How to Grow a Never-Ending Supply of Basil
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
- Imagine if you could buy your basil from the grocery store once, and have an endless supply. Well, you can...with a little know-how.
We've all done it- you buy your tasty, aromatic basil in a pot or a pack, only for it to wilt and die days later. If only we could keep it alive so that it not only survives, but thrives and multiplies. There is a way to do this, and in this week's episode Ben shows us how.
Pass the pasta!
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Dear brother, thank you so much for your boundless enthusiasm and effortless love for all our plant family. You are, having watched many, absolutely my favourite gardening channel. Blessings to you and your family xxxx
Beautiful post, absolutely agree ❤
Thank you so much, really appreciate that. Happy gardening! :-)
I just watched few of your videos and your knowledge is golden. I am a beginner gardener and I am learning a lot from your videos! Thank you for your content!
You are very welcome - Happy Gardening!
Thanks Ben for another cheery video, lovely to see the cute Rosie again ❤
I thought once the plant itself started flowering, all cuttings would also want to flower, so thanks for explaining it’s only the flowering stems that will do this.
Same here!!
Fantastic Idea ,I’ll be able to have an endless supply always nice with Summer Tomatoes .Many thanks cheers from Australia 🇦🇺
WOW Interesting 😊 Thank you for teaching us all ❤😊
Not just amazing gardening help but cookery ideas as well. What could be better!
Howdy, Ben and cute Rosie!👋
Thanks for reminding me to take cuttings to gift some of my garden buddies with new basil plants for their fall gardens. 👩🏾🌾💕
Howdy Valorie! :-)
I'll be doing this first thing tomorrow morning with my solitary store bought basil! Thank you.
This video grabbed my attention. Great way to continue having basil all year long. 👍 I love making pesto❤...traditional and non traditional. Besides the classic pesto, I also make pesto from flat leaf parsley, no dairy, adding some fresh squeezed lemon juice, blanched almonds, fresh garlic cloves, extra virgin olive oil, and some biosalt. Wow it is really good with potatoes or fish. 😋 Here in east Texas in the heat of summer, I find Thai basil does really well. Thanks Ben and many blessings. 🙏
Sounds like a superb way to use basil - yum! :-)
Thanks for the tips. I'm going to make a lot of people happy.
greetings from the Netherlands
Have fun!
Lemon basil is my favorite. I dehydrate it and use it in homemade herb seasonings
This is so interesting! Thanks for teaching me this great tip!
Glad it was helpful!
Nice one💛💛💛💛👍👍
Great trick , I didn’t know they would root in water , definitely going to try that, Thanks Ben for your good advice I look forward to all your videos x
Wow ❤
Your passion really shows. I'm currently doing the same with tomatoes and have just planted some bay leaf cuttings.
Done thank you, enjoyed this show. Expanded my basil and chocolate mint and thyme,
Thanks from Norway,the land with short intens summer
Thank you very much again!; 😊❤ Awesome Upload Thank You!! 🙂👍
Brilliant tips thanks. I just noticed how nice the filming is - pesto looks good. I started a small sad garden, and disabled when first watched you. Now Ive plums, apples, cherry, corn, strawberry and raspberry, rhubarb for my forever crumble, the list just goes on. I cant believe it.
Well done - that's a fantastic list of things to be growing. Great work! :-)
Good morning Ben, this video is a perfect solution to our "always" out of stock of Basil. I cannot wait to start my experiment of cuttings for a more continual supply of a very special herb. It has just such a beautiful fragrance and is always so delicious in our food. I so enjoy your programme on gardening, you always have something for us the viewers to try and enjoy. Wishing you well with many blessings, thank you for all the most helpful garden tips and advice. Have a smashing good day. Kind regards.
Thanks so much for your lovely comment. This is such a fun and easy project to try - always have basil to hand this way. :-)
I have a perennial basil in my garden that I planted years ago and have now propagated all around, I forgot the variety name but it has leaves all year and nearly always has very long flower stems that bees love. Not quite the same flavour as sweet basil, but close enough for me
Thank you, I love the taste of basil.
