Planting basil seedlings at home

Basil is one of the most popular spices. Its taste makes meat dishes, various soups, salads and desserts richer. The homeland of the plant is India. However, the spice is now grown all over the world. It can grow in almost any climatic conditions. In warm regions, basil is planted as seeds in open ground. In the center of our country (for example, in the Moscow region), as well as in the north, it is planted in beds in the form of seedlings. At the same time, planting basil seedlings at home is a simple matter. The main thing is to know some rules for providing the plant with comfortable conditions.

Basil itself is very beautiful. It has juicy leaves in different shades. It blooms with small, compact flowers that have a lavender, snow-white color. Often gardeners prefer to plant a crop not only to obtain fragrant greenery, but also to decorate the garden.

Cultural Agrotechnics Tips

• Due to the fact that basil came from a very warm country, this culture is thermophilic. Seeds sprout in warm soil. The best temperature at which a green bush will grow is from +17 to +27 degrees. Frosts are fatal for him. If it gets colder outside to +10 degrees, the plant may stop developing;
• Basil loves water, but does not tolerate waterlogging. Watering the plant should be moderate but constant. It is especially necessary to water the crop after the seed is in the ground. Seeds in moist soil will germinate better. Periodic timely watering is also required until August. In August, the bush blooms. At this time, the number of waterings can be significantly reduced. During and after flowering, basil does not need additional moisture;
• The place for the basil in the garden must be chosen in advance. This should be a lighted area. The plant is demanding on sunlight. The basil area should not be in shade or partial shade. In such an area, the plant will be stunted;
• Another tip for crop farming is to plant it in a windless space. Cold gusts of wind can negatively affect the growth of greenery;
• The soil in which basil can be successfully grown is loose, light, where there is a lot of humus. Sandy loam, loam are suitable. The acidity is neutral.

Planting seedlings

The middle zone of Russia, just like Siberia, cannot boast of a very warm spring. Therefore, in the Moscow region, Tyumen, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk and other regions, basil seeds are first planted in an apartment. It is reliable. After 2 months, the bushes can already be transplanted into open ground. During this period, the plant will gain strength. The risk that it will wither in the garden is minimal.

Planting the basil

How to plant basil seedlings correctly? Regardless of the cultivar, experienced gardeners recommend planting seeds in early spring. March is coming. You can choose a suitable day by looking at the lunar calendar.

The seeds are pre-prepared. They are disinfected in a manganese solution. For 2 hours dipped in a growth stimulator. Then, for a day, they are placed in wet gauze, which is constantly moistened.Thus, the planting material will swell and lose some of the essential oil that would inhibit germination.

Soil preparation

For the spice, a ready-made soil mixture from the store is suitable. You can prepare the ground yourself. For this, rotted compost of 200 grams, 400 grams of peat, 100 grams of sand are mixed. The sand needs to be rinsed. If this amount is not enough, you can prepare more soil mixture, observing the proportions. Next, the substrate is sieved, steamed or heated in the oven. You can use boiling water. Spill the mixture with hot water. Why should you do this? Because the high temperature kills fungal spores, pest eggs. The industrial mixture is advised to be disinfected. It is treated with potassium permanganate.

As a container, you can use boxes, containers, wide pots, cassettes. The culture loves moisture, but hates waterlogging. Drainage is necessarily laid out on the bottom. It can be pebbles, rubble, expanded clay.

How to sow basil seedlings

1. The soil mixture in the container is well spilled. The seeds are very small and difficult to plant individually. Therefore, it is recommended to sow in rows;
2. It is not necessary to deepen the seeds. The permissible depth to which the material can be sown is 0.7-1 cm;
3. Next, the container is covered with a bag or cling film. Glass can be used. The main thing is to create a greenhouse effect;
4. The container is removed on the windowsill or any other bright place. Culture needs a lot of light;
5. It is necessary that the room is constantly warm (about + 22 ... + 25 degrees).

It has been noticed that if all the manipulations for sowing basil on seedlings are performed correctly, the culture will emerge in 8-14 days.

