixing the worst possible case.

the solution

Over the years, I’ve been growing stuff and discovered that the most reliable way to save plants is to kill them. Scary, right? Not really. If you cut yourself, the body responds in various ways, flooding the area with white blood cells and fibroblasts to heal the area. Eventually, the wound is healed.

Plants do the same thing, just using different cells and bodily fluids. The plant has a special undifferentiated cell type, and hormones spread along the entire stem. When you introduce these hormones to ideal conditions, they get really excited and tell the undifferentiated cells to do something crazy: to differentiate—right into root-forming cells. These hormones are especially active around freshly cut wounds. The “ideal conditions” differ for each plant, but most have a few conditions in common: high humidity and moisture around the stem. And that’s precisely what we are going to exploit!

To successfully execute this exploit, you only need the plant, scissors (a scalpel would be even better), a container to hold water, and water. I have a bunch of empty containers from workout supplements, but a simple glass of water will do.

Take the basil pot and go through the individual plants. Select a few of them, looking for strong plants, as those have a better chance of rooting. Cut them as long as possible; you can gently scar the stem, but it's optional. Have some spare cuttings because not all of them will survive.

For the impatient readers who are at the limit of their attention span, put the cuttings in a glass of water and wait. That’s it. For the patient ones, keep reading.

I’ve created a simple lid for the container that can hold up to seven cuttings, but a simple hole will do. You can use anything to hold the cuttings in place. I had some leftover packaging foam, but I’ve successfully used everything from sponges and cotton balls to Rockwool. It doesn’t matter as long as it holds the cutting firmly but gently. Once the container is full of water, make sure the stems are well submerged.

Put the “device” somewhere dark and wait. One last pro tip: Do you remember the hormones I mentioned before? Well, you can buy them and jumpstart the process. You can purchase a root-stimulating gel that activates the differentiation in the submerged stem.

the result

After a few weeks, healthy plants will show new root growth. Be careful with the plants now; these roots are very brittle and can fall off easily. Make sure you keep the plants in the water long enough to develop healthy and strong roots that will survive transplantation.

These plants are now like any other plants, and you can plant them in a medium of your choice. I recommend a flood-and-drain hydroponic system, as basil—and herbs in general—love hydroponics. Once the growth is established, you can clone your plants infinitely to have a virtually infinite source of fresh basil all year round.