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Basil

     Basil is a spicy annual, or tender perennial herb commonly used in several culinary dishes, the most well known of which is likely Pesto Sauce. Basils require full sun, usually do best as transplants, or when started indoors as seedlings before being moved outside into heavily fertilized and well watered areas. Basil is best when pruned frequently during the season and kept from bolting. Excess basil can be dried and stored, although quality of the harvest may be better retained by freezing whole leaves.

     To save seed for the following year, allow to bolt toward the end of the season and cut the seeds off right before they start popping out of the seedheads. Placed in a cool, dry container, they should be viable come Spring. If you wish to retain any particular basil cultivar then do not plant basils anywhere near each other or they will hybridize. Alternatively you can propogate them through cuttings, and can overwinter plants indoors or in greenhouses without fear of hybridizing.














This article was last edited on Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 11:32am EST.