Just to write a few words about manjaris (flowers).
Tulsi tends to give manjaris during summer hot season and at this moment in Australia she is profusely providing them. It is a way to give us plenty seeds to continue growing her and sharing her presence with our friends.
Although she is beautiful with them you need to bear in mind the production of seeds diminishes her life energy. My mentor always says 'if you let her produce seeds she will produce less leaves' and the greener she is the healthier she is.
As simple as that.
So, you will need to remove all excess manjaris and offer them to Krishna.
The whole of last season I've allowed only about four strongest manjaris to go into seeds and when the seeds turned brown I've used one of those transparent zip lock small sandwich bags to cover them, so they wont fall off if you accidentally shake the manjari. I've then left them there until they dried out making the seeds of good quality.
The reason for this bag is that the seed that falls off from manjari grows into small Tulsi withing the pot of mother Tulsi and this will mean you need to damage their roots to transplant them. Mother will surely survive but baby might struggle so I prefer that not to happen.
If you don't have a mini zip lock bag u can use bigger one by cutting it with scissors and making a small one using clear tape. Try to leave a small hole in one of the corners to keep the air coming to seeds. I didn't have time to do it this year and I still have seeds from last season but I'll try to do this in next few weeks and produce some pictures to give you an idea of what I was doing.
As you will see each manjari produces almost a hundred seeds if it is a big one as each manjari is made of maybe twenty or more mini flowers each having four seeds inside.
I gave some seeds to our friends and they all got Tulsi plants growing out of them.
The famous Tulsi that has the pictures in 'Growing Tulsi step by step' series on this blog is one of them.
So, even if you don't do 'the baging of seeds' thing just take care to remove all but one of two most beautiful manjaris in a season and your Tulsi is going to be growing greener and healthier.
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| Manjaris to be cut and offered |
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| Fully grown manjari |
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| Where to cut (under the first set of leaves) |
If you look at the picture on the left and one below you will see two mini manjaris growing just above the two top leaves. This is the reason we have to cut manjari under the two top leaves or better to say with the two top leaves.
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| Fully grown Tulsi gives a lot of manjaris |
Manjaris ready for offer. When we have this much I usually share them with friends who have Deities at home for their offers and Tulsi appreciates and provides more and more ;)
Happy Tulsi, happy home!
Hello dreamcatcher....my tulsi plant leaves are getting smaller and smaller as they are gr owing...Can i send u the pics..Why are the leaves crowding i am not sure..If ok will send u the pics to see and one of them has shed all its leaves only the main and laterl branches are there...should i cut the branches or leave it as it is..?
ReplyDeleteHi ICKrishna, thank you for leaving the very first comment on my blog!
ReplyDeleteLets get to the point:
Re: 'leaves getting smaller and smaller' is totally natural. If I understood properly it is not that they are unhealthy but just smaller than the young leaves, right? Well, if I look at the leaves of our grown up Tulsi and young one the grown one leaves size are about 1/3 or maybe even 1/5 of the size of the baby Tulsi leaves (really tiny).
Re: one of them has shed all its leaves only the main and laterl branches are there...should i cut the branches or leave it as it is..?
Shedding of leaves happened to my grown up Tulsi earlier this year. I figured out it is because of too strong manure. The other possible reason could be that you were giving her too little water for some time and she got used to that small amount and suddenly you've watered her profusely and she got shocked. That's why I recommend watering to the point of run off at least once a week in the summer and about once in two to three weeks in the winter (depending on how much light she is exposed to).
Here is what to do: take small and sharp scissors and gently remove all dried our leaves and ONLY the tips of branches (small groups of leaves) where the leaves have dried or are obviously drying out but are still attached to the branch. Sometimes you can see they are soft to touch with dark green almost brown/grey color. These dying leaves are just using her energy uselessly.
Don't touch any leaves that still has healthy green color. These ones are keeping her alive.
Another thing to do (if you gave her strong manure) is to water her profusely to wash out some of that manure through water. Place a big receptacle under her and water her with maybe 5 liters of water that you catch in the receptacle.
