Sweet Basil (Common Basil)
Ocimum basilicum. LAMIACEAE (LABIATAE).
Planting and Growing Sweet Basil
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow sweet basil in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and root structure of sweet basil
- Plant hardiness and growing conditions for sweet basil
- Season of bloom and planting time for sweet basil
- When, how deep, and where to plant sweet basil
- How to plant sweet basil
- Watering, fertilizing, care, and pests or diseases of sweet basil
- Landscape and container uses of sweet basil
- Comments about sweet basil and its features
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Growing Sweet Basil
Many cultivars of erect, bushy annual herbs, 8–24 in. (20–60 cm) tall and wide. Shiny, deeply textured, deep green, purple, often variegated with brown, oval or pointed, fragrant leaves, 3–5 in. (75–125 mm) long, sometimes with ruffled edges.
Common cultivars include Ocimum basilicum ‘Citriodorum’, ‘Dark Opal’, ‘Minimum’, and ‘Purple Ruffles’.
Planting and Care Guide
Blooms
Insignificant, tiny, cream, purple, white flowers surrounded by whorls of green bracts, in spiking clusters, in summer.
Best Climates
Self-seeding, zones 2–11.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist to damp, well-drained soil. Fertility: Rich–average. 6.0–7.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Early spring in full sun, 8–12 in. (20–30 cm) apart, when soil is workable. Start seed indoors 4–6 weeks before final frost for early foliage; transplant when soil warms. Plant successions every 2 weeks to prolong foliage display.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep moist. Fertilize every 2 months. Mulch. Pinch back flowers to prolong foliage growth. Propagate by seed.
About This Plant
Good choice for borders, containers, edgings in herb gardens. Flowers and leaves are edible. Sweet basil’s foliage are the source of basil, a culinary ingredient and spice, used fresh or dried. Disease resistant. Slug, snail susceptible.