When to start growing basil
How to Grow Basil - Complete Growing Guide
well hello everyone and welcome to
another complete growing guide here on
the mi garner Channel I am shocked and
cannot believe that we have not done a
complete growing guide on this but alas
the people in the youtube comment
section maybe even you have been
pestering me to do a growing guide and I
thought I thought I did a growing guide
but maybe I didn't who who knows so
we're doing it now
this one's on basil and it's a really
easy one so I know you all are going to
love it
and I can I can guarantee you that it's
going to get you grind basil because I
think a lot of people overcomplicate it
I don't know why but I think a lot of
people just prefer to buy it from the
store which again totally confuses me
because of the fact that it is so
expensive and we're talking a couple
sprigs for three dollars uh no you can
go take a hike for three dollars that's
ridiculous because when you see how much
we have growing here you're going to say
okay I could probably grow a plant
because the thing is we actually don't
even maintain this stuff it really once
you get it in you give it what it needs
it is so self maintaining there's just a
few care tips that I'm going to show you
all that's going to really help you out
and you don't have to do them to have a
successful basil plant but it's going to
help you out with your production and
overall overall production and overall
health of the plant so the first thing
we're going to talk about is a kind of
what you want to plant when it comes to
basil now the typical varieties we have
some purple right here beautiful we have
some Thai basil here we have some we
can't yet see is probably buried beneath
the the other basil varieties we have
some spicy globe basil there are
thousands of varieties of basil and so
you really want to kind of mix and match
for your own personal preferences
there's more unique culinary varieties
that we love because we love those
unique culinary flavors but the more
typical varieties that I would recommend
starting with are your sweet Basil's or
your Genovese basil those are really
easy go-to varieties that are going to
grow for you and I'm not saying that
your Thai Basil's or your spicy glow
Basil's aren't going to be for you but
they can be a little more tricky I'm not
going to lie there they are a little
more hands-on care and if you're gone
for a while you'll see what I'm talking
about a second when it comes to care but
the flavor is well worth it if you can
take care of them so just keep that in
mind but again if you're looking for
something for like a margarita pizza or
you're looking for something for
spaghetti sauce stuff like that it's
going to be your sweet Basil's or your
Genovese Basil's your very Italian style
Basil's so I just keep that in mind and
the next thing we're going to talk about
is sunlight so when it comes to sunlight
basil needs at least four hours of Sun
and we've actually talked about basil in
some of our other videos about five
plants that you can grow in shady in
shady areas basil does not need that
much Sun it will like it and I will say
it will like it if you can give it more
Sun so we give it about 10 to 11 hours
of Sun which is a lot of Sun but you can
do fine in any any more than four hours
now I prefer around five hours but I
know a lot of times people want to grow
in a windowsill or want to grow it in a
shadier part of the garden that might
not get that much Sun and maybe
underneath the tree if you're growing
permaculture early and that's fine it
grows great in that type of environment
and it grows where other plants buy not
so give that a shot if you have that
type of sunlight requirements now the
next day I wanna talk about is watering
when it comes to basil you need to keep
up on your watering it is drought
tolerant to a certain extent because it
is grown in more Mediterranean climates
however the Basil's really don't like to
go that dry you'll find that they go to
flower very quickly and flowering is not
a problem as we'll talk about with some
of our care tips but it just it helps to
kind of keep up the plant and you'll
find that some of your varieties you
actually find that as you grow will show
you the varieties we got growing on here
and you'll find that some of those
varieties do better in more drought
tolerant situations and because here we
only get up to water about once a week
once every two weeks um and we let the
rain pretty much water everything else
and we have some we have some some straw
cores as what I was trying to say so we
have some straw cores in the center of
these garden beds that help to retain
water but for the most part they they do
go dry in between waterings and
especially when it's that when it's this
dry like it has been here in Michigan um
so some of our varieties are are showing
those signs of you know hey I would
prefer to maybe be watered a little more
frequently and then there's the
varieties that you can see they'll also
show you that are like
you know what what do you mean no no
water come on what I'm doing just fine
so those are varieties that I might
suggest starting for the beginners now
the next thing that I want to talk about
is fertilizing when it comes to
fertilizing your basil it is not a
necessity
Basil's they don't require that much
nutrients to grow but they do grow
better and they do grow bigger and
produce more if you give them a
fertilizer that's slightly higher in
nitrogen we give everything trifecta
plus because it's our go-to all-purpose
fertilizer for all of our plants but if
you want to use something that you have
around the house just make sure it's a
little bit higher in nitrogen because it
does focus on leaves pretty much basal
you're looking at leaves if you're not
harvesting for the flowers you're not
harvesting for the roots you're not
really doing any of that kind of stuff
so a little bit higher in the in the
nitrogen category it's going to focus
the nitrogen to put out more leaves so
as you can see here this is our Italian
sweet basil this is more of what I was
talking about this is not even going to
flower at all it is kind of starting to
go to flower but it's really just
continuing to grow amazing for us this
is the Italian large leaf basil the
Genovese basil we actually have in
another bed but it's it's very
comparable in size and and you know
drought tolerance just over you actually
see that they're starting to flower
these are the spicy glow Basil's these
are hands-down the most hands-on a type
of basil to grow simply because they
require lots of pruning and we'll get
into pruning in a second which is one of
our care tips you don't have to do but
it really helps with the production and
overall health of the plant so as you
can see here they they're doing great
