Hey there, I'm the king of killing basil. I eat a lot of basil, and all my attempts to grow it myself failed. It either dies or doesn't produce any more leaves for weeks… until it dies. Check out the pot with soil in the picture. The two smaller plants were my last attempt. I transplanted them from a store-bought pot of basil 2.5 weeks ago, and they haven't increased in size at all. I guess they were too weak and didn't have strong roots when I transplanted them.
So now I wanted to try hydroponics. I bought another basil and put three strong plants in a glass of water for 10 days for them to develop more roots. Two days ago, I put one in soil, one in a glass of nutrients (let's see if I get algae) and one in a self-watering pot filled with hydroton that I filled up 2/3 with nutrients. It's one of those self-watering pots with a net pot and a wick, but I didn't add the wick and filled it up half way into the hydroton to let the roots grow into the reservoir and get a Kratky-style setup. So it's basically two Kratky-style setups and one in soil.
I used Terra Aquatica TriPart (former GH Flora Series) Grow. I figured it's fine to start with just the Grow and buy the Micro as well if this experiment turns out good and I want to continue with hydro. I used 0.6mL/L. The recommendation for "1st true leaves" is 0.6mL of all three, so my nutrient solution is pretty weak, but I didn't want to kill those young plants.
I guess this should be a fair contest. The soil is fresh, so I didn't add any fertilizer. I will post an update in a few weeks. Hopefully not showing three dead plants…
by 3rik-f