Windowsill Basil from Cuttings
A friend has asked me how to grow herbs indoors during the winter. Since she started using fresh herbs, the dried version just doesn’t cut it any more. She spends a lot of money on the little sprigs that are for sale in the grocery store produce department. She would prefer to save that money and the hassle of going shopping for her herbs by growing her own.
Probably the easiest herb to grow indoors is basil. You can start it from seed, or do what I did for the above plant: grow it from cuttings. Basil sprigs often (but sadly, not always) root really well from cuttings. Near the end of summer, I often pinch off a few of the growing tips – about 3 inches long – from my outdoor plants and root them in water. In this smaller image, you can see a few basil cuttings and a lot of coleus cuttings that I took last fall, just before a killing frost was predicted.
Removing all of the leaves that will be underwater, I simply place a half-dozen cuttings in a glass of water and set the glass in my bright kitchen window. After lots of roots have formed, I pot up the cuttings using regular potting soil and a 4-inch pot. Since the roots are all tangled together, I don’t even try to separate them, but pot up the whole batch together to make one rather full pot.
Sometimes you can find rooted cuttings or small plants of herbs in the produce department at the grocery store in winter. These plants or rooted cuttings are supposed to stay fresher longer than the typical cut herbs used for cooking. You might experiment with potting up or rooting them. If the plants start to wilt, then just go ahead and use them up in your recipe instead of trying to grow them on.
Unfortunately, woody-stemmed herbs like rosemary and sage do not root as easily as basil. Parsley and cilantro are grown from seed. Basil, along with oregano and marjoram, are the easiest of the herbs to grow from cuttings.
Happy Gardening,
Sue
Hi Sue – This is very interesting to me as this fall I brought some of my outside basil inside (transplanted into pots) and it promptly got black and died. So maybe this is a better solution! I miss my fresh basil very much.
When should this pinching technique be done, late August? I think maybe I tried the move too late and the basil was already angry about the cool weather?
Can i try the basil seed now in Jan or are days to short?
So much to learn…. Mary
Basil turns black with chilling injury, so this might have been your problem. I would take the cuttings in August or early September for our area. You can start from seeds now if you have a bright light situation for the little seedlings immediately after sprouting. I have a small fluorescent light fixture that I have on a timer for 12 hours per day, under which I start seeds or grow lettuces or flowering plants in the winter. Of course the big light table comes out in March for serious seed starting! If you use supplemental lighting, the lights should be just a few inches above the seedlings. Good luck!
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