Sweet Basil Fail

[Jeff]

So I woke up to my AeroGarden Harvest Elite this morning to find my sweet basil that was doing so well, all fell over. The basil was still establishing itself, but perhaps it was time for a prune.  I did use rockwool to start the plants inside the AeroGarden plastic holders, but perhaps I should have used the AeroGarden grow sponges? Also, I did not plant anything in the center two pods to give the other plants more room to grow, but perhaps I should have?   Any suggestions or recommendations welcome.     Jeff

[Shawn]

Jun 1, 2020 8:51:45 GMT -5 Jeff said:

So I woke up to my AeroGarden Harvest Elite this morning to find my sweet basil that was doing so well, all fell over. The basil was still establishing itself, but perhaps it was time for a prune.  I did use rockwool to start the plants inside the AeroGarden plastic holders, but perhaps I should have used the AeroGarden grow sponges? Also, I did not plant anything in the center two pods to give the other plants more room to grow, but perhaps I should have?   Any suggestions or recommendations welcome.     Jeff

Welcome to the forum Jeff.


Your basil looks fine and perhaps there are a couple reasons it fell over.  The first being in the rockwool.  I have no personal experience with rockwool so I do not know how stabilizing it is for the base of the basil.  The next possibility can be it was not established far enough in the medium you used.  I can not see the base of the plants in the picture you posted so it is hard to say.

Leaving the two center holes vacant had nothing to do with the plants falling over.  

[Jeff]

Thanks so much Shawn.  I took the pictures below which hopefully helps to show.  I think it makes sense with respect to the rockwool.  I put a rockwool cube and Aerogarden sponge side by side as shown.  The sponge is about 1.5 longer than the rockwool, although the pic makes it look like it is twice as long. The rockwool is probably good for seedlings but support will start to have issues later.  I was experimenting with a DIY solution to avoid the cost of the sponges.  I might try other mediums for fun, or just bite the bullet and buy more AeroGarden sponges.  Of course I'll explore the forums here and look for ideas other folks are doing in terms of DIY sponges.  I am new to the forum and have not really explored yet.  Thanks for the welcome.   -Jeff

[Shawn]

Jeff, it appears that there was no real support for the stems in the rock wool.


I have found that Park Seed Bio Dome Sponges (60-cell) are a better deal.  You can get 120 for the price of 40 at AG.  Also there is a link Corinne posted for knock offs you can get at Amazon.