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Growing basil year-round in a propagator?

epatricktTAqaf-vVepatricktTAqaf-vV Posts: 5
in Problem solving
We usually grow basil in the summer, in the porch and produce lots of it. This year the seedlings have hardly grown which makes me suspect the compost (same organic brand as every year but the composition looks different) - anyway, to try to make up for this, I was hoping to grow basil in my Vitopod propagator with grow lights. Temp set to 25C and lights on 24hours. Lots of the tiny ?fruit? flies and although the basil is nicely dark green, it isn't growing very well, despite regular liquid feed. Is this a silly idea or am I doing something obviously wrong?
Thanks
Patrick 

Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I imagine your plants are desperate for a sleep.
    It's not natural for plants to have never-ending light.
    Let them have 6-8 hours of dark per day

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Pete is right, the photosynthesis process *requires* a period of darkness to complete the cycle.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • epatricktTAqaf-vVepatricktTAqaf-vV Posts: 5
    Pete.8 said:
    I imagine your plants are desperate for a sleep.
    It's not natural for plants to have never-ending light.
    Let them have 6-8 hours of dark per day
    That is interesting, thanks for that. I shall try with letting them have a good night's sleep. I wonder though, how plants in street-lit areas survive?
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Street lights aren't grow lights. I think it is to do with the wavelength.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    They survive, but it's not good for them.
    Like humans, plants have adapted to live on a 24-hour rhythm which includes a period of darkness. 
    e.g. During the day plants turn sunlight into sugars, during the night the plant uses those sugars to grow.
    There are lots of processes that plants carry out some of which require dark and others need light
    When that balance becomes disturbed, the plants suffer


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • epatricktTAqaf-vVepatricktTAqaf-vV Posts: 5
    Pete.8 said:
    They survive, but it's not good for them.
    Like humans, plants have adapted to live on a 24-hour rhythm which includes a period of darkness. 
    e.g. During the day plants turn sunlight into sugars, during the night the plant uses those sugars to grow.
    There are lots of processes that plants carry out some of which require dark and others need light
    When that balance becomes disturbed, the plants suffer

    Thanks - reading that prompts a dim and distant memory from school biology!
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