Love your channel.💚💙🗽🍎🚖
Bạn rất có kỹ thuật ươm cây giống ,cảm ơn bạn đã chia sẻ kinh nghiệm với mọi người .
Cảm ơn rất nhiều.
I will have to try this some time! Thank you!
I sprinkles some basil seeds and thought they did not work. So I sprinkled some more and now both lots grew and I have it everywhere. Smells fabulous in the veg garden though. My tomato are going crazy and taste wonderful as well.
Thanks Ben. I always grow purple basil as a pollinator attractor. 3 or 4 spread out in the planters helps. Mostly grow Genovese green basil to use in Caprese salads, and Italian sauces. Also like to cut and dry some every few weeks for tossing into the blender and making a shaker filler. Another good way to save basil leaves is to cut, wash and add to olive oil and place in resealable bags in the freezer, lasts a few months.
Great suggestions Stephen, thanks so much. :-)
I'm going to have to try this. I have cardinal basil and blue spice basil growing, plus a basil plant my dad started early this spring. We lost him in May. I can keep his plant growing and make several plants : )
It would be a lovely way to remember him. :-)
I love to ferment salsa using all the things from my garden!
I know what I'll be doing shortly--thank you!
That's Mr. Fawlty to you!
Thanks Ben (and Gracie), more good info!!!
Ive learned so much from you throughout the year 😊. Thank you!
Brilliant! Love your videos. They are very interesting
Many thanks!
thanks so much for informative video !
One method I love, which yields fantastic results, is to take the entire basil plant and split it into 2-4 separate pots. It's a simpler alternative to taking cuttings, yet it works like a charm.
**Quick Tip:** Always check the roots of your basil to see if it needs repotting or some root trimming. Most store-bought basil plants suffer from being over-rooted and confined in small pots, requiring either a larger home or division, as I mentioned earlier.
If your basil starts to turn yellow, it isn't always a water issue. Often, the plant is over-rooted and needs more space to grow!
Additionally, I highly recommend placing a saucer beneath the pot and watering the plant through the saucer. This method encourages the roots to grow downward towards the water, promoting healthier root development.
Yes, this is a great way to make supermarket basil immediately last for so much longer. And thanks for this extra tips - that's really helpful. :-)
Thanks Ben! I just took a huge handful of cuttings but I can see that I planted a previous cutting outside in the greenstalk too soon. Thanks for such a thorough education.
I cannot get mine to grow in my GreenStalk, so perhaps I too am not doing it correctly.
I think there is a problem with water getting to all parts of the greenstalk
keeping it going through the winter inside could be a challenge. Thank you for your videos.
Right, that's what I have found too.They will be ok for a while but then aphids or thrips will get to them and you have to start over.
lovely video, thank you
you can make mini greenhouses using 2l bottles which are great for young potted cuttings. just cut the bottle in half, add potting compost and put the top half back ontop (snip around edge so it squeezes over).
once its somewhere sunny it'll conndense/evaporate the water to reduce a lot of maintainence. its something we did as kids in school during the 80s 😁
Great idea! :-)
❤ I LOVE THE WAY YOU SAY BASIL! My daughter makes the BEST fresh pesto with fettuccine! She toasts her pine nuts! I grow basil every year just for her! ❤
Isn’t that the way everyone says it? Certainly everyone I know, anyway.
I love pesto, however, I am extremely allergic to pine nuts and most types of tree and ground nuts. Instead I use roasted sunflower seeds and occasionally hemp seeds.
@@connecticutwormsgardens that sounds really good.
@@franceswatts4001 Obviously not, or I wouldn't have commented regarding the pronunciation! I'm from the midwest here in the USA and we say "bay'-zil", not "ba'-zil". I do so enjoy his accent!
@@januarysdaughter6664 ah! I am from the Uk, originally Southern Africa, so for us it’s the short a.
Thanks
Thank you 🙏🏼
Great video! Thanks for the thorough information, I will try again. My last attenpt got eaten by hungry slugs...
Good video. I suggest you try toasting your pine nuts before adding to pesto !
