Thursday, 15 September 2011

Growing Basil in your Indoor Herb Garden

By Joseph Robertson

Basil is a fabulous herb which, while best grown out of doors, can easily be grown in an indoor herb garden. Basil will do best on a windowsill facing the equator - as it is with many herbs. When growing basil, it is generally recommended that you keep the plants away from terribly cold drafts and in strong daylight. A greenhouse is the most highly recommended in this situation, but they can simply be grown in a basement under growing lights.

Here are one or two key suggestions to keep under consideration when growing basil:

- You need the basil in a soil temperature that's constantly above 50 degrees F.
- It is recommended that you chose a larger pot - basil plants do not reply well to being replanted.
- Plant seeds no deeper than 1/8th of an inch under the surface, and cover them with a fine soil. Press the top soil down softly over the seeds and give them a gental spray with water.
- Make certain to keep the soil moist - germination should take 1 to 2 weeks.
- If you're using starter plants, place them 12-18 inches apart (keep this in mind when choosing your pot).
- Keep young seedlings out of direct hot son for the 1st week after growing.

Leaves can be cropped intermittently as the plants grow - and they should, picking leaves promotes expansion. Never crop all of the huge departs at once, nor all the tiny leaves. Instead when cropping, do half of the massive and half of the small leaves or less of each.

If you find the leaves have wilted from absence of water, simply water well and position in a sunny location - the plant will recover swiftly. Yellowed leaves at the base of the plant tend to indicate that it is stressed - the plant is either receiving too much water or there is a disequilibrium of fertilizer.

As a final note, keep an eye on stems which produce flowers. If a stem fully produces a flower, the plant will switch focus to reproducing rather than developing leaves - this ends in far less to no basil leaves! As you see flowers beginning to bud, simply pinch them off the stem. You will chose to keep a plant with flowers simply for growing new plants in the future - the plant will produce seed pods that contain small black seeds. These can be saved and planted again.


About the Author:

No comments: