Planting Basil Cuttings

I'm very happy to report that the cuttings I took from my basil three weeks ago have all rooted beautifully in water.  If you'd like to see how the cuttings looked two weeks ago when they were just starting to send out roots, please see my post on Basil Propagation from Cuttings.

All three basil cuttings have grown new leaves as well as new roots in water.

Close-up of new roots on basil cuttings

I planted these rooted cuttings into separate containers and removed the bottom set of leaves because they were too close to the soil surface.  These new plants will overwinter indoors, most likely in our indoor grow box, and hopefully provide us with plenty of fresh basil all winter long.  Cheers for a successful basil propagation experiment!

This post is linked to Tuesday Garden Party.

Basil Propagation from Cuttings

At some point, I read about basil propagation from cuttings.  I admit, the last thing we need in our garden right now is more basil plants.  But in the interest of science and garden experiments, I had to try this out for myself.

Last week, I cut off different sizes of tops from a basil plant, and stuck them in small glasses of water.  I didn't take a picture then, but this is how they looked a week later.

After one week (Sunday, 9/5/10) I could see the beginnings of roots forming on the largest of the three cuttings.

Just 24 hours later (Monday, 9/6/10), the roots have already grown longer.  I'll probably wait another week or two and plant this one in a pot of soil to see how well it grows.

If this works out, it might be a good way to have "new" basil plants for the winter.  I'll just have to find some nice sunny spot indoors (easier said than done!) for my winter basil.

Have any of you propagated your basil or any other herbs from cuttings?  Did it work out well for you?

This post is linked to Tuesday Garden Party.