growing basil

[carlag]

I am growing my basil in a large garden pot, together with other herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, mint and lemon mint), and all of them look healthy, growing fast and reproducing themselves - except for my beloved basil (I am Italian…), which is constantly eaten by insects or snails to the point that some plants are totaly stripped and only the big stems survive… Do you have any suggestion to protect and save my basil?
Thank you in advance.

[Kayleigh]

Go out armed with a torch when it is dark and pick them off. The neighbours may think you are barking mad but that's the safest way to deal with them. I never use pellets as they poison everything else around the garden.

[Tursiops2]

I had exactly the same problem earlier this year. I sowed a pot full of Basil at the beginning of May. About twenty seedlings came up, and then disappeared overnight. I figured it was slugs, so I took a tip from an earlier thread and spread a band of Vaseline around the top of the pot. Since then I've had no problems and the two surviving plants are fine. If you try it, make sure the pot isn't touching anything to form a bridge
T2

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by carlag

I am growing my basil in a large garden pot, together with other herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, mint and lemon mint), and all of them look healthy, growing fast and reproducing themselves - except for my beloved basil (I am Italian…), which is constantly eaten by insects or snails to the point that some plants are totaly stripped and only the big stems survive… Do you have any suggestion to protect and save my basil?
Thank you in advance.

Yes slugs love it so you need to protect against them. Also, basil needs rather different conditions from the other herbs you mention: they like hot, fairly dry conditions on quite poor soil whereas basil likes moist, rich soil not
exposed to full sun! You don't say where you are but, except for the warmest months of the year, I keep basil indoors up here!

[Mwyalch]

It's infuriating isn't it?!
We spent a month or so carefully growing ten basil plants on a windowsill, planted them out and within two days they had been eaten.
Thanks for the tip Tursiops2, I shall also be trying that

[carlag]

Thanks everybody, we are going outside tonight with a torch and dressed to kill!

[carlag]

We caught 3 slugs red handed! Is it fair to throw them into the neighbour's garden whom we hate? Please help me with my moral dilemma.... But I can't wait to go slug hunting again, it's addictive!

[Mwyalch]

Originally Posted by carlag

We caught 3 slugs red handed! Is it fair to throw them into the neighbour's garden whom we hate? Please help me with my moral dilemma.... But I can't wait to go slug hunting again, it's addictive!

I throw slugs into my neighbour's garden, but he goes out killing wildlife so I think its only fair

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by carlag

We caught 3 slugs red handed! Is it fair to throw them into the neighbour's garden whom we hate? Please help me with my moral dilemma.... But I can't wait to go slug hunting again, it's addictive!

It may (or may not) be fair, but it's not very practical, the likelyhood is that they will be back in your garden sooner or later or are going to add to the breeding population in any neighbouring space. Best option for hand collected molluscs is to release them in some wildplace, alternatively put them in an old yoghurt pot with holes in the lid and place in your non recyclable rubbish -they may then even get to survive in slug paradise !

Some people prefer to kill them with salt, though disposal is still a problem as adding salt to the soil or compost is generally not a good practice.

[oseor]

I grow my Basil on the window sill indoors, it's the only way i can keep it slug-free! Annoying as slugs are I can't kill them as we have a friendly family of hedgehogs who eat them