All of this is to help her to recover faster. She should have tiny green buds where the leaves were growing in few days if she is strong enough.
If she really lost ALL her leaves it might be too late but do what I told you and it might work. Give her at least a week or maybe 10 days before you give up.
One more thing you could do, depending on how far ago have you transplanted her is to transplant her into new soil as it might help recover bit if you transplanted her or seeded her within last year I wouldn't disturb her roots.
Ok, I've exhausted my ideas based on your comments. I hope this was helpful.
You have my humble blessing to save your Tulsi and enjoy her company for many years.
Kind regards,
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am interested in growing tulsi by your method... Are you able to mail the seeds...please contact me on vinaymnair (at) gmail.com
Thank you
Great one.
ReplyDeleteJust a humble request~ never ever use scissors etc- PLEASE just pluck them by clean hands.
Pranaam.
Pranaam dear Sanjay,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
YES !!!its true plz dont use scissors..bcoz of it my tulasi got almost drie....wish my tulasi will b alrite ;-(
ReplyDeleteNamaste Sreedevi,
ReplyDeleteYour comment is most appreciated and I really hope your Tulsi will get well soon!
From my personal experience with growing Tulsi it is all about our feeling and relationship. If you offer her service with love and care she doesn’t really mind if you use scissors or hand (fingers) as long as you use your heart ;) It is in this subtle relationship that lays her health and prosperity.
When Krishna asked Gopis to rub some dirt from their feet on his head to sooth his headache they refused in fear they would be condemned to hell, while, when the same request was presented to Radharani she willingly agreed as Krishna’s welfare for her was more important than being condemned to hell and just her agreement was enough for Krishna to get well.
This is closest to my standpoint. I feel in my heart using scissors is all right as it gives least pain to Tulsi and it is enough for me.
Here’s more practical explanation:
I use clean hands to pick leaves but with manjaris there is a tendency to use the finger nail to cut the stem below the two leaves and I consider this not as clean or as proper compared to using sharp scissors.
The other way to cut manjari would be to pull the manjari two ways until it snaps which tends to damage the stem and leaves on both sides if you are not with tiny fingers and very, very careful and this will impede with growing new stems from that end point.
Another thing is that during winter time growing Tulsi at home presents a bit of a difficulty as the temperatures fluctuate too much and her growing slows down a lot and there is a tiny distance between two sets of leaves and again you can’t help but use the scissors.
Also, if you would be picking up the fully dry manjari with seeds most of the seeds could fall off into the soil below your Tulsi. Again, using small sharp scissors offers better control while you are doing it.
I’ve used scissors almost from the beginning as this was the advice I was given from experienced Tulsi servant and I will continue doing it as I believe this is the best way.
I urge anyone reading this blog to use my recommendations with their own innate wisdom. If you feel something is wrong simply don’t follow it and do what works better for you.
You need to be happy in following anything. If for example you use scissors thinking ‘I’m making an offense’ it is what you will be doing. If on the contrary you use scissors thinking ‘I’m doing it to give her less pain and be more beautiful’ that is what is happening. It is all about your intention and feeling.
ReplyDeleteTo comment on more important underlying question in your post i.e. your Tulsi being almost dry.
Rather than using scissors the reason for her being dry could be one of the following:
• Her having the spider mites under her leaves and them sucking too much of her fluids out (check if she has tiny red mites under leaves and a tiny hard to see web like treads on her leaves, sometimes you can see it only when sunshine is reflected on it) - this is the most usual reason
• Underwatering
• Underwatering for some time and then overwatering
• Overwatering
• Taking too many manjaris and leaves off at the same time.
• Giving her too much manure
These are the usual reasons from my six years of experience of growing Tulsi at our home.
The best way to try to quickly help her is to get some organic soil, give her a good bath and transplant her to new soil.
I’ll try to write a post about bathing next weekend if I manage but here is the short version.
