Learn how to grow super healthy basil plants inside your house. You can start them from seed or take cuttings from outside plants before it gets too cold. Basil can grow really well all year round. There’s a few important techniques to use to make basil grow well indoors .
A common query we ran across in our research was “Can you grow Basil from seed indoors?”.
Start indoors in individual pots, plant seeds outdoors when frosts are over and the ground is warm, or buy bedding plants. If you start plants indoors , heating cables are helpful, since this is a tropical plant that doesn’t take kindly to cold.
Can Basil survive outside in the Cold?
Basil can survive outside for brief periods of cold as long as you take proper precautions, and temperatures don’t hit freezing. Covering your basil plant is a good way to protect it from the elements and lock in warmth.
How do you take care of basil plants outside?
Plant basil when nighttime temperatures are steadily above 55 degrees Fahrenheit, usually in mid- to late-spring for Sunset’s Climate Zones 14 through 17, and tend it through the growing season to ensure the most productive plants.
Whether being grown indoors or outdoors, basil plants need ample light —at least six hours of full sun daily. Basil plants prefer a soil mixture that is moist but well-draining. For best results, aim to keep your basil plants regularly moist. A couple extra ideas to keep in mind are: 4 temperature and humidity, or 5 fertilizer.
Why doesn’t Basil grow all year long?
The most obvious reason is that basil is an annual plant. By it’s very nature, basil is intended to survive for only one season . Wikipedia says “An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seed, within one year, and then dies.”.
Annual basil will eventually flower and decline . Cold weather can speed the process by killing back the plant. You can extend the productivity of the herb by potting it and bringing it indoors in the fall. Basil comes in many varieties, all of them suitable for summer outdoor gardens in most climate zones.
Is Basil an annual or perennial plant?
Native to tropical Asia, basil, also called sweet basil or common basil, is an annual , growing outdoors in U. S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 11. It dies back at the first frost of the season, but you can avoid that problem by growing a pot indoors in the brightest spot you have.