Growing Basil

[Aberdeenplotter]

I bought some seed from Lidl, yes, I know, I'm a cheapskate. bought the seeds disks and sowed one each week for 4 weeks. They were really slow but I now have some super pots of basil. made a salad for last nights tea and forgot to use some though. I'm officially a dumpling

[Vagetarian]

I have about 70 individually potted basil plants, insane I know but it is my favourite herb/salad leaf. I'd be so happy eating a pure basil salad, if only I could grow enough leaves.

I have Toscano, Dark Opal and Cinnamon basil sown mid April and 3 Genovese that I transplanted from a supermarket pot.

The Genovese were obviously off to a head start but the Toscano has caught up, both varieties are about 8" or more off the pots and getting bushy. The Cinnamon (which smells entirely like aniseed, to me) isn't far behind and the Dark Opal is a bit of a disappointment, low germination rate and of the ones that did sprout, half were looking terrible, although the purple leaves make up for that.

They've all been grown outside since they left the seed trays some time in May. The biggest problem that I can see with basil is over watering, check the colour of the roots inside the pot if you can. I have added perlite to plain multi purpose compost which seems to help my over watering problem (caused by rain).

[bethduckie]

If it's flowered, can you still eat it? I didn't make it to the allotment last week for a bit and my plants went bonkers. Since them I've not really known what to do, except look worriedly at it every now and then which I am not sure is helping matters much!

[taff]

you can yes, but it's not going to make new leaves, you can try taking all the flower shoots off, it'll encourage it to bush again, but they won't be far behind flowering as well.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Ma grows it, and occasionally brews it up to make tea. I'm not sure which kind it is, since it's a cutting of cutting. Basil has this mythological status amongst the Bollywood community and basically revered as a living God. The story is out there on google if you put in Tulsi. Anyways, I digress. The rumours are that. Basil is a bit precious about where it is grows. At home, sat in full sun, it blossoms and grows massively. Ma would have to give it a hair cut quite often. I put that down to Baby bio, Ma cites universal powers that be. The tea isn't half potent though.

[VirginVegGrower]

Basil stops growing if it's in too small a pot - its roots grow and grow. Lift your pot and look at the bottom. If you see roots poking - repot in larger capacity pot.