Get some castile soap. Dr. Broeners castile soap is best. Put a good squirt of castile soap (about 50ml) into a 500ml sprayer bottle, mix it with warm water (not boiling hot), cover Tulsi’s soil with wrapping foil to avoid most of the soap getting into her soil ( a little of it will get in and that is why we use organic castile soap and not regular soap or shampoo which could damage the roots), get her outside, prepare water hose to wash the soap away and then spray the castile soap solution all around her, especially under her leaves and after you gave her a good soak (which will take a few minutes) gently spray the soap off with the water hose for about five minutes to get all of it away. If she had spider mites you will need to spray a bit harder as that will get them away.
Be careful while doing this as you might need to hold her branches not to break them, depending how big she is. Best is to have someone to help you. This will also spray away all of the loose and dry leaves and allow her to regenerate.
After you bathe her leave her in a shady place for few hours to dry and then transplant her into new soil.
This is what I would do in your place and it helps unless she is in a very bad shape.
If you do this with the meditation of her getting better and being the most beautiful Tulsi in the Universe she will be before you know it.
I hope this will help you in your service to your Tulsi Devi.
Sri Sri Tulsi Devi Ki JAAAAAAYYYYY
Hi,
ReplyDeleteMy Tulasi Devi is really small, though she has been in our house for a few months now. Her leaves are also small and not the health green in your pictures.
She resides in the north east corner of our living room where she gets the best morning sunlight. However, I read somewhere that she shouldn't be placed in the living room.
I live in the US - east coast. I would appreciate any suggestions on how to keep her healthy as winter will be here soon.
Thanks
I wouldn't say it is because she resides in your living room as our Tulsi's happily live in our living room for years.
DeleteThis is usually the room with the most sunlight in house and unless you have an empty room on a sunny side of a house or can afford to have a heated glasshouse it is probably the best place for Tulsi. It also gives you the opportunity to interact with her more often.
I have a feeling you might be over-watering your Tulsi, something I've realized today is happening to us and Tulsi started protesting. The reason is simple, I was watering them and my wife would also give a bit more for case they didn't have enough ;)
My suggestion for you would be to transplant her into a one size bigger pot. This will give her the opportunity to grow a bit more and be more resilient during winter.
Please read the post about transplanting.
When the temperatures start going down you will have to keep the heater in the living room. Temperature should not fall below 15 deg Celsius and be careful with watering. Touch the soil and keep it gently moist but not too wet or dry.
With the Tulsi being too small it could also be that you planted her a bit late in the year.
We are currently taking care of about 5-10 tiny small Tulsi's that were planted in late Autumn in Melbourne and they have not grown even to a height of 5cm in last 5 months.
In Melbourne the spring just came and this is the perfect timing to plant Tulsi and I'm hoping these tiny ones might start growing a bit faster.
Same as I mentioned in the reply to Sreedevi, please check under leaves as your Tulsi might have spider mites under leaves and that could be the cause of your problem.
Anohter thing, talk to your Tulsi, treat her as your friend and ask her for advice on how to best take care of her and then look and ask around for answer and before you know it you will figure it out. That is how I learned and still learn about taking care of our beautiful Tulsi's.
I hope this helps. In case you need more advice please write back.
Hare Kṛṣṇa!
ReplyDeletePlease accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga!
I was always confused at what stage should we pick the manjaris, the pictures made it very clear! Thank you! Hari bol!
With Love,
Ulises Guerrero
www.thevedicway.org
Thank you very much Ulises. It is my greatest pleasure this blog is useful to devotees growing Tulsi at home. Hari bol!
DeleteJai Tulsi Maharani
ReplyDeleteI have a large green Rama tulsi plant which was healthy until around August (late summer in North America) when it startr having leaves dry at the tips and eventually fall off. At this point there is only baby leaves and when they barely get matured they fall off. I have checked for spider mites and have had no sign of seeing them. I have successfully rooted two plants from that one plant hoping to see what will happen to them as well. I am still very worried about my Rama Tulsi
shedding her leaves like crazy, any advice? also want to find out how do you get your tulsi to give plenty manjari's i would love all your tips on manjaris and how to get them ,please tell me how to get all the manjaris?
