Hello there.

I am growing a variety of herbs and some tomato and courgette plants in containers in the back garden as I have done for the past couple of years.

However, every time I try to grow oregano, I get nice, tall, lush healthy looking plants, but they are completely tasteless and odourless!! What a disappointment. The are grown in all-purpose compost with a weekly feed of diluted wormery liquid compost. My Basil, Chives, Parsely, Lovage, Thyme and Thai Basil are all freagrant and tasty and grown in the same stuff.

Any ideas why this is? Duff seeds?

"Nick Maclaren" wrote after
bluemoon wrote via Gardenbanter instead of direct
|
| However, every time I try to grow oregano, I get nice, tall, lush
| healthy looking plants, but they are completely tasteless and
| odourless!! What a disappointment. The are grown in all-purpose compost
| with a weekly feed of diluted wormery liquid compost. My Basil, Chives,
| Parsely, Lovage, Thyme and Thai Basil are all freagrant and tasty and
| grown in the same stuff.
|
| Any ideas why this is? Duff seeds?

No. It should be planted in poor soil, kept in full sun, and given
minimal fertiliser.

As Nick says you are doing to your Oregano what the growers do to modern
flowers, grow them with max fertilizer so they grow quickly, effect being
they also loose their scent.
Bought any spray Carnations recently? Should have an overpowering scent, bet
they didn't smell of anything.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

Bob Hobden wrote:
"Nick Maclaren" wrote after
[...]
No. It should be planted in poor soil, kept in full sun, and given
minimal fertiliser.

As Nick says you are doing to your Oregano what the growers do to modern
flowers, grow them with max fertilizer so they grow quickly, effect being
they also loose their scent.
Bought any spray Carnations recently? Should have an overpowering scent, bet
they didn't smell of anything.

It's also part of our Disneyfied culture that breeders go for looks
rather than scent. Personally, I think it's a Trades Descriptions Act
case when they sell "sweet" peas which aren't sweet. No, scrub that:
it's not only dishonest trading, it's cultural genocide. Lock 'em up
for life.

--
Mike.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote:
No. It (Oregano) should be planted in poor soil, kept in full sun, and
given
minimal fertiliser.
---
How true. I have just this morning harvested my home grown Oregano and hung
the stalks up in my shed to dry. The smell of oregano is almost over
powering.
I have always gown oregano in full sun, on very poor, sandy soil with lots
of
added flint chippings and bucket loads of grit.
Cutting the flowering stalks now means that I have a second supply towards
the
late autumn. I have never given my oregano any fertilizer as I grow it
together
with wild flowers.

MikeCT

In article ,
Broadback writes:
|
| I have some "Greek" oregano that I purchased as a plant, very cheap in a
| local greengrocers, its great. Bought some "oregano" from a garden
| centre last year, put some on my salad, it was awful, as bitter as an
| unripe gooseberry.

That makes you one of the 60% of the UK who can't distinguish bitter
from sour :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Broadback writes:
|
| I have some "Greek" oregano that I purchased as a plant, very cheap in a
| local greengrocers, its great. Bought some "oregano" from a garden
| centre last year, put some on my salad, it was awful, as bitter as an
| unripe gooseberry.

That makes you one of the 60% of the UK who can't distinguish bitter
from sour :-)

Not just in the UK, and I think you're being conservative :-)
Not sure it is so much a palate thing as a vocabulary thing.
But now that I think of it, maybe it is a palate thing...

Cat(h)

snip, oregano advice

Does this go for sweet basil too?

rgds
4

fourmations wrote:
snip, oregano advice

Does this go for sweet basil too?

rgds
4

Don't ask *me* for advice on growing basil. I generally kill about 3 a
year.
The only time it did any way well for me, was when I had access to a
greenhouse. It seems to like the heat and the dry conditions. I'd let
it get almost wilted, then water it and it grew well and lasted me all
summer, despite frequent plucking - i'm a great fan of basil for its
outstanding culinary qualities. But it is never happy in my luxury
herb bed where everything else thrives.
I suspect our climate is just too wet and unsunny for basil. I met an
organic grower at a summer show down the country last year, who was
selling bunches of the lushest basil I ever saw outside of France or
Italy. He said he was growing it in a polytunnel and that it thrived
on neglect.
Cat(h)

In article ,
"fourmations" writes:
| snip, oregano advice
|
| Does this go for sweet basil too?

No, not at all. Basil is a true tropical, and should be grown in rich,
moist, well-drained soil and kept warm.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.