regardless of of what you're seeing with
the flowering what I wanted to talk
about with this shot here is the spacing
the spacing is really important you want
to make sure that your plants have
adequate airflow but make sure that
you're not spacing them so far out that
you're really not getting what you want
out of your beds the Basil's that we
have here are planted about 5 to 7
inches apart depending on the variety
some of our spicy glow Basil's they
really like to get large and bushy big
big bushes of basil where is the Italian
large leaf basil they typically grow up
and
kind of out so we where we have a little
more spacing in those we don't have as
much spacing where we give them we give
the the bushing varieties a little more
space and some of the the kind of
growing up the upright what I don't know
what to say the ones that grow straight
up and not as far out we can cramp them
a little bit closer there hopefully that
made sense so this is what I was talking
about when I said that the Basil's will
eventually go to seed inevitably it's
going to happen everything goes to seed
but certain basil varieties will go to
seed a lot faster and what happens is
the fragrance of the herbs the fragrance
of the leaves will begin to diminish and
the production of the leaves will begin
to diminish because of the fact is
actually focusing not on growing leaves
but instead on going to flower this is
great because the honeybees absolutely
love this so if you're planning these
for pollinators the honeybees going nuts
over these plants I can't tell you how
many honey bees we have just swarming
these plants but I also want to keep
them growing throughout the season so
what we're going to do is we're going to
come down because you'll notice that
they start to branch they start to Fork
and what we want to do is we want to
basically come through here and pick out
anything that is got these shapes focus
there we go we want to we want to take
out anything that has these little
flowers here because you'll you'll find
that when you let the flowers grow it
will stop growing period so what we want
to do is just take off all these and
this is what we're talking about the
care you know it's not as it's not as
easy to grow it some of your other ones
because not only does it produce a lot
of flowers you have to pinch off it also
produces them very frequently so this is
one of the ones you you don't want to be
someone that goes on vacation and
expects you know a nice bushy basil
plant when you come back because if
you're not here to pinch off these
flower stalks and keep it trimmed into a
nice bushy shape it's going to go wild
for you but if you are someone that is
home a lot it is a very rewarding plant
to grow because of the fact that it is
one that a lot of people do not grow for
this reason and so it's typically ones
that you see in specialty herb stores
that are you know eight nine dollars for
for a couple sprigs and that's really
all it takes to care of that plant and
this is going to be good for about two
three more weeks it's going to push a
lot more side growth it's going to about
double in size and it looks like some of
our bigger ones that we've been
maintaining a little bit better needless
to say the Thai basil is similar you
have again a plant that really loves to
to blossom out it looks fantastic and
it's beautiful when it flowers because
it's got these gorgeous purple flowers
and it puts out actually purple on the
leaves where it begins to flower however
that's not what we really want we really
want lots of basil and not a lot of
flowers because this early in the season
we don't want them to go flower yet
because it's going to yes the bees will
have a heyday but it's going to go to
flower later on in the season we let all
of our Basil's go to flower at the end
of the season where the bees can go
crazy on them and we can get seeds from
them but right now we want actually the
harvest leaves so it's important to keep
picking them keep picking the flowers
away now I didn't think I'd mentioned I
will be taking these in basil flowers
are edible they're very delicious and
they're actually more fragrant than the
plant is because like I said those
essential oils kind of they they begin
to kind of condense in the flowers to
attract the pollinators to that scent so
where the leaves kind of begin
diminishing the flowers and buds begin
really picking up some of that basil
aroma so I could just smell the air is
full of it already it's almost noxious
how how insane the the stuff smells but
the last thing that I did want to talk
about was when it comes to the
temperature Basil's do not like that
cold temperature they like it to be warm
now basil can tolerate 40 degrees just
fine but they don't prefer it I like to
make sure I put my Basil's out when it's
about anywhere between 45 and 50 degrees
at night so it's going to be later in
the season I typically plant mine around
Memorial Day Memorial Day is a lot later
than most of our other plants go in the
ground but it makes sure that the plants
are going to be off to a good start
because you'll find that if you plant
them in cold weather they'll be very
stunted and they won't grow very well
and that goes for any basil variety
right whether it's a spicy glow basil a
Thai basil or an Italian large leaf
basil now once they are started and they
are growing basil will grow up until the
first frost it will continue to grow and
I've actually had some basil varieties
survived a first frost once they get
established it's just you don't want to
put them out when it's cold because once
you start once you start bad they
typically are stunted throughout the
season but that's really it when it
comes to growing basil it's a very very
easy one to grow and a lot of people shy
away from it I think because maybe it's
maintenance maybe they just overthink it
I have no clue but hopefully this showed
just how easy it was a little care goes
a long ways and you can have some nice
fresh basil on on salads and pastas and
all man it's just it's one that you have
to grow to you just have to grow it so
that you can understand us how amazing
it is so hope y'all enjoyed hopefully
you all are growing basil if you are let
me know in the comments box below how
you're doing with it and also lets check
out all our other growing guides we have
so many of them I think we have like 20
or 21 now they're all over on my
gardener comm you can go to videos and
select growing guys or you can check out
our playlist here on youtube but go
check out our website as well cuz we
have lots of blogs and other cool free
information for you over there and it's
going to get you growing big or going
home so I'll talk to y'all later
hopefully you all are growing bigger
going home this is Luke and I'll talk to
y'all later
see ya bye
Oh
you