Namaste Navin,
ReplyDeleteBy what you wrote there I would say you are over watering your Tulsi. Since late August the days start being shorter and colder which means your Tulsi uses less water.
What I noticed is that the amount of direct sunlight is in a way proportional with water usage. The more direct sunlight the more water she needs.
If she has less sunlight she takes much less water and if you continue watering her the same way as in summer she gets sick and starts shedding leaves.
I would still pay close attention to spider mites as they are so tiny and hide under leaves that sometimes you don't even see them.
The thing you could do is to place her in a sunny spot, give her some heating if days are getting cold as she needs the temperature to be more than 15 degrees Celsius and keep a close eye not to over water and still give her a little bit of water every day.
I kept the heater on in our house all winter on 17 degrees for our Tulsi's to be all right. They still look a bit challenged as we moved from a bricked apartment building into a house which has a plasterboard walls and temperature fluctuates a lot more than in a brick wall house.
How big is your Tulsi? If she is about 30cm she needs about 3 to 4 tablespoons of water a day. It is hard to know exactly as it also depends on the amount of leaves.
If your Tulsi shed almost all leaves she will need just a little bit of water.
Give her some sea weed fertilizer too, she probably needs some to get better.
What could also help is if you transplant her into a new organic soil. It might help to save her.
You need to transplant her this weekend as if she shed almost all the leaves she is in a state of distress and might leave her body.
I can't give you the direct advice on how to get more manjaris. It is all related to it. If she is healthy she produces them profusely and if she is sickly she barely produces any. In the late Spring, Summer and early Autumn she produces a lot of manjaris and in the cold Winter time she is not giving any.
I wish you good luck with your Tulsi growing.
Please let me know if this advice was good for your Tulsi.
Thanks for the info!!! she as a goddess has lots of sunlight in the morning since we keep her pot as well as other cuttings of her and our young krishna tulsi's facing east. I have heard that tulsi takes cow manure very well but can burn her and i dont want to run this risk. My tulsi is around 2 feet so i used to give 1/4 cup but now since its getting cold i have started to think that i have over watered so once every day i give 2 tablespoons at most of water. though i see improvement i have to keep trying and showing my devotion to the goddess and krishna to give me my tulsi back in wonderful health. she still has quite a few leaves even on a small branch that it amazes me on how much she lost and how much she still has. i have been told by my grandparents that the cold weather here in canada at this point is disturbing her tremendously. i still have cuttings that have rooted from the very plant while offering to krishna so i will try to see how well the cuttings do. jai shri krishna
Deletehi,
ReplyDeleteI have a Tulasi plant at home. As it is winter now, i have noticed how the tips of her leaves are turning brown (some leaves are half brown). The leaves are also curling up and some are falling off. She doesn't have that much natural sunlight, however I have an artificial plant light, which I put on 4 days a week. I have read that the reason why the leaves are turning brown, curling and falling off, might be due to over watering? Am I correct as one friend told me that this might be due to under watering. please help.
Haribol Mohan,
DeleteI would also say it is because of over watering her and not enough direct sunlight she is getting.
There is a simple method of detecting if your Tulsi is under watered. Gently press few of her leaves between your fingers. Preferably from various places on her body. If she is under watered the leaves are very soft to touch and if she is over watered they would be hard on touch. You will know exactly what I mean when you touch the leaves.
I found my Tulsi's are not happy since we moved to our new home. They are not getting the same amount of sunshine as before and although I try my best not to over water them they have the same symptoms as yours. Because it is summer over here I'm placing our Tulsi's outside in hope they would get better.
What kind of temperatures you get at your place? If it is under or coming close to 15 degrees celsius that might be a problem too. I usually heat the rooms where I keep Tulsis so they don't get too uncomfortable.
I hope this helps.
thank you,
ReplyDeleteI felt the leaves and they are soft and rubbery. However, now some of the outer branches are drooping and the soil is really dry. Also, the room is heated most of the day, but for a few hours the temperature is at room temperature. so not sure if this is affecting Tulasi Maharani.
