Hi everyone and welcome to the channel! In this video we'll be buying basil at
the grocery store and growing ourselves a lifetime supply of this delicious herb,
so let's get started. Basil is an incredibly easy plant to propagate and grow from a cutting.
This basil I purchased was packaged six days before I shot this video, which I think is
a real testament to this plant's resiliency and desire to regrow itself. as you can see,
I've got a number of small stems here, which I'm going to get ready to propagate.
I'm going to be removing leaves from further down on this plant and cutting the bottom
of the stem with a crisp cut. Our ideal cutting will have one or two sets of leaves,
as well as the new growth coming from the top. To get these basils started growing we
really just need to set them in some water. This is regular tap water, nothing special.
If we really want to get fancy, we can use raw honey as a rooting hormone to help our basil
grow new roots. I've got a full video explaining this process on my channel and you can click that
i in the upper right hand corner to learn more about that process. After we cover the bottom
of our stem in that honey, we're simply going to put it in tap water like the rest of our plants.
We rejoin these plants on day number 11. They've all rooted at this point and are
looking really good. Our first plant here we can see a number of roots emerging from the
bottom of that stem. They're really starting to spread themselves out in multiple directions and
are beginning to lengthen quite quickly. They are bright white color and look pretty healthy.
The plant which we treated with honey has shown considerable root growth.
You can see just how dense in number those roots are, really covering up the bottom of that stem.
When the roots on these plants become an inch or more long, it's time to move the plant to its
permanent home. If you're growing in soil, you'll want to dig a hole that's more than deep enough
to completely bury the roots of your plant. Move your plant into that hole and fill in the dirt
surrounding that area. Lastly we're going to water this plant in and it's good to go.
Personally, I find it easier to grow things with hydroponics, so I'm gonna move this into
a reservoir with some nutrients. First I'm gonna put this plant into a net cup,
trying to spread those roots out so that they can exit the net cup in multiple places. I'm filling
the rest of the space in this net cup with clay pebbles, to support the plant and help prevent
light from getting down and into my reservoir. It's important to know where in your net cup
your roots begin and end, so that you're able to fill up your reservoir to the appropriate level.
You'll want those roots to have access to water, but not be completely submerged.
Our plants need access to nutrients to stimulate new vegetative growth.
I'm using the base micro growing bloom series by future harvest
but any hydroponic nutrients should do when growing a simple plant like basil.
Once we fed our plants, we can move them into some light. After a week of growth these plants
are looking okay at best- they're not as green or as luscious as maybe we would like.
Young basil plants are a bit sensitive to receiving too much light and have a tendency
to dry out and yellow. That may be part of what's going on here. Similarly, the leaves that
underwent the propagation process often get dried out and damaged and don't ever really recover.
Now that our plants and their root systems are a little more established we can prune away any of
those leaves which may have been damaged during propagation. While the plants are still small,
it can also be a good idea to top them. Topping a plant will cause it to grow more short and bushy,
as opposed to tall and skinny. To top a basal plant we want to travel up along our main stem
up above a leaf node and cut away that new growth at the top. Removing the top from a stem is going
to push growth hormone into those side branches. You can see the two small branches I've left here
at the top of this plant- those will now become the main stems and this plant will become wider
and bushier. The plant will now focus on growing these lower younger branches pushing them outwards
and upwards. Your plants may continue to yellow in upcoming weeks as mine did here,
this is normal and there's no need to panic. These plants are struggling
to keep properly hydrated as they don't yet have full root systems. What we're looking to see
is strong new growth coming from these plants. You can see that some of my young small leaves here
are coming out with a nice healthy looking green color. This is encouraging as those
old leaves are going to fall off but that new growth will drive the plant forward.
By week eight, these plants were starting to look really good. We've got full root systems down
below and lots of new vegetative growth up top, which is coming out a nice healthy green color.
At this point you're free to start harvesting as much basil as you desire. Now I do still have
the odd yellow leaf or two and my one plant is straggling behind, but for the most part these
are very easy to grow- you just need to stick with it and they will take care of themselves.
When harvesting basil, I find it's best to continue cutting stems just above a leaf node
to promote new growth. Those new branches will now sprout up this is going to promote a bushy compact
plant and stop the plant from getting too big, and ultimately flowering. Using the same steps we have
in this video, we can continue to take stems and use them to propagate ourselves multiple
generations of plants. As you take fresh cuttings and begin that regrow process immediately,
your plants are going to regrow quicker and look healthier throughout the entire process.
As I mentioned earlier, the plants that I used to start were packaged over six days before I
began this process. It becomes very easy to keep getting yourself a new basil plant and always
have fresh basil available to you. I really hope this video helps you in your own basil journey.
Please hit that like and subscribe button below and as always happy harvesting!