Doc's Whimsies

To seed or not to seed

  • basil
  • herbs
  • propagation

My fall garden inquiry: is it better to grow my basil from seed or from propagated cuttings?

I’m usually annoyed at people who claim that growing basil is easy. I have struggled with lackluster harvests before my basil bolts. Even growing in zone 10a’s moderate coastal climate does not seem to protect me from the trials and tribulations of growing herbs.

I want enough basil to be able to harvest in large batches and preserve it as frozen cubes of pesto or chimichurri. But I have only felt that sweet success once. Here’s my GreenStalk’s top tier bursting with basil.

The top tier of a tan GreenStalk vertical planter overflowing with a dense mound of basil

Nature finds a way

I had given up on my basil earlier this year, but noticed later in the season that a single basil plant had made a miraculous comeback. This is why you should never cut down your plants: nature finds a way.

A leafy basil plant regrowing in a galvanized raised bed, surrounded by wood-chip mulch

I decided to take some cuttings from just below a growth node and place them in a mug of water. I set the mug on my windowsill as a nice-looking bouquet and waited about three weeks for the roots to grow an inch or so.

Basil cuttings with long white water roots laid out on a wooden cutting board beside a “Proud Plant Parent” glass mug

I transplanted these cuttings into my GreenStalks and raised beds in hopes of some basil bounty.

So far, so… alive

The good news is that they live, but I’m still undecided on whether they will really take off. Here are the transplants after a week of acclimating to outdoor conditions.

Two young basil cuttings planted in the top pockets of a tan GreenStalk vertical planter

A tan GreenStalk planter with basil cuttings in the upper pockets and lettuce seedlings in the tiers below

Basil cuttings growing in a straw-mulched raised bed alongside flowering cucumber vines on a trellis

I’ll provide an update at the end of the season, but I will remain forever the pessimist. And here are my basil plants that were started from seed indoors and transplanted into the raised beds.

Two small seed-started basil plants in a straw-mulched raised bed between heads of romaine lettuce

I’m still working on building my soil health, so that’s an important variable that can be improved. I will redo this experiment next year to see if there’s a definitive answer to what results in the largest bounty. Oh, how the heart yearns for basil.