Potted Basil Care

The first thing to plant basil is to buy a sachet of seeds or cuttings (if we do not have saved from other years). There are varieties with small leaves, large leaves and even purple leaves, a single envelope of seeds will suffice, since basil is a plant that germinates very well and very fast. It is not necessary to plant a single variety, we can even mix them.

The best time to plant it is late winter or early springin order to be able to enjoy this plant during most of the year, since it is an annual plant that dies in autumn with the arrival of low temperatures.

The first thing to sow the basil, will be prepare the seedlings. The plant can be planted in a pot, in a planter or on a tray of alveoli. In this case, the pot must have at least 12 centimeters in diameter to prevent the plants from germinating too close together. If we do it, on the other hand, on a tray of alveoli, the size should be at least 3 or 4 centimeters.

For sowing, the most recommended substrate is a substrate for seedbeds or for indoor plants. We must fill the container without weighing it down and water it abundantly. Sowing consists of placing the seeds in the seedbed and watering them carefully, preventing the water from displacing or burying them. The distance between the seedlings should be at least two centimeters, to avoid competition for light.

Here you can learn more about How to sow and plant basil.

The cultivation of this plant can be done starting from seeds or cuttings. from seedthe steps are:

1. Prepare the seedbeds using moistened vegetable mulch and put one or two seeds per seedbed, covering it with the substrate
2. Cover the seedbed with clingfilm so that our soil maintains adequate humidity and place it next to a window where it receives sun. It is necessary to maintain a degree of humidity, spraying it with water once or twice a day.
3. Once the first leaves appear, we can remove the plastic, but we must continue moistening it until the plants have grown a few centimeters. At this time we can transplant them to the definitive plants.

Also, we can grow new basil plants starting from cuttings from other plants. The cuttings are the branches that are born from the main stem. In this case, we would introduce the cuttings in a container with water or with a natural rooting that we can do, for example, with lentils. When the cuttings have already developed roots, we can transplant them into the final pot. In the following article we explain how to choose the right pot.

Basil is a plant that requires a high amount of risks throughout its cultivation. If it does not have enough water, the plant will run the risk of dehydrating and not developing. To carry out the irrigation, we must keep the earth always wet but without flooding. One solution for this is to make some holes in the bottom of the pot to facilitate drainage. Must be water the plant every daybetter in small amounts a couple of times, to prevent the soil from drying out during the hottest period.

It is also recommended trim the stems and pull out the weeds to aerate and soften the soil. The pruning will be done by cutting the upper stems to encourage more stems to come out and the plant to be more leafy. As basil is an annual plant that dries up and dies once it has flowered at the end of the cycle, they should be cut the flower buds at the end of the stems and thus delay this moment.

In case we want to keep basil seeds for other years, we can let one of its flowers grow and collect your seedstowards the end of the crop.

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