Content
Growing and caring for basil in open ground is very simple. Previously, it was planted only in the garden and was valued as a spicy, aromatic and medicinal crop. Now, thanks to the creation of new, highly decorative varieties, landscape designers have paid attention to basil. Dwarf forms are used for planting on a windowsill to have access to fragrant leaves all year round and improve the health of the air in an apartment or house.
Description and features of basil
Basil is a genus of shrubs and herbaceous plants with an annual or perennial life cycle from the Lamiaceae family, consisting of 69 species. Appearance and growth differ depending on belonging to a particular taxon. The most common varieties of Basil in cultivation are:
- fragrant (it is called ordinary, garden);
- mint leaf (camphor);
- eugenolic;
- fine-flowered (tulsi).
Garden and ornamental varieties of basil grow up to 20-80 cm in the form of a branched bush with superficial roots. The leaves can be large or small, smooth, corrugated, or covered with hairs. Their color varies from light green to dark purple, their smell is anise, lemon, mint, clove, clove-pepper. Small flowers are collected in 6-10 pieces. into loose brushes.
Today, the question of how to distinguish perennial basil from annual basil does not confront domestic gardeners even in the southernmost regions. The culture is so thermophilic that at temperatures below 12-15⁰ C it stops growing. Where summer temperatures rarely exceed 20 degrees, growing basil in open ground does not make sense.
Timing for planting basil in open ground
You can plant basil in open ground only after the soil has warmed up, and the temperature does not drop below 5⁰ C even at night. In some regions this is May, but in most it is early or mid-June.
It must be taken into account that the best temperature for the development of basil is above 16⁰ C. The crop is grown in open ground in the south; already in a temperate climate it is worth considering protecting it with film or other cover. But in cool or cold regions, it is safest to plant annual and perennial basil plants indoors.
How to properly plant basil in open ground
The place for growing basil should be open to sunlight, the soil should be close to neutral acidity, permeable to water.The crop grows poorly on heavy soils. The bushes should be protected from strong or cold winds.
The optimal scheme for planting basil in open ground is 30 cm between plants, with row spacing of 40 cm. In a greenhouse, denser placement of bushes is allowed.
When growing basil for yourself, it is not necessary to allocate a separate area for it. Bushes planted with strawberries, peppers or tomatoes will feel at ease, protect neighbors from pests, and make their fruits more aromatic and tasty.
If the site is located on loose, fertile black soil, and the basil is grown for one’s own consumption, a hole is dug, a bush is planted in it and watered. All. This is quite enough for an annual non-fruit-bearing crop.
They act differently if the soil is poor, dense, or basil is grown for commercial purposes. This involves the desire to obtain an early harvest or increase a volume of vegetative mass that can hardly be obtained without the use of fertilizers.
Organic matter – humus or compost – is added to the soil and dug up. This increases soil fertility and permeability. In annual and bush perennial basil, the root system is weak in the first year of life, so the holes are dug shallow. Young plants are planted, slightly deeper, and watered abundantly. You can add a teaspoon of complex fertilizers or fertilizers specifically designed for aromatic plants and greens to each well.
How to grow basil outdoors
If a separate area is allocated for growing basil and caring for it in open ground, then good predecessors would be:
- legumes – beans, peas, lentils, etc.;
- pumpkin – cucumber, zucchini, squash, pumpkin;
- nightshades – potatoes, tomato, eggplant, pepper.
Watering in open ground
Basil does not like watering with cold water. But often in the garden there is no large container in which the liquid is heated. Then all open ground crops are irrigated with water from a well or pipeline, including basil. This, of course, is not good, but there is no need to panic. And also urgently place buckets of water in the sun, or heat it in pans to dilute the cold water, and then water it manually. Just irrigate the basil in the morning - then the temperature of the soil and water differ less.
The frequency of watering is determined by each gardener independently. On the one hand, the culture tolerates some “abstinence” in moisture consumption; this even adds flavor to it. On the other hand, basil grown in an annual crop is still a herb, and with a weak root system; severe drying out can destroy it.
In hot weather, plants in open ground are watered more often, in cool weather - rarely. The structure and permeability of the soil matters. Loams, heavy or organic-rich soils retain water better, sand, black peat bogs require frequent irrigation. On average, basil is watered 1-2 times a week in the summer, but not abundantly and only after the soil has dried out (but has not turned to stone from lack of moisture).
Watering basil after planting in open ground
Growing and caring for basil in open ground begins immediately after planting. Until the plant takes root, it needs to be watered frequently, standing in the sun or with warm water.
This should be done every other day, and if the weather is hot and the soil dries out quickly - once a day. Abundant watering will lead to nothing - the liquid quickly evaporates, and the weak root, located in the upper layers of the soil, again requires moisture. It is enough to give 0.5 liters of water for each bush.
The signal that the basil has taken root and you can switch to a regular watering system will be the moment when new leaves and young shoots appear.
Does the crop need fertilizing?
Watering and fertilizing basil is an interesting question. If you overdo it with moistening the soil (without bringing it to the state of a swamp), there will be more greenery, but the aroma will be noticeably weaker than it could be. But in any case, it will be sufficient for both culinary specialists and those who like to treat themselves or loved ones with scents.
