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Mystery plant grew instead of basil

limpingfishlimpingfish Posts: 17
in Plants
so a friend planted basil seeds in a small pot and what grew there doesn’t look like basil at all! 
Is this, maybe, how basil shoots look like? Or is this something else? 
It kind of looks like cyclamen but not really..

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,158
    If you feel under the compost surface there will be a hard, roundish, flattish corm if it is cyclamen.   Definitely doesn't look like basil.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391
    Definitely cyclamen and could also be seedlings.  The seed itself becomes a small round corm which steadily grows and flattens from the second year onwards.  They only produce one or two small leaves after germination during the first season (there are no seed leaves.)  I would gently poke around the soil and discover whether there is a mature corm there as Obelixx suggests, or whether each leaf has a tiny corm with a root or two below.  If the latter, it would be a good idea to (very, very gently) separate and repot them.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,158
    Good advice from Bob.   Hadn't thought of it being multiple cyclamen seedlings but definitely worth potting on and growing on till they're big enough to go out in the borders.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • limpingfishlimpingfish Posts: 17
    Thanks. We did some detective work and discovered that my friend switched the seeds and indeed planted cyclamen seeds and not basil. Thanks!!
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