10 Dark Night Red Basil Seeds

Dark Night Red Basil is the showpiece of the basil family: its glossy leaves carry a deep burgundy-to-near-black colour that holds well from seedling to harvest, making it as much an ornamental plant as a kitchen herb. The aroma is the classic warm, sweet basil scent with a peppery clove edge, and the dark leaves bring rich colour and a slightly spicier bite to salads, herb vinegars, infused oils and fresh garnishes. Equally at home filling a sunny border or crowning a balcony pot, this is the variety to grow when you want flavour and dramatic colour together.

Planting

Basil is a warm-season annual that is sensitive to frost, so timing matters. Start seed indoors about 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, waiting until nighttime temperatures stay consistently above 10 C. In Egypt the practical approach is to sow in a seedbed in late January to February and transplant the young plants to the open field in March to April once nights are reliably warm, giving a long cutting season that runs through to October. Sow the seed about 0.6 cm deep. Seeds usually germinate in roughly 5 to 10 days, and germination is best when the soil or media sits at about 18 to 21 C. Space full-size plants about 15 to 30 cm apart, or as close as 10 to 20 cm if you are growing mainly for cut leaves, with direct-sown rows about 45 cm apart. Choose a spot in full sun: basil wants at least 6 to 8 hours of bright light a day and prefers a warm, sheltered, sunny site, though it will tolerate part sun.

Fertilizing

Apply a low-nitrogen starter fertilizer before planting. In good ground soil basil often needs no extra feeding at all, but if growth slows about two months after planting you can side-dress with a nitrogen feed, using roughly 0.1 to 0.2 kg of calcium nitrate per section of row. Plants grown in containers benefit from an organic-based balanced liquid feed diluted and applied every 3 to 6 weeks; avoid high-potassium feeds, which do not suit basil.

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, and more often for plants in containers. Water at the base of the plant in the morning and avoid wetting the foliage, which helps reduce disease such as downy mildew. Thin or transplant seedlings to their final spacing once they have developed 2 to 3 pairs of true leaves; indoor-started plants go out about 6 weeks after sowing, once frost has passed. Pinch the growing tips regularly, at least once a week, to keep plants bushy, and pinch out flower buds as they appear because flowering turns the leaves more bitter and reduces yield. Start picking young leaves as you need them, harvesting in the cool of early morning for the best flavour; for a full cut, take the plant back to about 10 to 15 cm above the ground to encourage fresh regrowth. Watch for aphids, slugs and snails, spider mites and whiteflies, and keep water off the leaves to limit fungal problems.