general notes / tips
- Fridge – If you stick the basil in the fridge, the basil will turn brown and die. Basil likes warmth!
- Trimming the stem – Prior to doing this, the success rate was 85%. After doing this, the success rate has been 100%!
- Root growth – If you keep the basil alive long enough, it will eventually grow roots then you can plant it!
- Hot weather – It survives! I have left the basil for 5 consecutive days in a kitchen with all the windows closed and no air conditioning where 2 of the days were very hot 32°C summer days. The kitchen area gets blasted with morning sun and it gets very warm in here on hot days without air conditioning. It wasn’t quite as perky as the day I left it, but it wasn’t floppy or brown and still in excellent condition. In fact, here is the exact bunch in question:
The leaves got a bit wrinkly and the leaves on some of the stems that ended up above the water line were a bit floppy (most of the water had evaporated). But it is still in much better condition that 24 hours in the fridge!
Other methods I’ve tried
You name it, I’ve tried it. Loosely wrapped in paper towels, in “ballooned” freezer bags, makeshift greenhouse, in airtight containers, in containers with racks on the base, leaving it in the plastic sleeve it came in. The most success I had was in a glass of water loosely covered with a freezer bag in the fridge door where it survived 4 days, but I had to wipe condensation off the inside of the bag every day. What a pain!
Basil pot plants – In the end, I had resorted to buying the disposable basil pot plants and snipping off what I needed. But these pots don’t yield enough when I want to make a giant batch of pesto! So on those occasions, I was getting basil on the day I needed it.
general notes / tips
- Fridge – If you stick the basil in the fridge, the basil will turn brown and die. Basil likes warmth!
- Trimming the stem – Prior to doing this, the success rate was 85%. After doing this, the success rate has been 100%!
- Root growth – If you keep the basil alive long enough, it will eventually grow roots then you can plant it!
- Hot weather – It survives! I have left the basil for 5 consecutive days in a kitchen with all the windows closed and no air conditioning where 2 of the days were very hot 32°C summer days. The kitchen area gets blasted with morning sun and it gets very warm in here on hot days without air conditioning. It wasn’t quite as perky as the day I left it, but it wasn’t floppy or brown and still in excellent condition. In fact, here is the exact bunch in question:
The leaves got a bit wrinkly and the leaves on some of the stems that ended up above the water line were a bit floppy (most of the water had evaporated). But it is still in much better condition that 24 hours in the fridge!
Other methods I’ve tried
You name it, I’ve tried it. Loosely wrapped in paper towels, in “ballooned” freezer bags, makeshift greenhouse, in airtight containers, in containers with racks on the base, leaving it in the plastic sleeve it came in. The most success I had was in a glass of water loosely covered with a freezer bag in the fridge door where it survived 4 days, but I had to wipe condensation off the inside of the bag every day. What a pain!
Basil pot plants – In the end, I had resorted to buying the disposable basil pot plants and snipping off what I needed. But these pots don’t yield enough when I want to make a giant batch of pesto! So on those occasions, I was getting basil on the day I needed it.
