How to grow basil in a pot (and keep it bushy)

Basil is one of the quickest herbs to pay you back: leaves can be picked about six weeks after planting. It is also the most sensitive to cold of anything in a beginner’s garden, so timing matters more than anything else.

The basics

• Pot: at least 6 inches across; a 10-inch pot (about 3 gallons) is better. The 3-inch nursery pot it came in is too small.
• Sun: full sun, 6 hours or more. It grows reasonably well with a little less.
• When: after all danger of frost, once nights stay above 50°F.
• Start from: seed or a small plant from the store. Both are easy.

The mistake that blackens it

Basil is very tender: its leaves blacken near 50°F, long before a frost. Putting it outside too early is the most common way to lose it. It goes out after the frost risk for tomatoes has passed, and comes in on any night forecast near 50°F.

Planting

Sow seeds about ¼ inch deep; they sprout in 5–7 days in warm mix, slower in cool. Thin to the strongest plants, about 12 inches apart, which in a 10-inch pot means one or two plants. For a head start, sow indoors 4–6 weeks before the plants go outside.

Water and feeding

Keep the mix steadily moist, never waterlogged: too-wet mix rots the roots. Feed lightly; heavy fertilizer gives lush leaves with less flavor.

Picking so it branches

• Start when the plant has 6–8 leaves.
• Cut the stem just above a pair of leaves. Two new stems grow from that point, which is what makes the plant bushy.
• Harvest every week, and never take more than a third of the plant at once.
• Heat and dry mix push it to flower. Pinch off flower buds as soon as you see them.