Italian Basil Seeds F1 Imported 10 Seeds

Italian Basil is the celebrated sweet basil of the Mediterranean kitchen, loved for its large, glossy, deep-green cupped leaves and a warm, sweet aroma with a distinctive clove-like note. This is the classic pesto basil: its tender, fragrant foliage is perfect for hand-torn use over pasta, pizza, tomato and mozzarella salads, and fresh sauces, making it both a flavourful culinary herb and a handsome, leafy plant for sunny beds and pots.

Planting

Basil is a warm-season annual that is sensitive to frost, so timing matters. You can start seed indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last spring frost, or sow and transplant outdoors only after all danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed — wait until nighttime temperatures stay consistently above 10 C. Sow the seed about 0.6 cm deep. Seeds usually germinate in around 5 to 10 days, with the best results at a soil temperature of about 18 to 21 C; basil germinates well at around 20 C. Thin or transplant the seedlings once they have developed 2 to 3 pairs of true leaves, moving them to their final spacing; indoor-started seedlings can go out about 6 weeks after sowing once frost danger has passed. Space full-size plants roughly 15 to 30 cm apart, or closer at about 10 to 20 cm for cut-leaf production, with direct-sown rows about 45 cm apart. Give the plants full sun — at least 6 to 8 hours of bright light per day; they tolerate part sun but prefer a warm, sheltered, sunny spot. In Egypt, the main constraint is avoiding cold nights below about 10 C rather than summer heat. A reliable approach is to start seed in protected or seedbed conditions in late January to February and transplant out in March to April once nights are dependably above 10 C, giving a long cutting season from June through October; in warmer Upper Egypt the frost-free window is wider, so transplanting can begin a few weeks earlier and a second autumn crop is feasible. Avoid open-field sowing in the cold of mid-winter (December to January).

Fertilizing

Basil grown in good ground soil often needs no added fertilizer at all. Where you do feed, apply a low-nitrogen starter fertilizer before planting. If growth slows about 2 months after planting, side-dress with roughly 0.1 to 0.2 kg of calcium nitrate per row section as a nitrogen boost. Container-grown plants benefit most from feeding: use a diluted balanced liquid feed every 3 to 6 weeks, ideally an organic-based balanced feed, and avoid high-potassium feeds.

Care

Basil is not drought tolerant and needs a fairly constant supply of soil moisture, so keep the soil evenly moist. Water deeply about every 7 to 10 days — more often for containers — and water at the base in the morning, avoiding wetting the foliage to help reduce disease. Watering at the base also helps limit downy mildew, one of the plant's common problems alongside Fusarium wilt, gray mold, bacterial leaf spot, and damping-off and root rots; watch too for pests such as aphids, slugs and snails, spider mites, whiteflies, Japanese beetles, and leafhoppers. Start harvesting young leaves as needed and pinch the terminal shoot tips regularly, at least weekly, to encourage bushy growth. For the best flavour, harvest just before flowering and pinch out flower buds as they appear — plants typically begin to flower in mid- to late summer, and flowering makes them woody and the leaves more bitter, so remove flower stems to keep leaf quality high. For a full cut, take the plant back to about 10 to 15 cm above the ground to promote regrowth, and harvest in the cool of the early morning.