Growing basil indoors

I like basil. I use it often in pastas, on sandwiches and in salads. However, this herbal affection has become quite expensive given the price/quantity ratio offered at Treasure Island. They get away with this highway robbery because they understand what the fragrant aroma does to people like me. Surely the produce department is packaging this stuff in little plastic baggies with a wry smile.

I am also always on the lookout for a new hobby. So, when I happened upon potted basil plants for $3 at the Lincoln Park farmer

Basil is an outdoor annual flowering plant; it needs full sun (like, 8 hours a day), rich soil (much more so than most herbs), and space - and LOTS of it - to grow. I have three basil plants outdoors in a 14" pot, and they are flourishing.

If you want to save yours, quit trying to grow it as a houseplant - the plant will be leggy and weak, and it will be susceptible to attacks by aphids, whitefly, etc. , not to mention puny in flavor, too. Transplant it to a tall 8" pot, and put it out on your porch, if you have one. Water with rooting hormone for a couple of weeks. Let it grow for a couple of weeks, and pinch off any forming flowers. But don't expect it to overwinter in the house. Ain't gonna happen.

Sorry.

Darn, third floor walkup - no porch. no delicious home-grown basil for me.

thanks for the reply.

- Simon

Simon,

I grew some very nice basil in a pot on my kitchen counter to support my basil habit all winter. The window it was near has a W/NW exposure, so it could get some nice mid-late afternoon sun. I am now growing more basil (also in a pot) on my deck and I have to say that this crop looks much happier than what I grew on my counter. However, that will not deter me from growing it indoors again this winter.

Given what you were saying I wanted to offer one caveat. When you see the leaves start to turn yellowish, I have always taken that as a sign that I am overwatering. My solution was always to let the soil dry out a bit more than I normally would before watering until the color in the leaves was restored. I would only water when the soil was dry to the touch.

Bon chance!

Back "in the day" when I was a more active homebrewer I used to obtain most of my supplies from the AGS shop out in Schaumburg/Streamwood. As they sold both brewing supplies and alternative garden supplies they always had tables of things growing via hydroponics to better display the products. One of the staples was basil. Year-round they always had at least several square feet or more of hydroponically grown basil.

This became a great supply for me of fresh basil at really cheap prices as they needed to keep trimming back their crops. Since the business was more focused on the sale of supplies and equipments than produce they would fresh-clip about a lunchbag-sized brown paper bag full of them for the lofty sum of $1. Nothing better than heading home with some beermaking supplies and the makings for pesto.

It's been ages since I've set food inside so I have no idea how it is today. I have always had an idea in the back of my head to begin tinkering with indoor hydroponics, though, just to try and have that year-round plentiful and affordable supply of herbs (and maybe some produce). I still have space in one of the basement rooms "zoned off" just in case I ever get one of those round tuits.

Kwe730 wrote:the soil dry out a bit more than I normally would before watering until the color in the leaves was restored. I would only water when the soil was dry to the touch.

Thanks for the advice. I will try this method. Do I need to worry about feeding this plant, and what size pot is ideal?

I once had a floundering basil plant sitting in a window, I got a GOOD plant light and put it in a bigger pot and it really sprang to life.

I am sure you can grow basil indoors all winter, but you probably need to mail-order a light. I spent something like $80 on mine - seems quite capable of getting plants to grow leaves (but not flowers or fruit/seeds).

Good luck!

Nancy

I have neither a yard nor a porch, but I've grown basil from seed on my east and north (the only kinds I have) window sills pretty successfully all through the year. Cook's Garden

http://www.cooksgarden.com/departments. ... 1005&dpt=1

sells several kinds. Mammoth and Sweet Genovese do the best and have excellent flavor. There are large quantities of seeds in a packet and I only start a few seeds at a time so that I can start new plants when the old ones begin to deteriorate. I ferilize them with fish emulsion about once a month,

Greenfield's Hydroponics.8139 N Milwaukee in Niles.(847)965-5056.I have only heard of them,never visited.

I would definitely feed your basil, but make sure you are using something that is herb/vegetable specific.

As far as pot size, I guess it depends on what you have room for. If you invest in a grow light like Nancy was talking about, I'm sure you don't want to just confine yourself to the kitchen counter.

Edwardos, the deep dish pizza chain, used to grow all their basil in their foyer, with gorw lights and a plant stand. Probably shut down by health, but I thought the concept was interesting. Whaddya mean you can't grow basil indoors?

pd

Well, you can, meaning it's possible to do so, but it just doesn't work very well, unless you want to invest in grow lights and such - and even then it is seemingly a whitefly/aphid magnet. As I said, basil is an annual flowering plant, and requires 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day for robust growth and good flavor.

I've grown basil indoors myself - and was never happy with the results. I never said it was physically impossible; it just doesn't produce A-1 results. Factoring in the cost of good grow lights, it's probably more economical to just buy it for a buck-ninety-eight at TI.

Basil, particularly the Italian types, seems to need very strong light and warm temperatures to develop full flavor. Think hothouse hydroponic tomatoes versus field grown in the summer. I wonder how much fresh basil in supermarkets and restaurants is grown outdoors, though, so many consumers have never been exposed to the good stuff.

I have 2 sets of full-spectrum fluorescent lights hanging an adjustable chains in the basement for starting plants. I also have heating cables on a sand bed on the bench so plants can have warm soil with cool basement air. This is about as good a setup as you can have for growing indoor basil. All we use any more are thinnings from the plants to be grown outdoors, and the flavor just isn't there. This applies both to Genovese Compacta (a less large cultivar of Genovese) and Sweet Dani lemon basil. Johnny's Seeds sells both Genovese types. The Compacta is great in a small garden and probably the best bet for growing in pots, since it won't try to grow 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide per plant. In my experience Piccolino basil (small leaves and plants) looks pretty but is short on flavor.

Second the comment about white flies and aphids.