Yes, smart suggestion, thank you. :-)
Thank you : )
Wow..,! Thank you so much
Fascinating
Lovely video 📸
Cheers so much! :-)
Rosie!!!❤
Propagation 😂😂😂❤
P.S.:
i have them All Basils , And i ❤ the Taste of the Green , But the Colours of the PURPLE Basil are amazing , im waiting to Flower to see if its Flowers are amazing too 👍👽
How do you keep purple basil purple? It seems like a dumb question, but mine always bleaches back to green if not indoors.
Give it somewhere it doesn't get direct sunlight .
I have 9 different varieties of purple basil. Some varieties tend to fade in color while others stay very dark.
If you want it to stay purple, plant a variety known for that trait. Also, if you live in a very hot climate, a bit of shade can help prevent sun bleaching.
Thank you so much! When your cuttings are ready to go into a bigger pot, do you just put one cutting or several in the bigger pot? Thanks, Diane
Yes, just one cutting into one pot. Then pinch out the tops regularly to encourage the plant to bush out.
Basil grows like weeds. Give it a plot of land, and it quickly takes over. It won't be long before you're trying to figure out how to get rid of it.
Thanks for the information. I have several sweet basil plants in my raised garden that have small black jumping bugs on them that love to eat! Also little green worms on them and neighboring tomatoes. I’m guessing the bugs are a type of leaf hoppers? I try to touch them and they hide behind the stems and leaves and eventually get mad and hop away (temporarily). Maybe I need to plant a different variety of basil to keep pests away?
Could well be leaf hoppers. Generally encouraging predators into the garden can help a lot - for example wasps, ground beetles, ladybirds/ladybugs. So including nectar-rich flowering plants and mulching around your tomatoes should help.
@@GrowVeg Thank you for the reply.
Laxawla wala quwata Ulla bilah
Alla ha unaxaristo
waa ariin runti murugu leh
Atomic Shrimp's 'Infinite Basil'!
Love Atomic Shrimp!
I knew about this and I still learned a lot, thank you so much for your brilliant videos ❤ question: when you say endless supply, does that mean you can grow it inside during winter? Thanks!
You can certainly grow basil on a sunny window sill - handy when cooking!
@@GrowVeg you just made my evening 😃❤️ because I adore basil so much! thank you so much for your kind answers, always 💕
Hi Ben, do you have any tips for keeping Basil going all the year round during the dark British winters? I have absolutely no problem in growing them in the summer but don’t know how to keep them going. All the best Izzy.
Basil really loves it warm and sunny, so you may struggle to keep it going over winter if you aren't growing them under grow lights.
@@GrowVeg I am going to try to save some seed this year
Grow a basil tree! Basil can get huge!
Hello Ben. I've noticed some white spots on the leaves of your basil that appear on my plants as well, especially the ones I keep outside. What are they and what can I do to avoid them.
Not sure what white spots you mean. It could be pest damage, but hard to know without seeing them.
Great video Ben, but when I tried this last year, my new plants, although successful, grew progressively more pointy leaves and were very bitter - any idea why? 🤔
I would suggest keeping plants in the warmest, sunniest spot possible. They still need regular watering to grow at their best. And harvest the growing points regularly to really encourage plants to bush out.
@@GrowVeg Thanks so much Ben, I'll give it another go 😊
👍
💚🌻🎉//Susanne
I haven't had much luck with basil. It keeps dying. I suspect my potting mix is to blame.
I heard you should avoid potting mixes that come in bags with perforations on the side, because that means they added inadequately composted manure which is still producing CO2 (hence the perforations), and are therefore riddled with fungus gnats (a.k.a. sciarid flies), the larvae of which literally eat all the roots of your plants and kill them.
These potting mixes also contain water retaining gel which keeps the compost soaking wet for weeks (thus a perfect breeding ground for fungus gnats), unless you have really hot and dry conditions (so definitely not suitable for Scotland then).
Unfortunately this is what I been using all season, which is why all my plants have been dying. The almost total absence of any sunlight, thanks to the dreaded jet stream, hasn't helped either. I did try adding a dose of beneficial nematodes to eat the gnat larvae, but I think it was too little too late.
I was in my local garden centre today, and they have a massive selection of extremely healthy looking houseplants. When I examined the compost they were all planted in, it was bone dry and had the texture of extremely fine straw. I assume this is coconut coir (which I've heard of but never actually used).
