I bought a supermarket basil plant just to have fresh leaves on the windowsill: two weeks later, when I tipped it out of its pot, I understood why it was collapsing
That perfect basil plant from the supermarket isn’t one plant at all—it’s 20 to 30 seedlings crammed into a pot the size of a coffee cup, engineered to look stunning for exactly five days before it falls apart. When you tip it out of its pot, the truth becomes unmistakable: a tangled root ball competing for survival in an impossible space.