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Could you post a picture? I'm intrigued by the idea of having too much basil - we pay a crazy amount ($1-$2) for maybe a dozen leaves when we make pizza. I've

Could you post a picture? I'm intrigued by the idea of having too much basil - we pay a crazy amount ($1-$2) for maybe a dozen leaves when we make pizza. I've always been afraid that there would be not point in getting a basil plant because we'd strip it bare each time we needed basil.

SwellJoe 12y ago
Basil is really easy to grow, and grows pretty aggressively. We have a handful of new plants (~3 months old, planted from seedlings) in the back yard, and I use a couple dozen leaves every couple of days. They continue to get bigger and definitely aren't stripped bare. My roommate just chopped the top third off of all of the plants in order to make starters for more plants. A week later, I can't tell they've been chopped off...they regrew a bunch of new leaves. Theoretically, they can be trained to be bushy and short (which produces "sweeter" leaves), but so far ours are re-growing tall. Nonetheless, I have a lot of fresh basil and it's all delicious (big leaves are chewier and have a more licorice flavor, little leaves are milder and sweeter, etc.). I don't know what we'll do with the starters for more plants, as I think we probably have enough basil. But, "too much basil" might be a nice problem to have.
exDM69 12y ago
This is a pretty big wall garden, with three shelves about two feet wide. We're talking about a four feet high, three feet wide wall of green you can stick your head in :) Can't provide a picture, sorry. The varieties of basil we grow start out slow but grow really fast after a few weeks. The individual plants reach a height of several feet in a month or so. We have started out by planting a few seeds and once those plants reach some height, we take cuttings to clone them and fill the entire garden. I've had an almost 100% success rate in cloning basil, much better than any other plant I've tried. Do not trim the growth nodes (you won't eat them anyway), just pick as much leaves as you need from the lower parts of the plants. Basil is really easy to grow in hydrocultures, it's much more difficult to grow in soil. Rucola is the opposite, I've had zero success putting it in the hydros at the office but grows really well at home in soil.

SwellJoe 12y ago

Basil is really easy to grow, and grows pretty aggressively. We have a handful of new plants (~3 months old, planted from seedlings) in the back yard, and I use a couple dozen leaves every couple of days. They continue to get bigger and definitely aren't stripped bare. My roommate just chopped the top third off of all of the plants in order to make starters for more plants. A week later, I can't tell they've been chopped off...they regrew a bunch of new leaves. Theoretically, they can be trained to be bushy and short (which produces "sweeter" leaves), but so far ours are re-growing tall. Nonetheless, I have a lot of fresh basil and it's all delicious (big leaves are chewier and have a more licorice flavor, little leaves are milder and sweeter, etc.). I don't know what we'll do with the starters for more plants, as I think we probably have enough basil. But, "too much basil" might be a nice problem to have.

exDM69 12y ago

This is a pretty big wall garden, with three shelves about two feet wide. We're talking about a four feet high, three feet wide wall of green you can stick your head in :) Can't provide a picture, sorry. The varieties of basil we grow start out slow but grow really fast after a few weeks. The individual plants reach a height of several feet in a month or so. We have started out by planting a few seeds and once those plants reach some height, we take cuttings to clone them and fill the entire garden. I've had an almost 100% success rate in cloning basil, much better than any other plant I've tried. Do not trim the growth nodes (you won't eat them anyway), just pick as much leaves as you need from the lower parts of the plants. Basil is really easy to grow in hydrocultures, it's much more difficult to grow in soil. Rucola is the opposite, I've had zero success putting it in the hydros at the office but grows really well at home in soil.