It's too late for this year, which was a total write-off for me, but next year I'm going all out to avoid composts that contain manure or water retaining gel, stick to coconut coir, and keep everything bone dry, only drip feeding the bare minimum of water and feed to the plants, while keeping everything under grow lights (as I assume next year will be just as devoid of sunlight).
And for the great outdoors, I'll be using poly tunnels for everything, as the weather up here is just way too savage for anything to grow without significant protection.
We'll see how it works out, but it can't possibly be any worse than this year (famous last words?).
I never realised that - thanks so much for sharing. Those sciarid flies have a lot to answer for!
Ben can you use dettol instead of jays on your garden?
I would think that Dettol, diluted, would be fine for sterilising surfaces, washing pots etc.
So my basil has flowered. Do I save seeds or throw it away because of the taste, or something else?
You can still enjoy the leaves. The flowers are very attractive to beneficial bugs, and you could also save the seeds from them to sow more basil.
I have tried this but never had much success because the stems keep getting mushy and I end up having to throw them out. This also keeps happening to tomato cuttings btw
Sorry to read this. Change the water regularly and put up promptly once they’ve rooted.
How do you overwinter them?
I would just keep them growing on my windowsill indoors. On a sunny windowsill.
I never have any luck rooting basil. I don’t know why. I’ve tried it with other plants, like strawberries runners or even tomato suckers to clone my existing plants but basil always dies on me
Hope this video offers some inspiration. Basil likes it sunny, but keep it watered too as this is a fleshy-leaved herb. Good luck! :-)
You said you used "mains water" (which I assume is public water?) and not rainwater. And I'm wondering why?
Our city water has chlorine, chloramine, and fluoride added to it. I never use city water for germinating or watering any of my plants simply because of the additives and always collect rainwater. Why did you choose the opposite?
I find that rainwater that has been sitting around can sometimes harbour fungal spores etc that can lead to moulds on very tender/vulnerable seedlings and cuttings - such as basil. Mains water (from the tap/faucet - wasn't sure of the US name for this) helps avoid these issues. Once plants are a bit bigger and established I'd then switch to rainwater.
How do you harvest Basil without killing the plant?
Just always harvest just above a leaf node (where the leaves emerge from) so new shoots can emerge to replace the old one removed.
I've got basil in and around my tomatoes at the moment, some of it is starting to flower - if I just chop off the flowering parts, will it have the same effect (i.e. grow new pairs of leafy bits) or is it too late and I should replace the whole plant with a new cutting instead?
You'll need to remove all of the flowers and trim it way back almost to where the woody part begins. It can be saved but don't wait any longer
Why is my garden basil growing little leaves. I planted it last year and it had large leaves. It came up on its own this year and has small leaves.
@sarahm3614 You must have grown a hybrid variety last year. Hybrid varieties can come back as many different variables. If you grow heirloom varieties, they will always come back as their true self.
@@connecticutwormsgardens Thank you!
I always put the glass with the cuttings outside, practically into full sun.
Never had any fail.
Any advantages to let them root inside?
The main reason is to keep them out of the wind, so they don't wilt. But if you're growing them outside then clearly you're onto a winner. :-)
But the cycle doesn't go on forever, right? It's for the summer I guess only?
Or as long as you can off a warm, sunny windowsill.
What type of water?
He said tap water. They call it mains over there.
@@Tommyryes, I am wondering why he recommended tap water (I have not heard it called mains water in the UK before) over rainwater.
@@franceswatts4001You shouldn't use tap water. It has fluoride, chlorine, chloramine and potential softeners. Always use rain water if you have access to it If not then bottled water
@@franceswatts4001 Most Tap water contains all kind of additives that will KILL carnivorous plants if the TDS is over 50ppm. You can get a TDS meter for around $20 online to check your tap water. You can also use DISTILLED water but not any other bottled waters.
@@connecticutwormsgardens well, exactly. That’s why I wondered why he recommended tap water over rainwater!
Brill
Tired of buying them fir £3 a week
Please grow your channel on Rumble or some other non-google platform as I can no longer support Google in any form. I love your channel but will not we following it on UA-cam anymore.