Sowing basil seedlings

In a similar way and at the same time, you can sow planting material not for the garden, but for further cultivation at home. Then the plant will delight the owners right in the apartment all year round. However, it is worth remembering that greens do not like cold, drafts. Therefore, in winter, an adult plant should be kept in a warm place, under a lamp. If the house is cold, the bush can be wrapped with cling film. Growing culture on a windowsill is not difficult. Taking care of the fragrant grass is easy. It is necessary to water on time, fertilize moderately, gently loosen.

Care

After the first shoots have appeared, the film or glass is removed. If this moment is overlooked, then the seedlings may fall. Open containers are removed to a place where it is not so warm. The comfortable temperature at which the basil will be good at this stage is about + 16 ... + 19 degrees.

Watering plants is carried out as needed. The soil should not be dry, but not very wet either. If the ground is constantly damp, there is a high probability of developing a fungal disease - black leg. Diseased plants have a dark stem. Because of this, they can fall and die.

After watering, the soil is loosened a little. This is done carefully so as not to damage the roots.

It is necessary to dive after the culture has grown a couple of strong leaves. This happens 3 weeks after the disembarkation took place. Each seedling is placed in a separate cup or container, which contains exactly the same soil mixture as in the general container. Only healthy plants should be planted. The frail, the weak are removed. There is no point in seating them. It is better to have a few strong bushes with succulent leaves in the garden than many painful bushes.

To help the plants stretch out, top dressing is needed. The first time the culture is watered with an ash solution. In one liter of water, 10 grams of ash are stirred. During the picking, the seedlings must be fed with a complex fertilizer, which contains nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus. After adding the nutrient solution, the leaves of the culture are poured over with settled clean water. This must be done so that the leaves do not burn the fertilizer. Fertilize the soil in a container or cups of basil no more than once every 30 days.

The seedlings will be grown in the apartment for 2 months. During this time, the bushes will stretch out, they will have strong leaves. When there are 5-7 leaves, pinch the top of the bush. Such an event will allow you to restrain the strong pulling of the bush.

Seedling

It is recommended to plant the culture in open ground at the end of May, when the soil temperature reaches +13 degrees. Before you plant greens in the garden, you need to prepare them. Seedlings are hardened a few weeks before planting. On the first day, she is taken out into fresh air for 2 minutes. Then they are taken back to a warm house. The next day, the seedlings are on the street for 5 minutes. On the third day - 15 minutes. The time spent in the open air is gradually increasing every day. It must be brought to 1.5-2 hours. In this case, the culture will not experience stress after it is in the open area.

What to do to prevent basil seedlings from dying

Basil can be classified as a delicate plant. Newbies who try to plant a culture often fail to do so. This happens for various reasons. Despite the fact that planting basil seedlings at home is quite a simple matter, all procedures must be performed in the correct order. Otherwise, the seedlings will die.

There are 9 recommendations to help preserve seedlings:

1. You must use soil that has been exposed to high temperatures. In such a land there are no infections, pathogenic bacteria, pests;
2. Basil seedlings are allowed only in loose, light soil. If the ground is heavy, seed will not be able to sprout;
3. You should monitor the acidity of the soil for seedlings, as well as in the garden. She must be neutral;
4. The seeds must be purchased from specialized stores. Be sure to pay attention to the expiration date;
5. It is not recommended to sow seeds too early, for example in February. Basil will not receive enough light, since the sun rarely peeps out in central Russia at this time;
6. The soil with seedlings should not be waterlogged. This causes a fungal disease - black leg. Neither should the earth be allowed to become dry;
7. The seedlings can stretch out strongly. This is a bad indicator. This means that the plants do not have enough light. They need to be urgently placed under lamps or on a sunny windowsill;
8. Saplings need to be thinned or dived. In a dense planting, each of the plants will starve. They will not get additional nutrients, sun;
9. If the leaves of the seedlings have changed color, this may indicate overfeeding with fertilizers. You need to be careful with feeding. It is not recommended to fertilize the soil in a container or cups of basil more than once every 30 days.

If you correctly figure out how to grow basil from seeds for seedlings at home, you can get a strong fragrant bush. It will give fleshy spicy greens and become a decoration of the site.

Video