Kemangi (Lemon Basil) Winter 2021
Ocimum x africanum
Kemangi
Kemangi is the type of basil that is used in Indonesian cuisine, as a raw side (lalap) and often acommpany sambal. It's also called lemon basil or Thai lemon basil. It's also used in Thai and Middle Eastern cuisines.
Life
Dec 2021 - Mar 2022
Journal
- Late summer - early Dec 2021: Have been attempted to grow from seeds since end of summer back when patio was full of thriving plants. Was planted under tomato plant. However the seedlings never survived/grew healthy enough. Finally by early December, from several pots, collected several that grow nice into seedlinghood. However sacrificed 30 December because it's struggling and sometimes fungus gnats were observed inside the plastic dome. In attempt to eradicate fungus gnat from home, due to the old soil and possible early investation, this batch is sacrificed when new bag of seeds is purchased.
- 30 Dec 2021: Seeds (McKenzie) planted in new soil (MiracleGro potting mix), with rocks at the bottom of the pot. Covered in paper towel to avoid fungus gnat investation.
- 11 January 2022: Seedling started coming. They are up to 1 cm now.
- 23 January 2022: Growing even. 2 cm.
- 12 February 2022: Up to about 10 cm with 3 sets of true leaves. First pinching, but just some, not all, because even though almost all have 3 sets of true leaves, not all have the second and third one separated already, hard to pinch.
- 18 Feb: Pinch the rest and eat the pinched out leaves with chili sardines. Very delicious.
- 19 Feb: Thin and eat the thinning seedlings with sardines - taste like botok ikan.
- Early march: Haven't been looking too healthy. They were pinched at the point it looks tall enough, healthy, thriving, and bushy. Now it looks thiin, with drying / blackening leaves. It has a few spider mites that's handled by jet water from bottle to the leaves, then do daily water mist. Dried out leaves removed.
- 9 Mar: Still not looking the best. Thinned. A quarter corner was not having good looking ones, so today I transplanted them within the pot. 2 clumps moved to empty corner. Initially 2x9 rows, target is 2x5. But not all removed yet, anticipating future sacrifice. Hopefully thin enough to grow well though. Using starter soil to top up. No attempt to deal with the gravel barrier. They just got scattered around randomly. not replenished. The transplant doesn't look too good. Leaves blackening ongoing. Removed. Many new growth from pinching site is blackened. Removed. Spider mite is back. Washed. Isolated. Get ready to remove if problem continued. New batch of seeds started.
- 13 Mar: try vacum dust mites. Bad idea. Leaves torn.
- 14 Mar: Leaves that are torn blackened. Sacrificed.
Care
- Full to partial sun
- Average watering, don't let dormancy
- Pinch to make it less leggy and promote growth.