But with fertilizing everything is a little different. Many types of basil in their homeland are perennial crops; the supply of nutrients in the plant is initially sufficient to survive a “bad” year without losing its viability. Most of the energy is spent on flowering and setting seeds, but gardeners don’t need this, the buds break off as soon as they appear!
Basil is capable of producing green mass for salads, freezing, spices, treatment and aromatherapy without any additional fertilizing, and this will be the best raw material!
But if you feed the basil at least 2-3 times during the growing season in open ground, the bush will be much larger.With intensive fertilizers, the collection of marketable green mass will increase by 3-4 times. The smell of the leaves will be strong and rich, but it will be much less than basil, which is grown only in water.
The collection of green mass is carried out before flowering or at its beginning. If you do not let the buds set, the nutrients contained in the soil will last the basil until the end of the season.
Fertilizers of mineral origin tend to turn into nitrates. If the doses are small, it's not scary. But basil simply does not need as much nitrogen as enters its organs when feeding every 2 weeks. It begins to “grow fat” - to grow a lot of greenery, and does not form buds well. Like, what's wrong with that? Excess nitrate is poorly removed from leaves and shoots. Of course, if the herb is used little by little, only as a seasoning, and even in dried form, there are no problems. But such basil will not be beneficial as a medicine. It is also better not to use it in aromatherapy. When fresh, it should be consumed carefully.
Growing basil commercially without fertilizing is unprofitable. It takes a long time to reach a state where the shoots can be cut off and is not an early ripening product. Of course, you can pick out 1-2 leaves for a salad or marinade a week after planting. But commercial cutting begins, depending on the variety, 60-90 days after germination!
When planting basil, it is correct to add fertilizer to the soil, or even better, humus and ash. When cutting is done, the crop is fed with fermented mullein or green manure. This way the basil will grow new shoots faster.
Of course, you can replace such “delicacies” with a complex mineral supplement, or give it every 2 weeks, as many sources advise. But the aroma of basil will be slightly different, it (both the aroma and the basil) will lose its healing properties, and for those who are keen on Ayurveda or other similar practices, it will be useless.
Weeding and loosening the soil
Basil loves shallow loosening of the soil. If you do it 1-2 times a week, you will need to water the crop less, and the weeds will simply stop growing. It is very convenient to form bushes for this, cutting off the lower branches first for food - then you won’t have to “dance” around the plant while loosening.
Removing flowers
Flowers should be left only on those plants from which seeds are going to be obtained. Naturally, they do not touch the basil that is grown for decorative purposes. The remaining bushes have their buds plucked out as soon as they appear.
Topping
Basil responds very well to pinching. When planting in open ground, you can remove not only the top of the main shoot, but also shorten the side shoots (if any). When the plant takes root and grows, the operation should be repeated. This will increase the yield of green mass without any fertilizers by approximately 2 times.
In the future, when plucking buds, collecting leaves for salad or marinade, you should remove some of the shoots that are excessively elongated compared to others.
Reproduction
Basil is propagated by seedlings, by sowing seeds in the ground (April) and vegetatively. The branches take root well in water, sand or wet peat.It is better not to count on self-sowing - even in the Central regions of Ukraine, after a warm winter, only a few random sprouts may hatch.
Harvesting
First you need to decide what to collect - greens for sale or freezing, or raw materials for drying. Young shoots 10-12 cm long can be cut up to 5 times per season. At the same time, the maximum yield of green mass per square meter of basil planting is 1.5 kg. Pruning is carried out simultaneously of all bushes as the branches grow. Then the plants are fed.
For subsequent drying, basil is harvested at the beginning of flowering, since then the most essential oils are concentrated in the leaves. It is better to prune in the budding phase than to be late. Well-opened flowers draw on all the substances accumulated by the plant (essential, for example, to attract bees).
Dry the basil by tying the shoots in bunches and hanging them in a dry, hot, well-ventilated room out of direct sunlight. You can tear off the leaves and spread them in a thin layer. But then you will have to stir and turn them over often. To preserve all essential oils, the drying temperature should not exceed 35 degrees.
Diseases and pests of basil
Basil is not one of the crops that often gets sick, and pests generally prefer to avoid not only its bushes, but also those that simply grow nearby. This is often used by supporters of organic farming to make it easier to control many crop-destroying insects.
If basil grows freely and is watered sparingly, it is unlikely to get sick. Crowded plantings and high humidity are more often a problem in greenhouses than in open ground.But if the crop is planted without taking into account the growth of the bush, next to plants that require frequent watering, problems may arise. Basil will also suffer if it is too rainy in the summer, especially on dense soil. He may get sick:
- Fusarium. The stem will become thin and brown, then the top will dry out, the bush will gradually wither, despite watering and loosening the soil.
- gray rot. This fungal disease begins to develop on damaged parts of the plant. For example, if, when collecting leaves for salad or marinade, you do not carefully cut them with scissors or pinch them off, but simply pull them, you can seriously injure the plant. Gray rot manifests itself in the appearance of first white and then gray fluff on infected shoots.
In both cases, the diseased plant is simply destroyed, and as soon as possible. Preventative spraying of basil is not carried out; it is simply planted freely, without overwatering, individual leaves and twigs are plucked off or trimmed carefully.
Conclusion
Growing and caring for basil in open ground is much simpler than it might seem after reading any article on the Internet. If you only need a few bushes, you can plant them in place of fallen tomato seedlings and simply collect leaves as needed.