How often should we water her a week in the winter?
It's hard to say how much exactly to water her. It varies according her size, light and temperature. She prefers to be watered daily by small amounts of water. When she was small we used to measure watering by spoons. Three to four spoons daily. You have to also have a habit to water her profusely about once a month until water starts coming out from the bottom of the pot. It is wise to combine this profuse watering with fertilizing by adding the correct portion of seaweed fertilizer in the water. This is to give her more energy and also to water the bottom of her roots. I've noticed few times if I do only small portions on the top of the pot the bottom of the pot remains dry as she drinks the water and she can become sickly or you can see parts of her leaves are rubbery while other parts are hard.
DeleteThis profuse watering should be more often in the summer time. For example once in two weeks or during very hot days maybe weekly or more often.
You need to start feeling how much she needs. Connect with her. She is now part of your family. What would you do if she was your baby? She can only cry and you need to figure out what she needs ;)
I believe that you can do it Mohan, same like all the readers can do it.
The very fact you are reading and sending emails around shows how much attention and care you have for her and she appreciates this.
Thank you for such a wonderful service to Tulsi maharani.
Namsate. This information is very helpful. I have one question. My mother in law some time back told that women shouldn't pluck the manjaris. Can you please let me know if this is correct. My husbands travels very often and I always have difficult time in syncing this process with him
ReplyDeleteNamaste Saji,
DeleteOf course it is all right if you as a female pluck manjaris. There are a lot of shocking restrictions placed on females that shouldn't be there as on the spiritual perspective we all know that we are all souls and there is no difference if we are in a female or a male body. In fact I remember once listening a lecture in which it was said that ultimately as souls we are actually all females. Don't worry, you will not commit ofence, in our temple it is actually always females taking care of Tulsi which of course means plucking out the manjaris. Just be king enough to sometimes allow your husband to do it when he's coming home ;)
thank you sooooo much!
ReplyDeleteHaribol, please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada. I am from the UK, my Tulasi is only 3 weeks old and about 10 cm in height but has developed 2 manjaris already. Is this normal and should I cut them? Ys, Suraj
ReplyDeleteHaribol Suraj,
ReplyDeleteYou are taking good care of your Tulasi if she already developed manjaris. Please cut them and keep cutting any new ones before they go into seeds. Let them blossom and then cut them and offer to Krishna and consume them after. That way you both have benefit, Krishna is happy and she will that way develop a lot of new leaves and branches and be more resilient in the winter. Manjaris take a lot of her strength to develop seeds so please cut them on time whenever you can. You might leave one nice long and strong manjari for seeds later in the season. That way if some of your friends ask you for seeds you would have enough on that majari. All you need to give them is maybe one tiny flower from that one manjari which inside usually contains 4 seeds and they can grow their own Tulasi's. Thank you for your question and good luck. Besko
Hi!
ReplyDeleteHope you're well.
I've been reading your blog for better maintenance of Dear Tulsi.
I have a huge Tulsi plant at home for a couple of years. She was lush green and very dense, producing lots of manjaris. However, while we were away she was neglected and unwatered for about 10days and has gone completely dry. There's just one stem that is producing some green leaves. This devastates me to see her this way. In order to revive her I poured little water so she gets over the shock, and I've added some manure too. But most of her stems are very brown, except for a few. Please suggest what else I can do to bring her back? I miss her her being so alive. Please help.
Its hard to say what is best to do in this situation.
DeleteWhen she runs dry she is in shock and after she gets water again she runs into another shock.
I know some devotees of Krishna claim we shouldn't prune Tulsi devi ever, claiming even cutting of manjaris should be done by hand, and despite that my advice is to prune the small dry branches. My reasoning is that with her branches gone dry she is now trying to revive them and that is costing her too much energy which could lead to her leaving the body in total and pruning the dry ones would help her survive and recover.
Give her only gentle pruning, taking out most of the tiny and small branches that look dry as she will regain strength quickly and put new buds and branches after she recovers.
