Basil is an attractive and versatile herb that can be grown indoors or outdoors. As one of the most popular herbs that you want to keep on-hand at all times, it’s desirable to want to know how to grow basil from cuttings year-round.
The first thing you’ll need is a healthy basil plant. The plants are inexpensive and can often be purchased at the local supermarket. It’s the only plant that you’ll need to buy, after that you can grow basil plant from cuttings year-round!
Transplant
Transplant the newly purchased herb plant into a larger container filled with organic soil. Keep soil consistently moist.
Allow the transplanted basil to becomes established in the new container for one month before taking a cutting.
The new plant can be transplanted directly into an outdoor garden if all danger of frost has passed in the spring. Allow plant to adjust to outdoor life for one month before taking a cutting.
Plenty Of Light
Basil is a sun-loving plant and will need at least 6-hours of direct sunlight each day. If the plant does not receive enough sunlight it will become leggy.
Select an outdoor planting location in full sun or place a container-grown plant on a sunny windowsill.
Take Cuttings
Cuttings can be taken from a basil plant anytime and used in recipes or to start a new plant. Keeping the top pinched out of the plant will create a bushier plant with more stems to cut off.
Snip a 4-inch (10 cm) long piece of stem from the plant just below a leaf node. Make an angle cut so the cutting will have more surface for uptaking water.
Remove all the bottom leaves from the stem and select from these two rooting options:
- Place cutting in a small glass of water and set glass in a bright location away from direct sunlight. Change water every other day to prevent algae from growing. The cutting will develop roots in 2-weeks. When the roots are 2-inches (5 cm) long the cutting is ready to be transplanted into organic potting soil.
- Dip the cut end of the cutting in rooting hormone and plant in a container of organic potting soil. Place container in a bright location and keep soil consistently moist. Wait one month then transplant cutting outdoors or into a larger container.
Fragrant Houseplant
Basil can be grown as an indoor-outdoor plant when it’s grown in a container. Place the container in a sunny location outdoors during warm weather and bring the container indoors during the winter.
It’s an attractive, fragrant houseplant that produces spikes of tiny white blooms in late summer. The seeds are in the blooms and can be collected and saved for starting basil plants. Seeds can be started indoors any time of the year but wait until all danger of frost has passed in the spring before planting basil seeds directly into outdoor soil.
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