Tried companion planting basil with my balcony tomatoes and got a weird result

I planted basil next to my cherry tomatoes in a 2-foot window box, and the tomatoes grew fine but the basil tasted like dirt. Did I mess up the soil mix or is this a spacing thing on a small balcony?

3 comments

3 Comments

jade22118d ago

I read somewhere that basil needs well-drained soil with not too much organic matter to keep that flavor strong. With a tomato plant guzzling water next to it in a window box, the basil roots probably stayed too wet and started tasting bad. @cameron724 made a good point about different water needs, and if the soil was rich for the tomatoes the nitrogen might have messed with the basil's taste too. I'd go with a separate 8 to 10 inch pot for the basil, using a sandy mix to help it drain faster.

margaret_nelson2mo ago

Bet your basil was just rootbound or too crowded. A 2-foot box sounds deep enough but if you packed both plants in there without giving each some real room, they basically fought for water. Basil needs loose soil to breathe and develop flavor, so if the root zone turned into a soggy mess the leaves will taste like wet cardboard. Try a separate pot for the basil next time, something at least 8 inches wide with drainage holes. Keep the tomato in the window box alone and let the basil have its own space - that earthy taste tells you the roots were suffocating.

cameron7242mo ago

Actually, rootbound usually means the roots have filled the container and can't spread out, not that they're fighting for water in a crowded box. If the box was 2 feet deep and wide enough, the issue was more likely that basil and tomato have totally different water needs. Tomatoes slurp up a ton of water (which can make the soil soggy for basil), while basil likes it just a little drier and looser like you said. That earthy, cardboard taste from wet roots is real though, it's usually a sign of anaerobic conditions or too much nitrogen in the soil. Separating them is the right call, but rootbound wouldn't happen in a box that big unless both plants were huge. Just my two cents based on the same messy garden experiments I've messed up.