My Basil plant is blooming! It's gonna have kids! The way things grow down here in the swamp, I'm gonna be rolling in home-made pesto all year! I bought a box with four full grown plants at a nursery for like six bucks. That's how much a bottle of dried basil costs at the supermarket. Apparently two were female and two were male. One of them died because I can't water them when I'm working offshore, so I have to hope it rains enough. The other one with flowers (I don't know if it's the males, or the females that produce fruit) is doing quite well, and today I noticed three flowers that look like tiny white orchids.
I'm not claiming to have a green thumb yet, though. the plants I have tried to raise from seeds are all dead, or in pretty bad shape from bugs eating at them. Oh well, looks like I at least have some free basil seeds coming.
2 comments:
Cool! Well - at least you're still trying, right? I almost made homemade Pesto tonight actually. Why don't I have a Basil plant?
That's a good looking basil plant!
It is traditional to pinch off the flowering buds to encourage more leaf growth, but if you leave them on a branch or two they will form seeds. Basil doesn't have male/female plants. Each flower produces pollen and accepts other basil flowers's pollen, so you can get seed with a single plant.
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