Once you are pruning look at the center of the branch you just cut and see if it is green inside or dry brown. This will give you a sign if you are cutting too much or you need to go a branch closer to the center of her body. Green means she doesn't need to be pruned any more, she needs you to take only the dry leaves. And if branch is totally dry and brown inside you can take it out as it is dead and simply draining her energy.
In combination with that I would give her liquid sea weed manure properly diluted and be careful not to start over watering her which would develop fungi on her roots. Since she is dry she will need less water and best way to know how much water she needs is to touch the soil around her with a finger and see is under the surface at approx 1 cm there is enough moisture. Feel how much she needs.
I forgot the most important ingredient of her healing process: Apologize to her and tell her you want her strong and healthy at your home and tell her how much you loved her being green, lush and healthy. She loves when we talk to her. That might be what she was missing more than water while were gone.
Here are some important guidelines with pruning:
1. When you are pruning use a very sharp pruning scissors ( for tiny branches I'm talking about it might suffice to use very sharp sewing scissors I have in my blog pictures)
2. Use 100% alcohol to clean the scissors before pruning
3. When pruning the branches cut them on a slight angle to the length of branch you are pruning as this helps heel the wound faster (example of an angle is this slash sign angle '/' to the length of the line of this sentence
4. Prune only the branches that look fully dry leave the main ones intact as that is where she holds her strength, start from outside in (look at the cut and the color it has, green means you cut too much, dry brown you are doing well)
I hope all of this works well.
May Tulsi devi bless you with her abundant energy and love.
Hello
ReplyDeleteMy tulsi plant was boming 48 hrs ago and today i was shocked to see it wilted and manjaris drying off. There were black seeds all around the pot. I collected them & put it in another pot. My instict was to water both the new and my old dying plant. Was the Sydney heat too much for her? Can i still save her?
Should I cut off the manjaris? But there are no leaves ... Only dry branches.
Please advise....
She might have gone into shock because of sudden over watering or maybe fertilizing her. Try figuring it out for next time.
DeleteFor now I would first take all the manjaris out and preserve them with seeds for planting next spring. I wouldn't put them all into soil as they will germinate and you might end up with hundreds of Tulsi plants to give away which is a lot of community work.
Be careful with watering her now as she might need a lot less water with no leaves and she might come back. Check how much water she needs by sticking finger gently into soil to check if it is humid under surface.
Read previous comment I left couple of days ago and try pruning the small branches and leaves. Try giving her some seaweed fertilizer if you haven't given her already too much and talk to her. Ask her to stay with you.
Is she an old Tulsi? I heard from my friends with good care she tends to stay in her body between 5-7 years and leaves so this might be the case. Don't stress. She is still with you in the form of seeds and you simply have to help her grow another body if she decided its her time to leave this temporary one she might be leaving right now. That is the normal cycle of life on this earthly plane she chose to grace us with her presence.
Good luck.
Yours truly,
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the advice. Means a lot!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I've apologised to her profusely, almost everyday and I talk to her and pray for her quick recovery. I just want to see her thrive again and inhale the freshness of her leaves every morning.
My sense is that her main branch has gone pretty dry and brown, even down to the base of the plant. I pruned her and she is brown even at the centre of the plant, except for one of the main branches that is still leafing.
Also, as mentioned earlier, I've added some manure to the top of the pot and pour some water every two days. But the water just drains out. Not too sure if dear Tulsi is absorbing it. Please suggest on the same.
Once again, thanks much and please pray for her healing. Find some of the pics of her in the link below
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B73_5vYiJdx7OXlXVDNlYXpWeDg
I bought my Tulsi two months ago, it is growing nicely but it is not flowering can u pls suggest that why is this happening nd where m going wrong
ReplyDeleteNamaste Maria, if she is growing nicely you are not doing anything wrong. She might simply be too young for manjaris yet. I thing a little bit of liquid seaweed manure or if you can get mature cow manure will give her some help in producing manjaris.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing might help is to give her more light (without burning her through these hot days). If you could expose her to morning sun is perfect.
That is all that comes to my mind at this time.
Namaste, Besko