I am growing basil in my conservatory ,and the seeds germinated well.I
transplanted a few plants into another large pot,and these have grown
well.So have the original sowings.
However ,the original plants have been eaten by something!The leaves are
full of holes.The ones transplanted are fine...no holes although about only
a couple of feet away.
Are the leaves with holes safe to eat,what causes these holes ...no boubt
eaten by some creature.

Thanks

Roy

I am growing basil in my conservatory ,and the seeds germinated well.I
transplanted a few plants into another large pot,and these have grown
well.So have the original sowings.
However ,the original plants have been eaten by something!The leaves are
full of holes.The ones transplanted are fine...no holes although about
only
a couple of feet away.
Are the leaves with holes safe to eat,what causes these holes ...no boubt
eaten by some creature.


Caterpillar? I've had that problem before. I've just come back from a
Buddhist centre where they have a herb and veg garden. You can actually buy
plants and we got talking to the gardener about basil as my friend didn't
want to buy any if it was going to get greenfly - like her last one did
(she's not a gardener, by the way). He said the easiest way to get greenfly
was to have too many plants in the pot (like the supermarket ones) which
weakened the plants - certainly makes sense. They were selling pots with 3
or 4 plants and he said that the aim was to reduce the number to one strong
plant per pot and that way it would be strong enough to resist pests.

I am growing basil in my conservatory ,and the seeds germinated well.I
transplanted a few plants into another large pot,and these have grown
well.So have the original sowings.
However ,the original plants have been eaten by something!The leaves are
full of holes.The ones transplanted are fine...no holes although about
only
a couple of feet away.
Are the leaves with holes safe to eat,what causes these holes ...no boubt
eaten by some creature.


Caterpillar? I've had that problem before. I've just come back from a
Buddhist centre where they have a herb and veg garden. You can actually buy
plants and we got talking to the gardener about basil as my friend didn't
want to buy any if it was going to get greenfly - like her last one did
(she's not a gardener, by the way). He said the easiest way to get greenfly
was to have too many plants in the pot (like the supermarket ones) which
weakened the plants - certainly makes sense. They were selling pots with 3
or 4 plants and he said that the aim was to reduce the number to one strong
plant per pot and that way it would be strong enough to resist pests.