Basil in Pots

Basil is the love of herbs or king of herbs. Most gardeners do grow basil, I do try to have a pot at least on the windowsill all year around. Basil, as many other herbs, a great cut and come again crop. I have to admit I bought a pot of basil in the supermarket about 3 months ago and it is just finishing producing now and it was kept on my windowsill. Basil can produce sideshoots, but I leave the top growing tip on as the plants will grow from there the best in my experience.

On an average year I don’t bother experimenting growing basil outside as the nights are too cold for this warm loving herb; I think it is from India originally so does need heat. On the windowsill most of us have limited space so as soon as it is warm enough in the greenhouse I start sowing basil seeds in there, which is in June. In my experience you can sow basil in the greenhouse as late as September as long as you can bring the pots indoors later in October. The basil seeds really need some heat for most successful germination. I did sow basil as early as April in the greenhouse and it was successful but quite slow.

I have tried purple ruffles before for its colour but I found the flavour too strong. This year I am trying Thai Basil which is also very powerful and Holy Basil too along with Italian Classic. You can see that the most popular Italian Classic is most prolific.

The Thai Basil is growing well too and have such a different form in appearance and in taste too I have to say. I bit stronger than the ordinary basil and you can certainly taste the different essential oil content.

The Holy Basil is the slowest out of the three so I couldn’t really taste it properly yet, so I really have high hopes that this will be something special. The leaves of the Holy Basil  look really delicate and  slow-growing which always promises a good taste.

Here you can find more details how to grow basil and how to store basil to preserve the most flavour and most essential oils.

See also  5 Tender Herbs to Grow on the Windowsill

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