Shiso!

[internationalfish]

Well, I guess  it should be more like a quiet little "shiso" with no exclamation point, since it's barely a few centimeters tall. But its leaf game is already pretty strong.
 

 
I have another sprouted; my wife got me hooked on this stuff. I never used to be able to eat it, but after a few weeks of acclimation, I started to really enjoy it. Had a surprisingly difficult time finding the variety I wanted to grow, but it looks like it will end up being worth it.
 
Everything else is progressing painfully slowly, but this little guy keeps making me proud. Go, little shiso, go!

 

[The Hot Pepper]

My neighbors grow it in pots and it creeps out and spreads everywhere. It grows like a weed, they even feel guilty about killing it off and ask who wants shiso on FB.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

But I know in Tokyo, indoors, you have limited space!!!!

 

[internationalfish]

But I know in Tokyo, indoors, you have limited space!!!!

 
Haha, yes, very limited. And I'm certain I'm growing way more than I have space to keep, particularly since my grow tent is only actually big enough to support the peppers (and just the hot ones; I'm growing more than that)... so eventually all of the herbs, as well as the shishito and piiman, are going to get kicked out from under the Blurple Star and into the Wasteland of Sol the Yellow.
 
Ah well. They're vaguely decorative, they can live outside with my wife's flowers and ornamentals.

 

[Will-zone10a]

Interesting! I've never heard of this plant before

 

[internationalfish]

Interesting! I've never heard of this plant before

 
I think the only thing it gets used for in the US is sushi (and we often don't eat the garnish, though it's intended to be eaten, at least most of the time). It's a type of perilla, if that name is more familiar.

 

[internationalfish]

Non-shiso update, since this is my non-pepper glog, I guess: I left a couple of mint cuttings and an Italian basil plant alone with a nice dose of fertilizer for four days, and not only did they go nuts, the mint decided to go all The Thing and reach out to touch someone.
 

 
Oh hi Mark.
 
It even has another crazy runner coming out the back that isn't obvious from this angle. The mint I have outside is doing OK even in near-freezing weather, but the ones in the grow tent are contemplating world domination.

 

[internationalfish]

The mint is basically a planty afro coating half the bottom of the grow tent. I'm not going to encourage it with pictures.
 
The basil, though, my wife has been very happy with, so I took a couple cuttings while trimming it back. They sat in water for about a week without doing anything, then about two days ago decided "oh, roots sound fun. Let's do that." So they're really, really doing that.

Going to have to pot these up sooner than I thought. Also going to have to start some new shiso and Thai basil from seed, though, since I put all of those outside and they're all thoroughly dead; Tokyo winter is still lame, but I did underestimate how much my herbs would dislike it. Oh well; I have time.